Venue in the Montana First Judicial District Court, Lewis and
Clark County is proper pursuant to §25-2-126, MCA, in that this is an
action against the State of Montana.
V. FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS
The preceding paragraphs are realleged as though set forth in
On March 26,2001, Darrell Geist, on behalf of CMCR and the
other Petitioners, wrote to the MDOL requesting public information
regarding MDOL's activities associated with management of the
Yellowstone wild buffalo herd. The request sought information relating to
helicopter hazing of Buffalo on the Horse Butte Peninsula, including flight
logs and flight plans, narratives regarding buffalo management activities
and impacts on bald eagles and their habitat in the Horse Butte area,
information regarding consultations between the MDOL and other federal
agencies as required by the Federal Endangered Species Act, information
regarding the development of the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Annual
Operation Plans that were required by the U.S. Forest Service and contacts
with the Forest Service regarding development and approval of such plans,
and records documenting costs and expenses related to MDOL helicopter
hazing activities in the Horse Butte area. The letter requested that the
MDOL "[please notify me in writing when the Department can organize
these records and allow me to inspect and copy them."Petitioners have,
on numerous other occasions, requested, and been denied, access to or
copies of, public records.
On April 30, 2001, Mr. Geist telephoned the MDOL because he
had not received any response, written or otherwise, to his request made
over a month previously for the public information. Mr. Geist subsequently
