ELR Citation: ELR 20151
No(s). s. CIV-S-04-2727, -05-0093 (E.D. Cal. Jun 30, 2005)

The court held that the U.S. Forest Service's failure to provide for effective predecisional public involvement in the preparation of the environmental assessments (EAs) for four logging projects in the Lassan and Shasta-Trinity National Forests was contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act. Although the Council on Environmental Quality regulations do not require the circulation of a draft EA, they do require that the public be given as much environmental information as is practicable, prior to completion of the EA, so that the public has a sufficient basis to address those subject areas that the agency must consider in preparing the EA. In each of the projects under review here, the Forest Service failed to give the public an adequate predecisional opportunity for informed comment. The scoping notices for each project contained no analysis of the environmental impacts of the projects and failed to give the public adequate information to effectively participate in the decisionmaking process. And because a new environmental review process would be pointless were the court to permit the projects to go forward without informed public comment, the court enjoined the projects until the Forest Service complies with the National Environmental Policy Act.