Orion North Timber Sale 04/22/09

The Orion North timber sale would clearcut the heart of the last major roadless watershed in Thorne Arm, on Revillagigedo Island near Ketchikan in the Tongass National Forest. The watershed provides important old-growth habitat connecting Misty Fjords National Monument with the valuable coastal habitat along Thorne Arm. 

The Forest Service is proceeding with the timber sale on the basis of a ten-year old environmental impact statement. In the past decade, prices for Tongass timber have plummeted while the costs have skyrocketed. At the same time, significant new information and research over the last decade related to deer and wolves, yellow cedar decline and climate change, endemic species, and invasive species shows the impacts of the timber sale may be more significant than the Forest Service previously anticipated. The Forest Service has refused to consider this information and is proceeding to offer the timber sale anyway.

In March 2009, Earthjustice asked the court to put a halt to the timber sale and road construction until the Forest Service takes the new information into account. On April 30, the district court denied that request for a preliminary injunction and Earthjustice immediately appealed to the 9th Circuit. On July 13, Secretary Tom Vilsack approved the award of a contract for this timber sale, making it the first roadless timber sale authorized since the Secretary issued an interim directive providing that he would review all decisions allowing logging in roadless areas of our national forests.

sea level timber sale

Shell’s Air Permit in the Beaufort Sea 08/21/08

For a second year in a row, Earthjustice is enforcing the Clean Air Act relating to Shell’s offshore oil exploration plan in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea. In 2007, we convinced the Environmental Appeals Board to remand the original permit back to Environmental Protection Agency. Unfortunately, the revised plan still violates the Act by treating separate drill sites as distinct sources of air pollution, even though all wells will be drilled by the same drill ship.  

Earthjustice is appealing the revised permit on behalf of conservationists and an Alaskan Native organization.

Arctic Ocean Seismic Surveys 05/05/08

Endangered bowhead whales can be found in the Chukchi Sea.

Photo: Sue Moore/NOAA

Seismic surveys associated with offshore oil and gas development are among the loudest sources of noise in the world's oceans and have been detected thousands of kilometers away from the sound source. Despite this, the National Marine Fisheries Service and Minerals Management Service have approved permits which authorize seismic surveys in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in 2008. The noises associated with these surveys can cause hearing loss in marine mammals and can disrupt marine mammals' feeding and migration and impair their ability to detect predators. The agencies' cursory environmental assessments fail to fully assess the effects of such noise on marine mammals including the endangered bowhead whale. In addition, NMFS issued a permit that violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act because it because allows a single seismic survey to harass tens of thousands of marine mammals and allows the survey to cause potentially serious injury to marine mammals.

Earthjustice is challenging these permits on behalf of conservation and Native Alaskan organizations.

Oil and Gas Lease Sale in the Chukchi Sea 02/04/08

Alaska's Chukchi Sea provides vital habitat for polar bears, endangered bowhead whales, walrus, beluga whales, seals, fish and marine birds. Native Alaskan communities along the Chukchi Sea practice a subsistence way of life and have depended on the resources of this sea for their cultural and nutritional well-being for thousands of years. The U.S. Interior Department has decided to open nearly 30 million acres of this vitally important habitat in the Chukchi Sea for oil and gas leasing and possible development.

The environmental impact statement prepared by the Mineral Management Service (part of the Department of the Interior) in connection with the lease sale failed to properly evaluate the potential effect of exploration and drilling in this pristine area, and did not adequately analyze the combined effects of climate change and oil and gas activities on the wildlife that inhabits the sea and the communities that depend upon it.

Earthjustice filed suit on behalf of a coalition of Alaska Native organizations and conservation groups challenging the adequacy of the agency's environmental impact analysis. Earthjustice will ask the court to void any leases issued pursuant to the sale if it determines that the environmental review was inadequate until the government conducts a more thorough environmental review.

University of Alaska Lands 04/23/07

This case challenges the constitutionality of Alaska state legislation, passed in 2005, that grants over 250,000 acres of state public domain lands to the University of Alaska. Because the University has an obligation to maximize revenues from the land, the legislation exposes these environmentally and economically significant lands to intensive development.

In March 2009, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the legislation is unconstitutional and ordered that any land that has already been conveyed to the University must be returned to the state along with any proceeds received from the land. The decision protects important habitat and community use areas from development, keeping these lands in the public domain.

Polar Bear Take Regulations 02/13/07

Photo: COREL

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has okayed drilling, seismic testing, and other major oil and gas exploration work in prime polar bear habitat at the Beaufort Sea. Regulators have ignored how these disturbances, on top of global warming, could prove fatal to the bears. Earthjustice has filed suit to make sure the agency considers the consequences to polar bears and walrus.

Juneau Access 08/16/06

This suit challenges the approval of a highway project that would extend the road north of Juneau, Alaska, through an inventoried roadless area in the Tongass National Forest to a new ferry terminal. The road threatens key wildlife areas, including bald eagle and Steller sea lion habitat, as well as important recreation, subsistence, and cultural resources.

In February 2009, an Alaska District Court Judge ruled that the Federal Highway Administration and the Alaska Department of Transportation failed to adequately consider ferry alternatives in approving the Juneau Road and ferry mega-project. The decision stops all construction on the project until the Alaska Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration can do a new environmental impact statement that includes ferry alternatives in considering the best option for travel in Lynn Canal.

Kensington Mine Project 10/19/05

Lower Slate Lake, AK

Photo by Irene Alexakos

In issuing a permit for a gold mine, the Army Corps of Engineers improperly applied new "fill" regulations under the Clean Water Act. As a result, millions of tons of mine waste would have been dumped into a pristine sub-alpine lake in Southeast Alaska, killing all fish and aquatic life in the lake.

In March 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal announced that the permit to allow the mine waste to be dumped in the lake was illegal and would be struck down. On October 29, 2007, the same court -- in this case, all 27 active judges -- refused to reconsider the decision made in March.

In a 6-3 decision on June 22, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.

Western Arctic Oil & Gas Drilling -- Teshekpuk Lake 06/30/05

This case challenges the BLM's decision to open previously-protected areas around Teshekpuk Lake in the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska for oil and gas development and to scale back protective measures throughout this portion of the Reserve. The Teshekpuk Lake region contains the most productive and diverse ecosystem in the American Arctic, supporting important subsistence and other resources, including caribou and millions of migratory species.

Western Arctic Oil & Gas Drilling -- NE Reserve 06/30/05

Outside of the industrialized Prudhoe Bay, vast areas of relatively untouched wildlife habitat remain in Alaska's Western Arctic. Earthjustice is working hard to protect wildlife and other resources across this region, including in the 23-million acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In 1998, the Department of the Interior authorized oil and gas leasing on 87% of the Northeast Planning Area of the Reserve, including in key wildlife habitat areas, such as a portion of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and the Colville River corridor. Earthjustice challenged this decision in the D.C. District Court and is still awaiting a ruling.