Ninth Circuit Review editor's note.

• Author: Chase, Crystal S.

With great enthusiasm, I present the 2008 Ninth Circuit Environmental Review. This review first includes summaries of twenty-four Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions, issued between March 2008 and March 2009, on environmental and natural resource topics. These summaries cover a variety of important issues related to management of our national forest and national park systems, protection of endangered species, subsistence use of wildlife resources, and maintenance of clean air and water. Second, this review presents two Chapters, authored by Ninth Circuit Review members, which provide a more in-depth examination of issues raised by two of the summarized Ninth Circuit decisions.

The five members of this year's Ninth Circuit Environmental Review were selected based on their analytical precision, strong writing skills, and attention to detail. Each member dedicated significant time and effort over the year to author and peer-edit these summaries of recent opinions, in addition to their regular sourcechecking duties as members of Environmental Law. The result is this collection of summaries, each designed to accurately capture the holding, legal and factual analysis, and underlying dynamics of the actual Ninth Circuit decision.

In the first Chapter, John Cathcart-Rake chronicles the long-running litigation over the National Park Service's failed attempts to address user capacities on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, which culminated with the Ninth Circuit's recent decision of Friends of Yosemite Valley v. Kempthorne. Mr. Cathcart-Rake explores how the Friends of Yosemite saga illustrates a larger tension between the Park Service's traditional focus of promoting visitor use and the Wild and River Scenic Act's (WRSA) mandate requiring the Park Service to develop comprehensive management plans to prevent degradation of outstanding resource values of designated rivers. He concludes that the Ninth Circuit's decision provides lessons...