The Institute was the lead plaintiff in a case against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Park Service (NPS).  The case was meant to test whether those agencies violated public trust doctrine, common sense, and their responsibilities of stewardship in  Yellowstone National Park by making agreements with private  corporations to access and commercialize the biodiversity of that  national park. The Institute won the first phase of the case: in 1999,  DOI was required to do an environmental assessment of its benefit-sharing policies in the National Park System. In 2006, the  Department of Interior issued a draft environmental impact statement on the topic. Public comment was invited. As of the summer of 2008, NPS still has not replied to those comments. When DOI does issue a final  Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the public will have the  opportunity to judge whether its concerns have been addressed and to  comment to the Department accordingly.

If you wish to be informed of new developments in the case, send your  email address to <beb@igc.org> and put “New Yellowstone Details” in  the subject line of your email.

Please note that this website does not include all the details of all the  aspects of the Yellowstone case. Much of the legal struggle has involved litigation over the freedom of information. The Institute’s fight to access  pertinent information about what is happening in the national parks is  ongoing.

For information on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), see the  FOIAdvocates website, http://www.foiadvocates.com/intro.html . That site is a project of two attorneys, one of whom - Daniel Stotter - is the FOIA advocate for the Edmonds Institute’s Yellowstone case.

For further (non-FOIA) details on the Yellowstone case, follow the links below:

 

• Why the Institute went to court
  
  
  
• Press Release: Yellowstone 125th Birthday Celebration Tainted (15 August 1997)
  
  
  
• Chronology: Legal Activities and Events, July, 1997 - May, 1998
  
  
  
• Press Release: Babbitt and Others Sued for Betrayal of Public Trust (5 March 1998)
  
  
  
• Press Release: Public Interest Wins in Yellowstone (24 March 1999)
  
  
  
• Text of U.S. Federal Court Judge Royce Lamberth's Memorandum Opinion in Edmonds Institute, et. al. v. Bruce Babbit, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, et. al. (24 March 1999) - PDF format, see here to download free software to read this file.
  
  
  
• Second Decision in the case of Edmonds Institute, et al. v. Babbitt, Civ. Docket No. 98-561, 04/12/2000 - The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules that the Yellowstone cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between the Department of the Interior and Diversa does not violate the Federal Technology Transfer Act.
  
  
  
• National Park Service Issues Draft EIS for Comment, 09/26/2006
  After many years, the National Park Service begins compliance with the decision in Edmonds Institute, et al v. Babbit by releasing its Draft  Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the use of benefits-sharing agreements throughout the entire National Park System. Comments on the  Draft were accepted through January 29, 2007. To view the draft EIS go to
  http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkId=442&projectId=12515&documentID=16763 .
  
  
  
• Press Release about the DEIS and website with more information about commenting to the National Parks Service about bioprospecting and benefit sharing
  Although the period for comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is closed, this website is maintained for historical and  informational purposes. The site includes a copy of the Institute’s comments to the National Park Service.
  
  
  

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Media Coverage

The Yellowstone case has been covered by the New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Washington Post, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Science, Associated Press, United Press International, ABC News, CNN, NPR and a host of other national, regional, and local newspapers, magazines, and media outlets.

See, for example (links provided where available):

"Park Deal: Some Call it 'Biopiracy'", Sunday, November 9, 1997, Salt Lake Tribune

"Judge Halts Yellowstone Bioprospecting, Ruling That Public Input Was Bypassed", Friday, March 26, 1999, Salt Lake Tribune

"Microbe Suit Puts Park in Hot Water", Friday March 6, 1998, Salt Lake Tribune

"Yellowstone: A Gold Mine of Microbes", Sunday, July 21, 1998, page 1, the Washington Post

"The Secretive Sale of Yellowstone's Natural Resources", May 31, 1998, In These Times

"Bid to block Yellowstone enzymes deal", March 1998, Nature, volume 392, page 117

 

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