ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, 1998
Third Problem Set/Exam
INSTRUCTIONS: The following questions are to be answered by each study group in the class. Print a copy of this Web page. Enter your study group code and each of your names in the table, below. Answer the first ten questions by highlighting with a colored, transparent marker the section of the answer table you think is correct. Answer the last question in an essay, word-processed on a separate piece of white paper in 12 point font. The essay should consist of three or four paragraphs and is not, under any circumstances, to be longer than one page, single-spaced. It should refer in the text to supporting cases but need not have footnotes. Each study group must turn in the exam and the essay, stapled together, at the beginning of the class period on Tuesday, February 31st, 1998. Correct answers to questions 1-10 are worth five points. The essay is worth 10 points.
| STUDY GROUP IDENTIFICATION CODE (e.g. HND): __ __ __ |
| Student Names (in block capitals): |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
1. Find on the Web a copy of the Ninth Circuit's opinion in Forest Guardians v. Dombeck (Docket No. 97-16206), filed in December 1997. What specific provision of statute law was at issue in this case?
| a. 16 U.S.C. 1600 | b. 16 U.S.C. 1532 | c. 16 U.S.C 2001(f)(4) | d. 16 U.S.C. 1604 |
2. What motion granted by the District Court is affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in Forest Guardians v. Dombeck (1997) as a way of disposing of the case?
| a. permanent injunction | b. temporary injunction | c. summary judgment |
3. Earlier, in May 1996, the Ninth Circuit decided Marbled Murrelet v. Babbitt, 83 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 1996), a copy of which you can also find on the Web. The name of a "secretive" sea bird graces the identity of this case, but who was the real party at interest as appellees in this litigation?
| a. Pacific Lumber | b. EPIC | c. the Forest Service |
4. What relief did the court provide to appellees in Marbled Murrelet v. Babbitt (1996)?
| a. permanent injunction | b. temporary injunction | c. summary judgment |
5. In Oregon Natural Resources Council v. Harrell, 52 F.3d 1499 (9th Cir. 1995), the court considers appellant's attempt to use section 7(a) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) to stop construction of the Elk Creek Dam as a unit of the Rogue River Basin Project developed by the Corps of Engineers. This litigation has a long and complex history and gave rise on the basis of environmental impact assessment law complaints by ONRC to a famous NEPA case (ONRC v. Marsh (1994)). In the WSRA case, is ONRC's legal strategy successful?
| a. Yes | b. No |
6. Local resources in the form of Lake Berryessa and the Monticello Dam figure in the main text. We have several times mentioned in class the statute under which the Solano Project was originally authorized. What statute is this?
| a. the Reclamation Development Act | b. the Reclamation Act | c. the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act |
7. In the notes to Wilderness Public Rights Fund v. Kleppe (1979, cert. denied 1980), the text asks whether the Congress made preservation and development co-equal objectives of the national park "system." If you used the 1916 Organic Act as the basis for responding, what would be your best legal judgment on this question?
| a. Yes | b. No |
8. We have previously seen how the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act and the Classification and Multiple Use Act set out a list of statutorily sanctioned multiple uses for national forests and the public domain lands, respectively. Where can you find a similar list of multiple uses that management agencies may provide for in wilderness areas?
| a. 16 U.S.C. 1131(c) | b. 16 U.S.C. 1133(b) | c. 16 U.S.C. 1134(a) | d. there is none |
9. Which of the following cases explains the process whereby the Bureau of Land Management is to identify the wilderness qualities of roadless areas?
| a. Sierra Club v. Lyng | b. Sierra Club v. Watt | c. Parker v. United States | d. California v. Block |
10. Does the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, at issue in United States v. Austin (1990), govern the process of recovering, collecting, or selling archaeological resources if it occurs on private land?
| a. Yes | b. No |
ESSAY QUESTION: On a separate piece of paper prepared according to the instructions above and attached to your exam when you hand it in, answer question 4 on page 1029 of the main text. Assume first of all that cloud seeding has been proposed over the Sierra Nevada by a consortium of federal and state agencies and, further, that impacts on wilderness areas in the Sierra can reasonably be anticipated. On this basis, develop an essay in which you draft, in effect, an informal legal brief on the relevant legal issues for an environmental group to make an argument that this cloud seeding activity is NOT lawful. Consider explicitly and separately the arguments you might make for your client (a) under the Wilderness Act, (b) under NEPA, and (c) under ESA.
GW-S/February 1998.