ELR Citation: 49 ELR 20110
No(s). 17-16760 (9th Cir. Jun 24, 2019)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to the Service's designation of at-risk forest lands and its approval of a project aimed to address spreading pine-beetle infestation in previously designated at-risk areas in Tahoe National Forest. Environmental groups argued the Service violated NEPA when it designated 5.3 million acres as a landscape-scale area without first preparing an EA or EIS. The court found that designation of landscape-scale areas did not change the status quo because it only identified swaths of land suffering from harms where certain priority projects could be implemented, and thus did not require an EIS or EA under NEPA. The groups also challenged the Service's conclusion that the project was categorically excluded from NEPA because no extraordinary circumstances existed, arguing the project's potential impact on the California spotted owl constituted extraordinary circumstances and thus that, at a minimum, the Service should have conducted an EA. The court concluded the Service relied upon relevant scientific studies and engaged in careful analysis in determining that individual owls may be negatively impacted in the short-term but that the species would benefit in the long run, and thus that it must defer to the Service's judgment. It therefore affirmed summary judgment for the Service.