Voyageurs Nat. Park Ass'n v. Norton

• Decision Date: 25 August 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-2911.,03-2911.
• Parties: VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION; Sierra Club; Help Our Wolves Live; Humane Society of the United States; Superior Wilderness Action Network; Minnesota Wolf Alliance; Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation; Defenders of Wildlife, Appellants, v. Gale A. NORTON, Secretary of the Interior; Fran P. Mainella, Director, National Park Service; Steven A. Williams, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; United States Department of the Interior, Appellees, Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association, Intervenor Below.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

381 F.3d 759

VOYAGEURS NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION; Sierra Club; Help Our Wolves Live; Humane Society of the United States; Superior Wilderness Action Network; Minnesota Wolf Alliance; Minnesotans for Responsible Recreation; Defenders of Wildlife, Appellants, v. Gale A. NORTON, Secretary of the Interior; Fran P. Mainella, Director, National Park Service; Steven A. Williams, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; United States Department of the Interior, Appellees Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association, Intervenor Below.

No. 03-2911.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: May 14, 2004.

Filed: August 25, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, Donovan W. Frank, J.

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Brian B. O'Neill, argued, Minneapolis, MN (Richard A. Duncan and Anne E. Mahle, Minneapolis, MN, Julie Potts, Plymouth, MN), for appellant.

Joan D. Humes, argued, Asst. U.S. Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for appellee.

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, SMITH, Circuit Judge, and DORR,¹ District Judge.

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Voyageurs National Park Association ("the Association") appeals the grant of summary judgment to the National Park Service ("Park Service") on the Association's complaint seeking to enjoin the Park Service's decision to open eleven bays of the Voyageurs National Park to recreational snowmobile use. The Association, utilizing the Administrative Procedure Act, seeks review of the Park Service's decision allowing expanded snowmobile use during the winter of 2000-2001. The Park Service's decision was made pursuant to a Park Service regulation that opened certain areas of the Park to snowmobiling (including the eleven frozen bays at issue in this case), and which also gave the Park Service the authority to temporarily close trails for various safety and environmental reasons. 36 C.F.R. § 7.33(b). The Association claims that the 2001 decision violated the Park Service's rule-making requirements, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act. The Association also argues that the district court² committed reversible error in its refusal to permit discovery in this case. We affirm.

I. Background

Voyageurs National Park, which lies in the southern part of the Canadian Shield, was created by a 1971 act of Congress. The Park received its name from a group of French-Canadian canoe-men, known as "voyageurs," who traveled its waters in their birch-bark canoes from the Great Lakes to the interior of the western United States and Canada.³ A vast wilderness area, Voyageurs is home to some of Minnesota's most endangered wildlife, including the gray wolf and the bald eagle. The Park also provides a recreational resource for boaters, campers, hikers, anglers, cross-country skiers, snowshoers, ice-fishermen, and snowmobilers.

Congress delegated certain regulatory authority to the Park Service by which it can control visitor access and use of Voyageurs. Two of these Park Service regulations-36 C.F.R. §§ 1.5 and 7.33-are implicated in this appeal. The first, § 1.5 is a general regulation applicable to all units of the National Park System while the second, § 7.33, is a more narrow regulation that specifically governs snowmobiling at Voyageurs.

Section 7.33, promulgated in 1991, designated certain areas of Voyageurs as available for snowmobile use. Those areas include "[t]he frozen waters of Rainy, Kabetogama, Namakan, Mukooda, Little Trout and Sand Point Lakes." 36 C.F.R. § 7.33(b)(1)(i). The regulation further provided that the park's superintendent "may determine yearly opening and closing dates for snowmobile use, and temporarily close trails or lake surfaces, taking into consideration public safety, wildlife management, weather, and park management objectives...." 36 C.F.R. § 7.33(b)(3).

Much litigation followed the passage of § 7.33.⁴ Indeed, the Association immediately brought suit challenging the regulation and seeking to enjoin the Park Service from opening the designated areas to snowmobiling. In resolving the dispute, we held that neither the Park Service's regulations permitting snowmobiling nor the ultimate decision to open areas of Voyageurs to snowmobiling were arbitrary or capricious. Voyageurs Region National Park Assoc. v. Lujan 966 F.2d 424 (8th Cir.1992) (Voyageurs II).

