Pit River Tribe v. United States Forest Service

The Pit River Tribe, the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, and the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center (collectively Pit River) appeal from the district court’s summary judgment on their claims against the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Forest Service, and the Department of the Interi- or (collectively agencies). Pit River alleges that the procedures followed by the agencies in extending certain leases in the Medicine Lake Highlands, and the subsequent approval of a geothermal plant to be built there, violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Pit River also contends that the agencies violated their fiduciary obligations to Native American tribes. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We conclude that the agencies did not take a “hard look” at the environmental consequences of the 1998 lease extensions and never adequately considered the no-action alternative. We therefore reverse.

I.

Medicine Lake and the highlands surrounding it are of great spiritual significance to the Pit River…