## Facts

- The U.S. Forest Service administers livestock grazing on national forest lands through grazing permits, allotment management plans, and forest plans.
- Each grazing season, the Forest Service issues Annual Operating Instructions (AOIs) to permittees for specific allotments.
- AOIs set season-specific, written terms such as livestock numbers and class, grazing dates, pasture rotations, and utilization limits, and adjust operations based on current conditions.
- ONDA challenged AOIs governing several allotments in the Malheur National Forest, alleging the AOIs authorized grazing inconsistent with applicable planning standards and harmful to riparian and aquatic resources.
- AOIs are signed in connection with annual grazing use; permittees who do not comply may receive noncompliance notices and may face suspension or cancellation of grazing privileges.
- The Forest Service maintained grazing authority derives from the underlying permit and plans, characterizing AOIs as nonbinding implementation directions.

## Issues

1. Whether issuance of Annual Operating Instructions for national forest grazing constitutes “final agency action” reviewable under APA § 704.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the jurisdictional dismissal and remanded.
- The court held AOIs are final agency action because they complete the agency’s decision for the relevant grazing year.
- The court held AOIs have legal consequences because they impose enforceable obligations on permittees and noncompliance can lead to sanctions affecting grazing privileges.
- Because AOIs are final agency action, ONDA’s challenge was ripe for review without waiting for an enforcement proceeding.

## Legal Principles

- Under the APA, an action is final when (1) it marks the consummation of the agency’s decision-making process and (2) it determines rights or obligations or triggers legal consequences.
- An agency’s season-specific operating instructions can be final agency action when they set operative, enforceable terms governing regulated conduct, even if issued within a broader permitting framework.
- A regulated party or affected challenger need not await enforcement to obtain review of a binding agency directive that governs current conduct and carries sanction risk.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit held that Forest Service grazing AOIs are reviewable final agency action under the APA because they are the agency’s definitive annual operational decision and impose enforceable obligations with legal consequences, so the case was remanded for adjudication of ONDA’s substantive claims.


Or. Nat. Desert Ass’n v. U.S. Forest Serv., 465 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2006)