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Texas NF Harvesting Injunction Reversed On September 20, the full "en banc" 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision of a three-judge 5th Circuit panel which had upheld a 1997 District Court injunction on timber harvesting in most Texas national forests, allowing the U.S. Forest Service's management plan on those lands to proceed. This latest ruling apparently ends litigation originating in a 1985 suit by the Sierra Club and two co-plaintiffs, objecting to features of the Forest Service's Land and Resource Management Plan-among them, the Plan's allowing even-aged management on the relevant national forests. The 5th Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to limit their challenge to "identifiable final agency actions" and that a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation (1990), had established that "courts are not equipped, nor are they the proper body, to resolve the technical issues involved in agency decision-making at a higher level of generality" and that "the District Court therefore exceeded its jurisdiction in hearing their challenge." The ruling will be effective when the Court issues its mandate, anticipated on November 13. The decision is posted at www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/97/97-41274-cv2.HTM. Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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