McKEEN v. U.S. FOREST SERVICE

HUGH B. McKEEN, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, an Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture; TOM VILSACK, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture; TOM TIDWELL, in his official capacity as Chief of the Forest Service; CORBIN L. NEWMAN, in his official capacity as Regional Forester for the Southwest Region, State of New Mexico; RICHARD E. MARKLEY, in his official capacity as Forest Supervisor of the Gila National Forest, State of New Mexico; PAT MORRISON, in her official capacity as the Glenwood District Ranger in the Gila National Forest, Defendants-Appellees.[ 1 ]

No. 08-2290.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
August 2, 2010.

Submitted on the briefs:

Karen Budd-Falen, and Kathryn Brack Morrow, Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC, Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General, Aaron P. Avila, Andrew A. Smith, and Susan L. Pacholski, Attorneys, United States Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees.

Before BRISCOE, Chief Judge, HAWKINS[ 2 ], and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.

BRISCOE, Chief Judge.

For more than forty years, the United States Forest Service (hereinafter "Forest Service") has granted Plaintiff Hugh B. McKeen and his family a series of term livestock grazing permits to graze cattle and/or horses on the Cedar Breaks Allotment in the Glenwood Ranger District of the Gila National Forest in Catron County, New Mexico. Recently, McKeen sought to have several Forest Service actions which affected these permits set aside pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq. The district court denied each of McKeen's requests for relief and McKeen filed this timely appeal. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and AFFIRM in part and VACATE in part. With respect to those claims which we vacate, we REMAND to the district court with instructions to DISMISS as moot.[ 3 ]...

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