Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center v. Bureau of Land Management

Appellant Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (“KS Wild”), an environmental organization, challenges two timber sales— the Indian Soda and the Conde Shell— proposed by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) in the South Fork Little Butte Creek (“SFLBC”) watershed in the Cascade Mountains of southwest Oregon. Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seg., the BLM conducted environmental assessméñts (“EAs”) to assess the potential environmental impacts posed by the Conde Shell and Indian Soda sales. KS Wild claims that the EAs are legally insufficient because (1) they fail to adequately evaluate and discuss the potential cumulative environmental impacts posed by the sales in combination with other major activities in the watershed, and (2) the environmental effects of the two sales, along with two other adjacent proposed sales, should all have been discussed in a single NEPA document.

The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the BLM. To make an informed decision about how or whether to proceed with the proposed projects and to comply with NEPA, an agency must identify their potential combined environmental impacts and make that…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I concur in the majority opinion, except with respect to Part IV C. I agree that the BLM did not sufficiently consider the potential cumulative impacts posed by the four anticipated timber sales. I do not agree, however, with the majority’s decision not to require the BLM to produce a single NEPA review document at this time. Although federal agencies have considerable discretion to define the scope of NEPA review, “[a] single NEPA review document is required for distinct projects when there is a single proposal governing the projects, or when the projects are ‘connected,’ ‘cumulative’ or ‘similar’ actions under the regulations implementing NEPA.” Native Ecosystems Council v. Dombeck, 304 F.3d 886, 893-94 (9th Cir.2002) (internal citations omitted). In this case, there is both a single proposal governing the four anticipated projects and the projects constitute cumulative actions under the implementing regulations. Therefore, I would require a single NEPA analysis.

I. A Single Proposal Governs the Timber Sales

In early 1999, the BLM created a plan to actively manage the South Fork Little Butte Creek (“SFLBC”) watershed under a single…