On June 4, 2001, a federal judge in California ruled that the Forest Service has for years been illegally issuing special use permits to commercial outfitters and guides operating in the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses. These two extremely popular wilderness areas, first designated by Congress in 1964, are located in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests of California.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by FSEEE and two other conservation groups in April of last year. We cited the Forest Service's failure to protect the wildernesses from environmental damage in popular meadows and lake basins due to the excessive commercial uses of those areas. Many of the reports of damage had come from the Forest Service’s own resource specialists and wilderness rangers.

The judge, Elizabeth LaPorte, agreed that the environmental degradation associated with use by commercial horse packers "raises serious concerns." But it was the Forest Service's failure to document such impacts in an Environmental Impact Statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that formed the basis for Judge LaPorte's ruling.

This ruling is an important breakthrough in FSEEE’s protracted efforts to convince the Forest Service that it has for years been remiss in its public duty to consider and disclose the significant impacts associated with these uses of the wilderness.

Judge LaPorte also stated in her ruling that: (1) the Forest Service failed to assess the propriety of issuing commercial use permits "in light of the cumulative impacts of the numerous permits"; and (2) the Forest Service failed to involve the public in its decisions to issue the permits to the commercial outfitters and guides, yet another violation of NEPA.

The ruling carries important ramifications for commercial uses throughout the National Wilderness Preservation System and our National Forests. Out of 104,739,168 acres of National Wilderness Areas, 34,766,995 acres are under the control of the Forest Service.

FSEEE is aware of at least several instances in which the Forest Service has failed to comply with the requirements of NEPA when issuing commercial use permits. Our hope is that the agency will now come clean with a full disclosure of the environmental problems.