Robertson

Plaintiffs (hereafter “Resources Limited”) challenge the Flathead National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (“Plan”) and the forest-wide Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”). Resources Limited asserts the defendants (“Forest Service”) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), the National Forest Management Act, and the Endangered Species Act. In-tervenor Intermountain Forest Industry Association submitted additional briefing on behalf of the Forest Service. We affirm in part and reverse in part the district court’s grant of the Forest Service’s motion for summary judgment.

I

Several threatened or endangered species, including the grizzly bear, the gray wolf, the bald eagle, and the peregrine falcon, live in the Flathead National Forest (“the Forest”) in northern Montana. The Forest Service has been involved in developing the Plan and EIS for the Forest to accommodate these species, while allowing logging and other uses, since the early 1980s. The Forest Service issued the Plan and the EIS in 1985 and approved them in 1986.

Resources Limited criticized the EIS as inadequate and disputed the Forest Service’s conclusion that implementation of the Plan…