Sierra Club v. Kimbell, No. 09-1639

In Sierra Club v. Kimbell, No. 09-1639, an action claiming that the Forest Service's Land and Resource Management Plan for the Superior National Forest violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants where nothing in either NEPA or its implementing regulations prevented the Forest Service from integrating consideration of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness into its analysis of the revised plan's effects on other resources within the Superior National Forest.

As the court wrote:  "In July 2004, the United States Forest Service issued a Land and Resource Management Plan for the Superior National Forest (the "forest plan"). Sierra Club, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (collectively, "Sierra Club") sought judicial review of the forest plan in the district court. As relevant to this appeal, Sierra Club argued that the Forest Service's assessment of the forest plan's environmental impacts violated the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4370h. In particular, Sierra Club claimed that the Forest Service had failed to consider the plan's effects on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness ("BWCAW")."

Related Resources

• Full Text of Sierra Club v. Kimbell, No. 09-1639