ELR Citation: 43 ELR 20005
No(s). 10-2172 (E.D. Cal. Jan 4, 2013) (Mueller, J.)

A district court held that the U.S. Forest Service violated its travel management rule, but not NEPA, when it issued its record of decision approving the Stanislaus National Forest Motorized Travel Management EIS. The agency looked at a reasonable range of alternatives to the proposed action, properly defined the baseline of existing National Forest Transportation System roads and trails, and adequately analyzed the impacts of adding additional motorized routes to the system. But the Service failed to comply with the travel management rule. Unlike NEPA, which requires agencies to assess environmental consequences of their decisions but does not obligate agencies to take actions that minimize those consequences, the travel management rule requires the Forest Service to aim to minimize environmental damage when designating routes. Here, the Forest Service has not explained how satisfying the procedural requirements of NEPA through the EIS analysis meets the substantive requirements of the rule, nor pointed to any specific parts of the EIS that sufficiently demonstrate its application of the minimization criteria.