Donald Richard Yerger v. F. Dale Robertson, Etc. Dept. Of Agriculture

Donald Yerger appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the government in a suit challenging the Forest Service’s decision to deny a renewal of the use permit that authorized Yerger to run a recreational facility and food concession in the Prescott National Forest, Arizona. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

In 1981, Yerger received from the National Forest Service a special use permit for the operation of Horsethief Basin Resort in the Prescott National Forest. The resort lies in a mountainous pine forest region in Arizona. The trip to the resort from Phoenix requires approximately one- and-a-half hours of freeway driving and two hours of travel over thirty-two miles of rough gravel road. The last seven miles are particularly primitive and take thirty to forty-five minutes to traverse by car.

The resort was built in the late 1930’s through a cooperative effort of the Forest Service and the City of Phoenix. At that time, air conditioning had not yet come into use and the resort was intended to provide a refuge from Phoenix's extreme summer heat, thereby promoting stability in the city’s population and business environment. In 1966, the city relinquished its use…