Environmentalists’ legal attacks on wildlife management fail (7/23/2002)

Another lawsuit brought by environmentalists to halt wildlife habitat management in three Midwest states has been dismissed. The courts sided again with sportsmen and will allow the management projects to continue without extensive and unnecessary environmental assessments.

In mid-June, the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Michigan dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club against the U.S. Forest Service to stop the management of aspen habitats on 1.3 million acres of National Forests in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The lawsuit asked the court to block forest management plans until additional environmental studies could be made.

The Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS), a longtime U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance supporter, was a defendant-intervenor in the case. The Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) previously represented RGS to win a similar case in Michigan earlier this year.

In March, the SLDF helped prevent the Sierra Club and others from misusing federal environmental regulations to stop wildlife management on state land. The environmentalists wanted to require that environmental impact statements be done before states could use Pittman Robertson funds for wildlife management. The process would be incredibly time consuming and costs millions of dollars. A Federal Court in Michigan ruled in favor of sportsmen and decided that federal rules could not be used to stop state wildlife management activities. The Sierra Club intended to use this tactic to stall state wildlife projects in a number of states. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance helped form a coalition of conservation groups including the Ruffed Grouse Society, National Wild Turkey Federation and Michigan United Conservation Clubs in this case.

"Although these baseless lawsuits consume both time and money that could be far better spent addressing the needs of our nation’s forests," said RGS Senior Wildlife Biologist Dan Dessecker, "dedicated conservationists have no choice but to protect forest wildlife and to defend the rights of sportsmen by shining the light of common sense on the management of our public forestlands."

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