Voyageurs Region Nat. Park Ass'n v. Lujan, 91-2023

• Decision Date: 10 June 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-2023,91-2023
• Citation: 966 F.2d 424
• Parties: 23 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,074 VOYAGEURS REGION NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION; the National Parks and Conservation Association; the Wilderness Society; Sierra Club; the Humane Society of the United States; the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness; Friends of Animals and their Environment, Appellants, v. Manual LUJAN, Jr., Secretary, Department of the Interior; James M. Ridenour, Director, National Park Service, Appellees. Citizens Council on Voyageurs National Park, Koochiching County, St. Louis County, City of International Falls, City of Island View and City of Ranier; Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association, Amici Curiae.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 424

966 F.2d 424

23 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,074

VOYAGEURS REGION NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION; the National

Parks and Conservation Association; the Wilderness Society;

Sierra Club; the Humane Society of the United States; the

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness; Friends of

Animals and their Environment, Appellants, v. Manual LUJAN, Jr., Secretary, Department of the Interior;

James M. Ridenour, Director, National Park

Service, Appellees.

Citizens Council on Voyageurs National Park, Koochiching

County, St. Louis County, City of International Falls, City

of Island View and City of Ranier; Minnesota United

Snowmobilers Association, Amici Curiae.

No. 91-2023.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 12, 1991.

Decided June 10, 1992.

Richard Duncan, Minneapolis, Minn., argued (Brian O'Neill and Michael Ponto, on brief), for appellants.

Dirk D. Snel, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., argued (Barry Kenneth Saffold, Asst. U.S. Atty., St. Paul, Minn., and Robert Klarquist, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellees.

Before JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge, FRIEDMAN, ^* Senior Circuit Judge, and MAGILL, Circuit Judge.

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Voyageurs Region National Park Association and a group of six other organizations ¹ appeal from the district court's refusal to enjoin snowmobile use on the Kabetogama Peninsula within Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, pending study of the area for wilderness designation pursuant to the Wilderness Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1131-1136 (1988). Voyageurs argues that the Park Service's decision to permit snowmobiling within a wilderness study area violates the Wilderness Act and is arbitrary and capricious. We affirm the district court. ²

Congress authorized the establishment of Voyageurs National Park on January 8, 1971. 16 U.S.C. § 160 (1988). The Voyageurs National Park Act required the Secretary of Interior to study and recommend park lands for designation and protection as wilderness areas. 16 U.S.C. § 160f(b). ³ The Wilderness Act also required the Secretary of Interior to review all park roadless areas of 5,000 acres or more for potential wilderness designation. 16 U.S.C. § 1132(c). Despite the congressional mandate, the Secretary never submitted a wilderness recommendation to the President for the Voyageurs National Park.

Once Congress has designated land as a wilderness area, its use is restricted. Permanent roads, and, except in certain situations, "temporary road[s], ... motor vehicles, motorized equipment ... [and any] other form of mechanical transport" are prohibited in wilderness areas. 16 U.S.C. § 1133(c). ⁴ Federal regulations governing national parks, with limited exceptions, specifically prohibit snowmobile use. ⁵

The question here is whether an area under study for wilderness designation is subject to the use restrictions outlined above. Guidance on this question can be gleaned from 43 C.F.R. § 19.6 (1991), which states that the "administration and use" of potential wilderness areas:

shall be developed with a view to protecting such areas and preserving their wilderness character ... in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, with inconsistent uses held to a minimum.

Park Service Management Policies also state that potential wilderness areas will be managed as wilderness, and the Service "will seek to eliminate the temporary conditions that preclude wilderness designation." Management Policies: Part One: Management of the National Park Systems 6:3 (Dec. 1988). The policies also state that:

The Park Service will take no action that would diminish the wilderness suitability of an area recommended for wilderness study or for wilderness designation until the legislative process has been completed. Until that process has been completed, management decisions pertaining to recommended wilderness and wilderness study areas will be made in expectation of eventual wilderness designation.

Id.

In November 1988, the Park Service issued a Draft Trail Plan and Environmental Assessment for the park. This plan considered establishing a 29.4 mile system of parallel snowmobile trails across the Kabetogama Peninsula. In April 1989, the Park Service announced the adoption of the proposed snowmobile trail plan, and Voyageurs filed this action seeking an order requiring the Park Service to complete a wilderness study, and enjoining the Park Service from allowing snowmobiling and establishing temporary and permanent snowmobile trails on the Kabetogama Peninsula until the Park Service completed the statutorily required process of wilderness designation.

