Judge: No public tours on cultural site without tribes' OK

Associated Press

KENNEWICK - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should have consulted with tribes before expanding wildflowers tours to Rattlesnake Mountain, a sacred place with cultural and religious significance for the area's tribes, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. Judge Thomas Rice in Spokane ruled in favor of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in a ruling Friday. He told the federal agency it could not conduct wildflower tours until it meets requirements, including engaging with tribes about the tours and their potential to cause effects to the site.

The mountain, known as Laliik, is a tribal religious and cultural area located within the Hanford Reach National Monument in Benton County. It was designated a traditional cultural property under federal law in 2007.

The tribes have argued that the tours would diminish the sacred quality of the mountain.

"We are going to work with the tribes and all interested parties to provide access to Rattlesnake Mountain," said Charlie Stenvall, Fish and Wildlife project leader for the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex, told the Tri-City Herald newspaper Friday.

He did not know when the tours might resume.

"It's a difficult decision," Stenvall said, adding that the agency is mandated to provide access to Rattlesnake Mountain.

Congress approved legislation in December requiring the agency to allow limited public access to the top of the 3,600-foot mountain, the newspaper reported.

Tom Zeilman, a lawyer for the Yakama Nation, said, "It's important for a federal agency to make sure procedures are properly followed."

The Fish and Wildlife Service initially consulted with the tribes before it concluded in April 2012 that there would be no negative impact resulting from two tour buses to the mountain a year.

However, the agency failed to consult with the tribes when it proposed a new and expanded program in June 2012, which would bring up to 60 tour buses to the area over a five-year period, the judge found.

The agency had argued that the change to the original plan didn't require additional consultation with tribes, but the judge disagreed Friday.

Rice noted the proposed change would permit as many as 1,500 people to have access to the site over five years, compared with 50 people in a year as originally planned. This should have prompted the federal agency to re-open consultations with the tribes, the judge said.