(213) The
Pacific Rivers Council opinion never mentions the discretionary authority element in its discussion of agency actions, perhaps because the court thought it obvious that the Forest Service maintained discretionary authority in carrying out the guidelines found in the LRMPs.
The Forest Service further maintained in Pacific Rivers Council that LRMPs are not agency actions because LRMPs are merely programmatic documents that do not mandate any actions.(216) Instead, the Forest Service argued that only the site-specific activities authorized by the LRMPs are agency actions within the meaning of the ESA.(217) Although in line with the Forest Service's normal position that LRMPs are broad programmatic documents with no on-the-ground effects, the Forest Service's argument is faulty for several reasons.
Yet, in Pacific Rivers Council, it insists that the LRMP is not an ongoing process, but only an agency action at the points of adoption, revision, or amendment.
Pacific Rivers Council demonstrates the significant impact that ambiguity in the legal status of LRMPs continues to have on the forest planning process.
Tax-exempt groups like the
Pacific Rivers Council receive six-figure revenues mostly from foundation grants - more than $600,000 every year since 2003.
The proposal is supported by a wide array of interests, Hoile said, from the National Congress of American Indians to the Douglas, Lane and Coos county commissioners; the timber industry; and several environmental groups, including the
Pacific Rivers Council and Cascadia Wildlands Project.
The tribes also have consulted with
Pacific Rivers Council, a Eugene-based group involved in restoration work in the adjacent Knowles Creek Watershed near Mapleton.
In early 1998, shortly after EWEB was relicensed for its hydroelectric projects at Walterville and Leaburg, the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the
Pacific Rivers Council and other environmental groups filed suit challenging the amount of water the utility diverted from the river to power plants.
The
Pacific Rivers Council, a Eugene-based conservation group that petitioned for the wild coho listing in 1993 and appealed Hogan's recent decision, contends that hatchery fish should not enjoy protection under the Endangered Species Act.