Mitchell Smith, an Individual v. U.S. Forest Service, an Agency of the United States Vaagen Timber Products, a Washington Corporation

This case involves an environmental challenge to a timber sale and harvest, known as the Gatorson Sale, in the Colville National Forest in Washington. The United States Forest Service has authorized the sale to Vaagen Timber Products, a logging company. The plaintiff-appellant, Mitchell Smith, a frequent recreational user of the area affected by the sale, sued both the Forest Service and Vaagen, seeking to enjoin the sale. He contended that the Forest Service’s assessment of the environmental impact of the sale was inadequate under federal law for two reasons.

First, he asserted that the area affected by the sale contained in excess of 5,000 contiguous acres of unroaded land that had never been considered by the Forest Service for classification as wilderness. Under the Washington State Wilderness Act (WSWA), Pub.L. No. 98-339, 98 Stat. 299 (1984), and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), codified at 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4347 , such large tracts of “uninventoried” land cannot be developed until wilderness classification has been considered. The agency had determined that the area was not roadless because it was divided, by an unpaved road used by jeeps, into two…