Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics v. U.S. Forest Service
United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
689 F.Supp.2d 891 (2010)
The USFS (defendant) entered a stewardship agreement under the Stewardship Act with the National Wild Turkey Federation, a private nonprofit, authorizing the Federation to issue farming permits to farmers within a national recreation area, even though separate USFS regulations implementing the Organic Administration Act required USFS officers themselves to issue special-use permits for activities like farming on national forest land. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (plaintiff) sued to enjoin the project and void the agreement as violating those regulations, and both sides moved for summary judgment.
Whether a federal agency may delegate its permitting authority to a private entity if federal regulations require the agency itself to issue the permits.