Ilano

*1065 SUMMARY JUDGMENT ORDER

Re: Dkt. Nos. 25, 28,

This lawsuit involves a challenge to a decision by the Forest Service to move forward with a plan to combat disease and beetle infestation in portions of the Tahoe National Forest. That challenge is rejected, because the Forest Service complied with the law in adopting the plan. The Service properly examined the plan’s potential effect on the California spotted owl, and its conclusion that the species would likely benefit in the long run even if individual owls might experience limited effects in the short-run was adequately supported.

I

As part of the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress amended an earlier law, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, to address “[t]he outbreak of the pine bark beetle afflicting states across the nation....” H.R. Rep. No. 13-333, at 512 (2014) (conf. report); see Agricultural Act of 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-79, § 8204 , 128 Stat. 649 , 915-18. The previous “system for managing national forests affected by historic insect infestations ha[d] not been responsive to the speed and widespread impact of the infestations.” H.R. Rep. No. 13-333, at 512. The law was intended “to give forest managers greater…