## Facts

- The California Energy Commission established the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in 1980 to support alternative energy development.
- Private companies owned and operated wind turbine electric generators in the area.
- The Center for Biological Diversity, Inc. and an individual plaintiff alleged that turbine operations killed and injured large numbers of raptors and other birds, including species protected under state and federal law.
- Public agencies (including state wildlife and energy regulators and local agencies) had undertaken regulatory and mitigation efforts addressing bird mortality associated with the turbines.
- Plaintiffs sued the turbine owners/operators (not governmental agencies) and asserted, among other claims, a cause of action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under the public trust doctrine based on alleged damage to wildlife.

## Issues

1. Whether wildlife, including birds, constitutes a public trust resource protected by California’s public trust doctrine.
2. Whether private parties may bring actions to enforce public trust obligations.
3. Whether a public trust claim seeking injunctive relief may be maintained directly against private operators of a regulated activity, rather than against the public agencies charged with protecting trust resources.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment on the pleadings dismissing the public trust cause of action.
- The court held that wildlife, including birds, is a public trust resource held for the benefit of the people of the state.
- The court recognized that private parties may bring actions to enforce the public trust.
- The court concluded, however, that plaintiffs could not proceed on a public trust theory directly against the private turbine operators where responsible agencies were managing the issue; the appropriate vehicle was to challenge agency action (or inaction), typically through mandate-type relief directed at the agencies.

## Legal Principles

- California’s public trust doctrine extends beyond tidelands and navigable waters to include wildlife, including birds, as a trust resource.
- Members of the public, including organizations, may have standing to seek judicial enforcement of public trust duties.
- The state, acting through responsible agencies, is the trustee for public trust resources; when agencies are regulating and balancing competing public interests affecting a trust resource, claims usually must be framed as challenges to agency decisions rather than direct public trust injunction actions against private parties.
- Courts generally avoid substituting their own initial balancing of complex, competing public interests (e.g., renewable energy development versus wildlife protection) for the balancing committed to agencies, and instead review agency conduct for compliance with legal obligations.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed dismissal of a public trust claim brought against private wind-energy operators, while clarifying that wildlife is a public trust resource and that private parties may enforce the public trust, ordinarily by challenging the adequacy of agency protection through actions directed at the responsible governmental entities.


Ctr. for Biological Diversity, Inc. v. FPL Grp., Inc., 166 Cal. App. 4th 1349, 83 Cal. Rptr. 3d 588 (Ct. App. 2008)