## Facts

- The Forest Service approved the “Continued Maintenance of Open Lands” project in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (Kentucky and Tennessee) to maintain fields and wildlife openings for habitat and recreation.
- The agency entered a stewardship agreement with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) under Title VI of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (the Stewardship Act).
- The agreement authorized NWTF to administer permissions to farmers to grow crops and cut hay in designated areas as part of the project’s vegetation and habitat objectives and in exchange for specified services and compliance conditions.
- Plaintiffs, an environmental organization and an individual, alleged the arrangement improperly bypassed the Organic Administration Act (OAA) and implementing regulations (including 36 C.F.R. pt. 251) that generally require Forest Service special use permits for certain private uses, including agricultural uses.
- Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the project and void the stewardship agreement, characterizing NWTF’s role as an unlawful delegation of permitting authority to a private entity.

## Issues

1. Whether the stewardship agreement allowing NWTF to administer crop and hay permissions violated the OAA and its special-use permitting regulations.
2. Whether the Stewardship Act authorized the arrangement and how that authority interacts with the OAA special-use permitting scheme.
3. Whether the Forest Service’s actions were unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.

## Decision

- The court denied plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and granted summary judgment to the Forest Service and NWTF.
- The court held the Stewardship Act provided authority for the challenged arrangement and the agreement, as structured, did not violate the OAA special-use permitting requirements as asserted.
- The court rejected the claim that the Forest Service unlawfully delegated governmental permitting power to NWTF, finding the agency retained control and final approval authority under the agreement.
- Applying APA review, the court concluded the agency’s interpretation of its statutory and regulatory authorities and its implementation choice were reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious.
- Plaintiffs were denied declaratory and injunctive relief, and the stewardship agreement and project were upheld.

## Legal Principles

- Under APA review, a court asks whether agency action is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law, and it does not substitute its judgment for reasonable agency choices within statutory bounds.
- Where Congress authorizes stewardship projects to meet land-management goals, the Forest Service may use agreements with non-federal partners to implement project components when the agency sets the governing terms and retains ultimate supervisory authority.
- An implementing partner’s administration of project participation under agency-set conditions is not an unlawful delegation of sovereign authority when the agency retains final control to approve, disapprove, modify, or end the arrangement.
- Uses that might ordinarily fall within a special-use permitting regime may be treated as part of an authorized land-management project when the record supports that the activities function as tools to achieve project objectives rather than independent private uses requiring separate permitting.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the Forest Service’s stewardship agreement for maintaining open lands at Land Between the Lakes, concluding the Stewardship Act authorized the project structure, the agency retained final control despite NWTF’s administrative role, and the Forest Service’s interpretation of how the stewardship authority fits with the OAA special-use framework was reasonable under the APA.


Forest Serv. Emps. for Env’t Ethics v. U.S. Forest Serv., 689 F. Supp. 2d 891 (W.D. Ky. 2010)