ELR Citation: 56 ELR 20046
No(s). 1:24-cv-00118-MR-WCM (W.D.N.C. Mar 31, 2026) (Reidinger, J.)

A district court granted in part and denied in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the Forest Service's revised land and resource management plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. The groups argued FWS' biological opinion (BiOp) and the Forest Service's reliance on the BiOp violated the ESA, and sought to have it vacated. The court found the BiOp's environmental baseline evaluation failed to sufficiently describe the conditions in the action area and failed to account for impacts of any past or present federal, state, or private actions in the action area, that its deferral of the cumulative effects analysis until project-level consultations was arbitrary and capricious, and that its no-jeopardy determination was "not reasonable and reasonably explained"; but that its action area definition fell within the "broad zone of reasonableness" and that its treatment of recovery was not arbitrary or capricious. It vacated the BiOp and remanded to the Services for further proceedings.