Ninth Circuit review editor's note.

• Author: Richards, Gabrielle D.

I am pleased to present the 2009-10 Ninth Circuit Environmental Review. The first section of this review contains summaries of twenty-six Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions issued between March 2009 and March 2010. These summaries cover a variety of important environmental and natural resource issues, ranging from the protection of endangered species in the arid southwest to the management of forests and wilderness areas in Oregon and Idaho. The second section of this review presents two Chapters authored by Ninth Circuit Review members that provide an in-depth examination of issues raised by several of the summarized Ninth Circuit decisions.

In the first chapter, Adrianne DelCotto uses the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Siskiyou Regional Education Project v. United States Forest Service to explore the impact of suction dredge mining in the Siskiyou National Forest. Ms. DelCotto begins with a historical overview of the issue to frame the environmental consequences of mining on riparian reserves and the aquatic ecosystem, and concludes by suggesting a more aggressive approach by the U.S Forest Service.

In the second chapter, Laura Anzie Nelson discusses the impact of the judiciary's inconsistent deferential demeanor to agency scientific and technical expertise. Ms. Nelson analyzes four recent Ninth Circuit decisions-Ecology Center v. Castaneda, Latino Issues Forum v. EPA, Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Interior, and Tucson...