Public Resources Protection Ass'n v. California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection

Two years after the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (department) approved a timber harvesting plan submitted by Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, the Board of Forestry (board) adopted emergency regulations, later made permanent, designed to protect the northern spotted owl. (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, §§ 919.9 and 919.10 [hereafter generally, rules].) The Court of Appeal ordered the department to set aside its approval of Louisiana-Pacific’s timber harvesting plan, so that Louisiana-Pacific could either prepare a new plan that conformed to the northern spotted owl rules or demonstrate that it had incurred substantial liabilities that should exempt it from having to do so. In reaching its conclusion, the Court of Appeal relied on the now-repealed initial emergency rules, the relevant section of which required every timber harvesting plan located in the range of the northern spotted owl to contain certain information; in fact, at both the time the Court of Appeal raised the issue and the time it filed its opinion, the permanent rules were in effect. These rules, which substantially amended the initial emergency rules, require “[e]very proposed timber operation”…