After Voyageurs brought this action, the Director of the National Park Service issued a memorandum to the Service's Midwest Regional Director entitled "Waiver of Policy for Voyageurs National Park Trail Plan." The memorandum recognized that implementation of the trail plan would require a waiver of both the snowmobile and wilderness provisions of the National Park Service's Management Policies. The Service concluded that waiver of these policies was appropriate. The Secretary relied on the Voyageurs Park enabling legislation which authorized the Secretary to permit snowmobiling in the park. Specifically, 16 U.S.C. § 160h provides: "The Secretary may, when planning for development of the park, include appropriate provisions for (1) winter sports, including the use of snowmobiles...."

The Secretary concluded that the Wilderness Act did not require that wilderness study areas be treated as wilderness; rather the Act required only that "[f]ederal agencies not take any actions in such areas that would preclude their future designation as wilderness." Because the trail surface would not be artificially hardened and would require only minimal clearing and signing, the Secretary concluded that the proposed trail "would not constitute such a diminishment of the area as to preclude future designation as wilderness if snowmobile use were discontinued...." The Secretary also observed that snowmobiling had occurred before the park became a national park, that "[n]o evidence of harm to wildlife ha[d] been put forward," and that the use of snowmobiles contained in a limited corridor is more desirable than the "unregulated and widely dispersed use that is currently occurring." On January 30, 1991, the Park Service issued a regulation, 36 C.F.R. § 7.33(b) 1991, authorizing snowmobiling on certain lakes ⁶ and trails (including the Kabetogama Peninsula) within the park.

Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. The district court first concluded that the seven plaintiff organizations had standing, Voyageurs Regional National Park Association v. Lujan, No. 4-90-434, slip op. at 10-15 (D.Minn. Apr. 15, 1991), that their claims were ripe for judicial review, id. at 15-16, and were reviewable agency actions. Id. at 16-22. The district court then ordered the Secretary of the Interior to make his wilderness recommendation to the President, ⁷ id. at 28-29, but refused to enjoin snowmobile use in any part of the park. Id. at 29-34. The court concluded that the January 30, 1991 Park Service regulation did not violate the Wilderness Act, and that the Park Service decision to allow snowmobiling on the Kabetogama Peninsula was not arbitrary or capricious. Id. at 32. In making these rulings, the district court relied in large part on the Voyageurs National Park enabling legislation which, as we have observed above, specifically provides for snowmobiling in the park. Id. This appeal followed.

This court will set aside an agency decision only if it is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) (1988); Gettler v. Lyng, 857 F.2d 1195, 1198 (8th Cir.1988). An agency regulation "will be upheld if it is 'reasonably related to the purposes of the enabling legislation.' " Arkansas v. Block, 825 F.2d 1254, 1256 (8th Cir.1987) (quoting Mourning v. Family Publications Serv., Inc., 411 U.S. 356, 369, 93 S.Ct. 1652, 1660, 36 L.Ed.2d 318 (1973). "We must defer to any reasonable interpretation given the statute by the agency charged with its administration." Arkansas Poultry Fed'n v. United States Envt'l. Protection Agency, 852 F.2d 324, 325 (8th Cir.1988).

I.

Voyageurs argues that the district court erred in refusing to enjoin snowmobile use on the Kabetogama Peninsula. It contends that the Wilderness Act, federal regulations governing national parks, as well as the National Park Service's management policies, require that wilderness study areas be managed as wilderness pending a review and ultimate decision on designation by Congress, and therefore, to permit snowmobiles within this area is contrary to law.

In addition, Voyageurs relies on a number of statements made by members of Congress to support its position that Congress intended wilderness study areas to be managed as wilderness pending a final decision on their admission into the National Wilderness Preservation System. Voyageurs also relies on Parker v. United States, 448 F.2d 793 (10th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 989, 92 S.Ct. 1252, 31 L.Ed.2d 455 (1972), as precedent for eliminating any agency discretion that would destroy the wilderness value of a wilderness study area. In Parker, the Tenth Circuit upheld an injunction prohibiting the Forest Service from performing a contract to harvest timber in a wilderness study area. Id. at 793, 798. The court reasoned that to do otherwise "would render meaningless the clear intent of Congress ... that both the President and the Congress shall have a meaningful opportunity to add ... areas predominantly of wilderness value" to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Id. at 797.

The circumstances here differ from those in Parker. First, Parker considered no statutory counterpart to that contained in 16 U.S.C. § 160h. The Voyageurs Park enabling legislation demonstrates that Congress...