On Thursday, April 21, 2011, the 10^th Circuit issued one published opinion, and two unpublished opinions.

Published

In Forest Guardians v. U.S. Forest Service, Forest Guardians sued the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for approving The Agua/Caballos Project (Project) under 1982 Rules instead of the 2000 BAS (Best Available Science) standard. The Project consisted of controlling the growth of trees, timber cutting and sales. The key difference between the 1982 regulations and the 2000 BAS standard lies in monitoring species in the area, namely the Albert’s squirrel.  Forest Guardians filed an administrative appeal of the approval, and the appeal was rejected. Forest Guardians then filed this action in federal district court, which denied relief.  This appeal followed.

On appeal, the issue was whether Forest Guardian failed to exhaust its administrative remedies before it appealed. Forest Guardian conceded it did not argue during the administrative process that USFS failed to apply the 2000 BAS standard when it implemented the Project, but offered several arguments why the Court should excuse the exhaustion requirement, including that 10^th Circuit case law indicated the 1982 regulations should apply.

Unpublished

Williams v. Hill

U.S. v. Beltran-Nino