1. Complaint detail
2. Air Force plan detail

The Idaho Conservation League has filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act to compel the U.S. Air Force to release records related to a planned change in flight training over the Owyhee Canyonlands.

ICL requested the records May 15. They relate to the Environmental Impact Statement associated with the Airspace Optimization for Readiness plan for Mountain Home Air Force Base. The Air Force signed a record of decision for the final EIS July 14.

The proposal would expand and intensify the flights by lowering training exercises — including over wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, key habitats for greater sage grouse and bighorn sheep, and quiet and solitude, according to the Oct. 10 complaint the Conservation League filed in U.S. district court in Boise.

“For these and other reasons, ICL is deeply concerned about the impacts of the proposal on the environment, natural resources, wildlife, communities, recreation values, its 30,000 supporters and other members of the public,” according to the complaint.

The league requested records about the Air Force’s preparation of an EIS released in March. The league asked for a fee waiver “because the nonprofit organization sought the records to further the substantial public interest in the Airspace Optimization proposal and shed light on how it will affect the environment and people who use and enjoy the Owyhee Canyonlands region,” according to the complaint.

The Air Force granted the waiver May 23, and on May 30 reversed its decision, saying the league was a commercial requestor based on litigation history and must pay almost $10,000 in search fees, according to the complaint.

Denying the fee waiver was not justified given that the records request seeks to further the public interest in protecting the canyonlands, not to benefit any commercial interests, according to the complaint.

Air Force officials could not be reached.

Requested documents will “shine light on the Air Force’s analysis of how expanded training operations will disrupt wildlife, recreationists and traditional uses in the Owyhee Canyonlands,” according to an ICL news release. The canyonlands include parts of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada.

“Fast jets flying as low as several hundred feet above the ground would have serious impacts for southern Idaho communities, wildlife and wilderness areas,” said John Robison, the league’s public lands director. “The public has a legal right to know about a federal agency’s actions impacting our public lands.”

Requested information includes studies used to support the decision as well as detail about the decision making process, potentially showing why less impactful alternatives may have been rejected, he said in an interview.

The lawsuit “merely asks the Air Force to comply with FOIA’s requirement that the requested documents be produced in a matter of days or weeks, not months or years, and free of charge to a public-interest organization like ICL,” Lizzy Potter, staff attorney at Advocates for the West, said in the release.

Requested records pertain to the analysis used in the environmental impact statement, and “that is what ICL is trying to learn more about,” she said in an interview.