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NWF CRP suit continued with instructions
Published Friday, July 18, 2008 at 07:47 AM
The judge reviewing the suit of the National Wildlife Federation against USDA has continued the action with the clock ticking toward next Tuesday at noon. That’s when U.S. District Judge John Coughenour wants the two parties to come to him with an agreement on how to handle their concerns over USDA releasing 24-million acres of Conservation Reserve Program ground for haying and grazing. The NWF is concerned for the land and the wildlife that lives on it. The Temporary Restraining Order remains in place.

In his ruling, Judge Coughenour did say the - plaintiffs have demonstrated a strong likelihood that they will succeed on their claim that the Farm Service Agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act, in that it acted arbitrarily and capriciously and not in accordance with law. However, he said - our law does not allow us to abandon a balance of harms analysis just because a potential environmental injury is at issue.

The judge ordered the parties to meet and confer in an attempt to agree on a modified preliminary injunction that takes into account all of the relevant hardships. If they are unable to agree, they shall nevertheless produce suggestions for mitigating these hardships. In his ruling - the judged suggested - the parties might consider limiting the total acreage that can be hayed and grazed to the 2.5 million acres that Deputy Administrator John Johnson predicts will be the total number of acres actually affected by this initiative.

Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin says he’s hopeful the judge’s decision will lead to an agreement between the two parties that mitigates environmental harms of any future USDA announcements.

Meantime - U.S. Ag Secretary Ed Schafer still hasn’t decided whether he’ll let farmers out of their CRP contracts early without paying a penalty - but he did say the Temporary Restraining Order against critical use of CRP acres - as well as any ruling the Federal judge in Seattle hands down - must be taken into consideration.

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