Usfs

This case involves an Experimental Forest Thinning, Fuels Reduction, and Research Project (“the Project”) in the Deschutes National Forest in the eastern Cascades of central Oregon. The Project allows logging and controlled burning on roughly 2,500 acres of the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest. The purpose of the Project is two-fold: to reduce the risk of wildfire and beetle infestation, and to conduct research on ponderosa pine forest management.

The League of Wilderness Defenders-Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (“the League”) filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service (“the Service”) and Service officials, alleging that the agency’s environmental impact statement (“EIS”) for the Project fails to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). The district court granted summary judgment to the Service, relying in part on the fact that the Project involves research in an experimental forest. We affirm.

I. Background

A. Experimental Forests and the Lookout Mountain Unit

In 1931, the Forest Service established the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest within the Deschutes National Forest as “a center for silviculture, forest management, and insect and…