Judge Honors Donor’s Wishes, Blocks Drilling in Mich. Forest

Environmentalists, tourists and the descendants of public land donors in Michigan are celebrating a federal judge's ruling that the U.S. Forest Service was wrong to allow a permit for oil and gas drilling in the state's northern Lower Peninsula.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled last week that the agency acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when in 2005 it gave giving Traverse City -based Savoy Energy a permit to drill an exploratory well near the Au Sable River's south branch, the Associated Press reports.

While the permit-approving officials reasoned that the drilling wouldn't significantly harm the environment, Judge Lawson said the Forest Service failed to consider how the drilling would impact tourism and an endangered bird, the Kirtland's warbler, that nests in the area.

The Sierra Club and the Anglers of Au Sable sued to stop the drilling and were joined by Tim Manson, the grandson of auto executive George Mason, the man who donated the original 1,200 acres to the state in 1954 and asked that the land be maintained as wilderness, the AP reports.

"The ruling supports what my grandfather's vision was," Mason said. "It's a victory."