Page 18 - WCA Ketch Pen August 2020

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WATER AND ECOLOGY UPDATE
By Toni Meacham, Attorney at Law
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Well, grizzly bears
will not be eating chicken dinner in the North Cascade Mountains based on reintroduction under the ESA... yet. Notice I say yet. Sec of Interior Bernhardt has publicly stated that his agency will not conduct the environmental impact statement needed to move forward with the plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascade Mountains. This is a big win for the WCA who has been instrumental and consistent with efforts to halt this plan to reintroduce.
I want to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly on this since 2015 (or so) when DOI first made the plan known. The commitment and dedication must be commended as this hasn’t been an easy fight. And it is not over. Directly after the announcement that DOI was not going to pursue the required EIS which would be required to follow through with the reintroduction, The Center for Biological Diversi- ty sent a letter saying it intends file a federal lawsuit in 60 days unless DOI resumes the reintroduction. This comes
as no surprise. The Center for Biological Diversity thrives on lawsuits and funds itself with awards of attorney’s fees
if they prevail in legal proceedings. There is no doubt that the lawsuit following the announcement from DOI will
take years to resolve and may put reintroduction back on the table. Not to be the bearer of bad news, because this is a win. Walking through what to expect with the lawsuit, one must look at how The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) handles their lawsuits. First, CBD will venue shop to some extent to try to find a court that is friendly or perceived to be friendly to their lawsuit, they will then file the matter there. They will only name as defendant, DOI. All of ag
will be watching for this suit so that we can petition to be intervenors in the matter and have a seat at the table. Next CBD could potentially ask the court to enjoin DOI from halting their EIS. I cannot say that this would be successful as injunctions are to keep the status quo, so it would depend on a long list of factors. The one thing we know for certain, is that CBD will try to negotiate/settle the case with the gov- ernment for terms that force the process to move forward and allow CBD to be awarded fees. Just so everyone is clear, CBD could be joined as plaintiffs by other enviro groups. We know that DOI will be joined (or at least attempt to be joined) by WCA and hopefully other ag groups that are interested in the outcome and have membership that is directly impacted by this case. Please be assured, that WCA will seek to join this lawsuit as a defendant to support DOI’s decision. Currently WCA is involved in multiple lawsuits to represent membership interest. Luckily for the membership we have really good, active people that are always watching out for our membership’s best interest and are willing to step up and put the time in to fight for what is right. The other really positive aspect is that we have free legal assis-
tance through WALF, PLF, and WRLC, so even though these are huge cases that take years, the cost to WCA is minimal. We do
great work at minimal cost. In summary, congratulations to
WCA for the hard- fought win. We have won a major battle, but the war is still going, let’s keep up the good work.
Toni Meacham
In another victory of sorts, the Trump Administration has announced the revamp of NEPA. I know I have already written about this, but it is really good, so I am writing about it again. NEPA is another one of those laws with good intentions when put into effect that was easily turned into
a bureaucratic mess. Red tape, expense, and lots of govern- ment oversight, projects went from taking months to get approval, to taking years. NEPA was enacted to ensure that information on the environmental impacts of any Federal, or federally funded, action is available to public officials
and citizens before decisions are made or actions are taken. Through the years, NEPA has been used as a tool by enviros to hinder or stop projects that could benefit the public. This major overhaul is construed by many to be a win for big business and seen as harmful to the environment. However, it should be noted that NEPA has been long overdue for an overhaul, especially considering it was signed into law by Nixon approximately 50 years ago.
President Trump has promised that NEPA will be streamlined, making approval for projects faster, less expensive, and more efficient. However, do not count this over- haul as complete, what- ever the new NEPA ends up looking like today,
we can be assured that a lawsuit challenging the new NEPA will be filed. In the end, the hope is that the resulting NEPA will take the environment into consideration in all actions, but not be the only deciding factor.
Ketch Pen www.washingtoncattlemen.org
August 2020