Kern

Opinion by Judge W. FLETCHER; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge GRABER.

Plaintiffs Hugh Kern, Leigh Ann Lipscomb, and the Oregon Natural Resources Council Fund (collectively, “ONRC”) appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment to defendant United States Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) and defendants-intervenors Douglas Timber Operators, Herbert Lumber Co., and Lone Rock Timber Co. (collectively, “the timber companies”). ONRC’s suit involves BLM action in the Coos Bay District, a BLM district along the southwest coast of Oregon.

ONRC contends that the BLM has failed to discharge its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., by twice failing in its decision process to consider adequately the impact of a pathogenic root fungus, Phytophthora lateralis (“the fungus”), on the Port Orford Cedar (“the Cedar”). First, ONRC challenges the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) prepared for the Coos Bay Resource Management Plan (“RMP”) for the Coos Bay District. Second, ONRC challenges the adequacy of the Environmental Assessment (“EA”) prepared for proposed timber sales in the Sandy-Remote…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I respectfully dissent from Part IV(B) of the majority opinion. In my view, the BLM permissibly limited its EA, including the cumulative impact component, to the Sandy-Remote Analysis Area.

Our standard of review is a limited one. We are to decide only whether the agency’s solution is arbitrary or capricious. Morongo Band of Mission Indians v. FAA, 161 F.3d 569, 573 (9th Cir.1998); 5 U.S.C. § 706 (2)(A). We must consider “ ‘whether the decision was based on a consideration of the relevant factors and whether there has been clear error of judgment.’ ” Alaska Ctr. for the Env’t v. United States Forest Serv., 189 F.3d 851, 859 (9th Cir.1999) (quoting Marsh v. Or. Natural Res. Council, 490 U.S. 360, 378 , 109 S.Ct. 1851 , 104 L.Ed.2d 377 (1989)). Accordingly, it is not up to us to impose the “best” way to analyze the problem, but only to determine whether the BLM’s decision in this instance to limit its examination of cumulative impacts to one watershed is supported by the record and is neither arbitrary nor capricious.

The record supports the BLM’s decision to limit the EA to analyzing the Sandy-Remote Area, which comprises about 24,-000…