Earth Island Institute, et al v. USFS, et al, No. 11-16718 (9th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThis appeal related to the Forest Service's design of the Angora Project in response to damage caused by the Angora Fire. The court held that the Lake Tahoe Forest Plan did not require the Forest Service to demonstrate at the project level that the Angora Project would maintain viable population levels of management indicator species, including the black-backed woodpecker. Therefore, the Forest Service's analysis of the Angora Project's impact on the black-backed woodpecker's habitat was not arbitrary and capricious under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), 16 U.S.C. 1600 et seq. Here, because the Forest Service did not fail to (1) ensure the scientific integrity of the final environmental assessment (EA), (2) properly responded to dissenting scientific opinion, (3) properly considered proposed alternatives to the Angora Project EA, and (4) took the requisite "hard look" at the impacts of the Angora Project, the court also concluded that the Forest Service's analysis of the Angora Project's environmental effect was not arbitrary and capricious under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court.
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