Inland Empire Public Lands Council v. United States Forest Service

The United States Forest Service proposed eight timber sales in the Upper Sunday Creek Watershed region of the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana. The environmental impact statement it prepared *757 in anticipation of the sales evaluated the project’s impact on a number of “sensitive species” living in that region. Plaintiffs, a number of environmental groups, challenged the sale first in administrative hearings and ultimately in district court, claiming that the Service’s analysis of the sale’s impact on seven species — the lynx, boreal owl, flammulated owl, black-backed woodpecker, fisher, bull charr, and wet-sloped cutthroat trout— was inadequate under both the National Forest Management Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1600 , et seq., and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq. The district court concluded that the Service’s analysis was sufficient and thereafter granted summary judgment for the Service and refused to enjoin the sales. In this expedited appeal, Plaintiffs now argue: (1) that the Service failed to comply with 36 C.F.R. § 219.19 , which requires a minimum level of population viability analysis; and (2) that the Service violated the…