ELR Citation: ELR 20296
No(s). 06-35780 (9th Cir. Dec 11, 2008)

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Forest Service approved a selective logging project in the Ochoco National Forest in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Forest Service's cumulative effects analysis in the environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding past timber sales was insufficient. The Forest Service is free to consider cumulative effects in the aggregate or to use any other procedure it deems appropriate. However, the EIS mentions only one past timber sale and otherwise notes generally that other timber sales occurred in the past. This deficiency renders the EIS arbitrary and capricious. The Forest Service argued that no deficiency exists because the omitted information appears in a separate watershed analysis. But the Forest Service may not tier the EIS to a non-NEPA document. On remand, the Forest Service can reissue its NEPA documentation to include the omitted information regarding past timber sales contained in the watershed analysis.