However, in December of 1992, the Park Service-in an exercise of its authority under § 7.33-temporarily closed seventeen of Voyageurs's bays to snowmobiling. The Park Service renewed these closures for the 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 snowmobiling seasons. In 1994, the Park Service was again sued. This time the suit was brought by a group of snowmobilers, including the Minnesota United Snowmobiling Association. The suit alleged that the bay closures were improper and legally defective. Once again, an appeal came to this court. We determined that the Park Service's actions were neither arbitrary nor capricious. Mausolf v. Babbitt, 125 F.3d 661 (8th Cir.1997) (Mausolf III). We also noted that the closures were only temporary and, thus, annual renewal was required in order for the closure to remain effective. Id.

In 1996, the Park Service reopened six of Voyageurs seventeen lake-bays to snow-mobile use, but eleven of the bays remained closed. However, in 2001, these eleven bays were reopened to snowmobilers. Upon reopening, the Park Service reserved the right to limit the use of motorized-winter sports in the bays for safety reasons or to promote other interests of park management.

Over a decade after the Park Service initially passed snowmobiling regulations, the litigation over these regulations' meaning and implementation continues. In this latest case, the Association argues that because snowmobiling may harm the bald-eagle and the gray-wolf populations, the eleven bays that were closed between 1996 and 2001 should remain closed to snowmobiling. As to the relief the Association seeks, it requests that we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment in the Park Service's favor and asks us to remand with direction to order these eleven bays closed to winter recreational use. In the alternative, the Association asks that it be granted limited discovery and the district court decision be vacated for further proceedings.

II. Discussion

A. Standard of Review

We review de novo a grant of summary judgment, applying the same legal standards used by the district court. Darst-Webbe Tenant Assoc. Bd. v. St. Louis Housing Auth., 339 F.3d 702, 709 (8th Cir.2003). Judicial review of administrative decisions is governed by the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"). 5 U.S.C. § 706. Under the APA, our review of an agency decision is limited. We are only permitted to set aside agency action that is "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). Our review standard requires that we give "agency decisions a high degree of deference." Sierra Club v. Envtl. Prot. Agency, 252 F.3d 943, 947 (8th Cir.2001).

We review whether the agency's decision was "based on consideration of the relevant factors and whether there has been a clear error of judgment." Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 416, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971). If an agency's determination is supportable on any rational basis, we must uphold it. Friends of Richard-Gebaur Airport v. FAA, 251 F.3d 1178, 1184 (8th Cir.2001). This is especially true when an agency is acting within its own sphere of expertise. Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness v. Dombeck, 164 F.3d 1115, 1128 (8th Cir.1999) ("[w]hen the resolution of the dispute involves primarily issues of fact and analysis of the relevant information requires a high level of technical expertise, we must defer to the informed discretion of the responsible federal agencies.") (citations omitted).

B. National Environmental Policy Act

The Association argues that the Park Service failed to conduct a proper National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA") review prior to its decision to reopen the eleven bays that had been closed from 1996 until 2001. The NEPA requires all federal agencies, including the Park Service, to prepare an environmental impact study for all "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C). There is, however, no dispute that the Park Service conducted a full NEPA review in conjunction with the enactment of § 7.33, which governs snowmobile usage at Voyageurs. The question we consider is whether the Park Service must conduct a full NEPA review before deciding that it will not renew its annually-made decision to close some of Voyageurs' bays to motorized-recreational activity.

Our court has twice reviewed the Park Service's decisions regarding the use of snowmobiles at Voyageurs-first considering the Park Service's decision to allow snowmobile use, then considering its decision to suspend their use. In each of these decisions, we were satisfied that the Park Service could limit or expand the scope of permissible snowmobile activity without a full-blown NEPA review. Now, after reviewing the instant appeal we are satisfied that the Park Service has complied with its obligations under the law. The opening and closing of the bays are temporary measures, which must be renewed annually. It is impractical to require full NEPA review each year. Rather, we conclude that the opening and closing of the bays is a discretionary Park Service decision that is subject only to the Park Service's obligation (as well-stated by the district court) to be a "faithful steward of national resources" and its own procedural rules and regulations as set forth at 36 C.F.R. § 1.5.

According to the Park Service's own rule 36 C.F.R. § 1.5(b), "a closure ... or the termination or relaxation of such, which is of a nature, magnitude and duration that will result in a significant alteration in the public use...