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SELKIRK-PRIEST BASIN ASS'N v. STATE6/18/1996
The Selkirk-Priest Basin Association (SPBA) challenges a sale of timber on school endowment trust lands, alleging that the sale would have an adverse impact on the lands which its members use for recreational and aesthetic enjoyment. We hold that SPBA has not demonstrated a distinct and palpable injury to its recreational interest in the area which confers standing to challenge the State Board of Land Commissioners' (Land Board) administration of endowment trust lands.
I.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Upon admission to the United States, the State of Idaho received certain lands to be used for the benefit of the common schools. The Land Board is charged with the duty to manage the endowment trust lands in a manner which secures the maximum long-term financial return. Pursuant to this duty, the Land Board proposed to sell approximately 5.2 million board feet of timber from endowment trust lands near Priest Lake, in an area known as Bugle Ridge. The final sale plan enlarged the timber sale to 7.4 million board feet and reduced the total acreage to be logged from 940 acres to 600 acres.
SPBA is a non-profit organization whose members work in and use the Priest Lake area for recreational and aesthetic enjoyment. SPBA appeared before the Land Board challenging the sale's compliance with trust duties and various environmental laws. The Land Board approved the proposed timber sale over SPBA's protest.
SPBA filed suit in district court challenging the constitutionality of Idaho Code Section 58-405, which bars judicial review of timber sales by the Land Board under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), I.C. § 67-5201 et seq., and I.C. § 58-407, which requires that a party seeking an injunction of a Land Board approved timber sale post a bond equal to the greater of the timber sale's appraised value or the actual purchase price. SPBA also alleged procedural and substantive defects in the Land Board's decision as an "aggrieved party" under the APA. The district court denied SPBA's motion to enjoin the timber sale. The court granted Intermountain Forest Industry Association, Inc.'s (IFIA) motion to intervene in this matter after a timber company represented by the IFIA successfully bid on the timber.
The State of Idaho and IFIA moved for summary judgment arguing that SPBA failed to establish that it had standing to challenge the timber sale. SPBA responded that since its membership included the parents and grandparents of school children it had standing as a beneficiary of the endowment land trust. It also alleged standing as an "aggrieved party" under the APA. Third, it contended that its members had a protectable interest in their recreational and aesthetic use of the area. In support of this latter contention, SPBA submitted affidavits from its members explaining that the sale would result in soil erosion, water quality impairment, habitat destruction, as well as negatively impact fish and wildlife in the area to the detriment of the members' recreational and aesthetic use of the area.
The district court granted the defendant's and intervenor's motion for summary judgment. The court held that the constitutionality of I.C. § 58-407 was moot because it had
previously denied SPBA's motion for an injunction. Further, the district court found that schools and school districts, not the parents and grandparents of the school children, were the beneficiaries of the endowment land trust. Because SPBA did not represent either of those beneficiaries, the district court concluded that SPBA lacked standing to challenge the timber sale. The court dismissed SPBA's recreational interest as being at best incidental and did not confer
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