Western Watersheds Project, Sierra Club, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates and Gallatin Wildlife Association
20-cv-00067-NDF (D. WY.)
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
Nathan D. Rectanus, Matthew R. Arnold and William S. Eubanks, II
160,000.00
Court
Null
1) Claims the Forest Service refusal to examine any alternatives contemplating a phase out of artificial feeding at Alkali Creek shifted the Forest Service's obligations under NEPA to consider less environmentally harmful alternatives, 2) Claims the Forest Service failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental impacts of its decision by inappropriately deferring to Wyoming Game and Fish Commission's assessment of the threats associated with CWD and the need for artificial feeding of elk, and 3) Claims the Forest Service arbitrarily constrained its review of cumulative impacts by refusing to examine Alkali Creek in conjunction with other feed grounds in the Forest, or with efforts by NPS and FWS to phase out artificial feeding on the NER through its 2007 BEMP.
On 9/21/2021, the District Court of Wyoming issued an order stating that the Forest Service violated NEPA in authorizing the five-year special use permit for the Alkali Creek feed ground under a categorical exclusion.