Court ruling upheld on forest management outside Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

From the Duluth News Tribune

The Eighth District U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision saying the Superior National Forest management plan for forests around the perimeter of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness were properly developed.

The lawsuit, brought by the Sierra Club, had claimed that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act in revising the forest plan for the Superior National Forest. The group claimed the Forest Service failed to properly consider impacts of activities outside the BWCAW on the wilderness.

The case was dismissed in January 2009 by District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz. In its ruling filed Monday, the appeals court said the Forest Service “took the ‘hard look’ required of it” under the environmental policy act and that the “Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously” in developing a management plan for the area around the BWCAW.

Wayne Brandt, executive vice president of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association and Minnesota Forest Industries, said in a statement that the courts have made the correct decisions in upholding Forest Service policy for management of the BWCAW and surrounding lands that are open to logging.