Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 2:00 PM Mountain
BHCWA’s FOIA Case Against the Black Hills National Forest Service’s Northern Hills Ranger District will be heard in Federal Court.
| Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), federal government agencies must give the public information about what those agencies are doing. Black Hills Clean Water Alliance sent a request for information to the Northern Hills Ranger District of the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF or Forest Service) in Spearfish in October 2020. We did not receive all the documents and information we requested after a year of trying, so we sued the BHNF to get that information in October 2021. And we still haven’t gotten all the documents and information that the FOIA law requires, so this coming Tuesday, September 6, at 2:00 pm, our attorneys will be arguing our case in federal court. The oral arguments in this case will take place in the Federal Building at 515 9th Street, Rapid City, SD. You are cordially invited to observe. If you attend the oral arguments, please be on your best behavior. We asked the Federal Court to look into the Forest Service’s actions, and they are doing that. This is a situation where the courts are doing what we asked them to do. The Court has a somewhat complex rule regarding mask wearing, particularly for those who are not vaccinated or who have potential Covid symptoms. For more information on these Covid measures click here. Please review and be prepared to comply with requests made by the Court Security Officers who will be staffing a security checkpoint similar to those used at airports. Note: there is the possibility that the hearing could be cancelled, so watch your email on Monday, the 5th. |
The comment period to send in objections to the Forest Service on giving a FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) for the F3 Gold’s Jenny Gulch Exploration Project has now ended. We are happy to see that they received over 1,060 submissions via their online form. Now we wait to hear back from them. You can view these submission in their Public Reading Room at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/ReadingRoom?project=57428
Note: Some submission have been withheld due to sensitive information. If you don’t see your submission, please reach out to Jessica Eggers at jessica.eggers@usda.gov
More information about this project see our past blog post: U.S. FOREST GREEN LIGHTS F3 GOLD
Black Hills Clean Water Alliance 