Main points of the U S District Court of Appeals, three-judge panel ruling: Having determined the USFS has authority to recalculate the base period use to correct a significant legal error made manifest by court order, we now must determine whether the USFS recalculated the base period homeowner and resort use arbitrarily, capriciously, or in a manner contrary to its statutory authority. It is our view that some of the data relied upon and calculations performed by the USFS are so unreliable or inadequately explained as to make reliance on them arbitrary and capricious. Because we conclude the USFS recalculated the base period homeowner and resort motorboat use on the Moose, Saganaga, and Farm Lake Chains in an arbitrary and capricious manner, we affirm the district court on these issues. Having determined the USFS improperly recalculated the base period use, we conclude the USFS must recalculate the quotas consistent with BWCAW Act and the views expressed herein. We reverse the district court insofar as we conclude the USFS has authority to recalculate the base period use to correct a significant legal error made manifest by the Dombeck ruling. We affirm the district court by concluding the USFS’s homeowner and resort non-exempt lake chain use recalculation for the Moose, Saganaga, and Farm Lake Chains was arbitrary and capricious. We remand to the district court with directions to remand to the USFS for a recalculation of the base period use and motorboat quotas consistent with the BWCAW Act and the opinion. The agency should do so at the earliest practicable time and include the Friends, Conservationists with Common Sense, and other affected parties in the rule-making process. |