Opinion ID: 491627
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timing of Injury

Text: 30 The District Court agreed with defendants' argument that the effect of the new allocation policy will not be felt in the immediate future, holding that BLM's new policy will not cause any injury until such time that the State and Native Corporations acquire title ... to at least one acre more than allotted by statute. J.A. at 11. Although we ultimately hold that plaintiffs have not proved standing on this record because they have failed to name a specific situs of injury, we deem it necessary to the guidance of the District Court on remand to point out the error of its conclusion that the injury will not occur until one acre more than the initially granted sum is conveyed. 31 a. State. To understand fully the effect of the new policy on the state's allotment, we must examine an additional argument raised by the state. Alaska contends that since 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1635(o ) permits it to take conveyance on CSU lands (refuges, forests, etc.) only if it had selected such lands prior to December 2, 1980, the new policy, promulgated after that date, will not alter the particular CSU lands ultimately conveyed to the state. Alaska explains that even though ownership of non-CSU federal lands (the BLM lands) may be transferred as a result of the policy, plaintiffs do not allege injury from the possible diminishment of the BLM lands, but only from the supposed decrease in CSU lands. Therefore, any additional conveyances to the state pursuant to the challenged policy will come from the BLM lands and will not injure plaintiffs. 32 This argument fails for two reasons. First, plaintiffs do not allege that their injury stems only from the effect of the challenged policy on CSU lands. Plaintiffs' complaint avers that their members use the public lands in Alaska, the federal public lands. J.A. at 29-30, Rec. No. 1. Plaintiffs' answer to an interrogatory regarding which lands they had visited includes references such as National forests and adjacent lands in Southeast Alaska. J.A. at 67-68, Rec. No. 29 (emphasis added). Thus, it appears that plaintiffs' threatened injury derives from the additional conveyance of BLM lands as well as CSU lands, and that Alaska's argument about the fixed status of CSU selections is therefore irrelevant. See Pl.Br. at 20 ([Plaintiffs' members] have also conducted [various travel and recreational] activities on unreserved federal lands [i.e., BLM lands].). 33 Second, Alaska's argument ignores the significant effects of overselection and prioritization on the future of the natural resources that plaintiffs seek to conserve for their recreational use. Section 1635(f) of 43 U.S.C. provides Alaska with a Right to overselect, permitting the state to select lands exceeding by not more than 25 per centum in total area the amount of State entitlement which has not been patented or tentatively approved under each grant or confirmation of lands to the State contained in the Alaska Statehood Act or other law. If its selections under a particular grant exceed such remaining entitlement, then the state is required to list all selections for that grant which have not been tentatively approved in desired priority order of conveyance, ... except that the State may alter such priorities prior to receipt of tentative approval. 34 The existence vel non of submerged lands within selected but unconveyed areas may well affect the state's prioritization--and, ultimately, conveyance--decisions. For example, assume that before the new policy the state had ranked first on its priority list a selected but unconveyed portion of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, and had ranked second on that list an identically sized selected but unconveyed portion of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Assume further the existence of a large number of submerged lands in the Kenai but not the Yukon portion. The new policy would likely influence the state to alter the priorities of these two portions, because by taking the Kenai portion first it would be charged for fewer acres than if it took the Yukon portion, while actually receiving the same number of acres as if it took the Yukon portion. Thus, the new policy may well affect which CSU lands remain in federal hands and which shift over to state ownership. 35 The overselection and prioritization scheme also explains why plaintiffs need not necessarily wait until the new policy assures the state or natives one acre more than the statutorily granted amount. New prioritizations may take place well before that date, and any injury due to those new prioritizations would not occur but for the new policy. Although we need not decide today whether the reordering of priorities would injure plaintiffs at the time of the selection shift, the resulting conveyance, or the actual denial of access, we do reject the District Court's view that injury can only occur when the total number of acres exceeds the statutorily granted limit. 36 b. Natives. Our analysis is similar with regard to the effect of the new policy on the native allotment. Native overselection and prioritization are provided by regulation. 43 C.F.R. Secs. 2651.4(f) & 2652.3(f) (1986). While it is not clear from these regulations whether or not the natives may shift their priorities (but see infra ), even stronger evidence exists than in the case of the state to show the current effect of the challenged policy with regard to the natives. Plaintiffs have submitted copies of twenty-two letters from the BLM Branch of ANCSA Adjudication informing various native village corporations of the precise number of additional acres they are entitled to as a result of the challenged policy. 9 A summary of one of these letters reveals that the new submerged lands policy is already affecting native acreage allotments. 37 BLM wrote to Atmautluak Limited (a native village corporation) on September 23, 1985, to inform it of the new policy regarding the surveying of submerged lands, and of the specific effect of the policy on Atmautluak's selections. Atmautluak's statutory entitlement is 92,160 acres. It had received conveyance of 83,013 acres, and therefore was owed 9,147 acres. BLM credited Atmautluak, however, as a result of the new policy, with 14,835.03additional acres due to submerged lands contained within the 83,013 acres already conveyed. Thus, Atmautluak's remaining entitlement was calculated (with some minor adjustments) at approximately 24,000 acres. Next, BLM listed the lands that would be conveyed off Atmautluak's priority selection list to reach the statutory ceiling. BLM then informed Atmautluak that it was free to change its priorities. 38 This and similar letters to other villages reveal that BLM is moving rapidly to implement the challenged policy. By informing the various native corporations that their already conveyed acreage contains submerged lands for which they are to receive credits in the form of additional lands, BLM has removed any tint of speculativeness regarding the effect of the policy on the native allotment. (We observe also that these letters indicate that BLM apparently construes its regulations to permit alteration of the natives' priority lists, thus making the native situation with regard to overselection and prioritization identical to that of the state.) Any harm to plaintiffs that results from these letters implementing the new policy would not occur but for the policy; as with reprioritizations, the injury would occur when the letters do their damage with regard to specific lands, and this could well happen before extra acres over the statutorily granted limit are affected.