Opinion ID: 1259255
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: did the board abuse its discretion by approving these plans?

Text: (4) The board performs an adjudicatory function in approving or rejecting a timber harvest plan following an appeal from the director's return of the plan to the submitter. The board is required to hold a public hearing to review the plan to determine if it conforms to the rules and regulations of the board and the Forest Practice Act. (4582.7.) Its order is therefore subject to judicial review under the mandate procedure established by Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5. The inquiry, in such review here, is whether the board abused its discretion in approving these plans. (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5, subd. (b).) Abuse of discretion is established if the respondent [agency] has not proceeded in the manner required by law, the order or decision is not supported by the findings, or the findings are not supported by the evidence. ( Ibid. ; see also, § 21168.5.) Only if the manner in which an agency failed to follow the law is shown to be prejudicial, or is presumptively prejudicial, as when the department or the board fails to comply with mandatory procedures, must the decision be set aside, however. ( Environmental Protection Information Center, Inc. v. Johnson, supra, 170 Cal. App.3d 604, 622.) (5) Because the board believed that gathering the additional information sought by the department could not be required of Pacific Lumber Company, it evaluated the timber harvest plans based solely on the information already in the record. The mandate proceeding and, ultimately, this appeal therefore require that the court first determine whether the board or department failed to comply with mandatory procedures of CEQA and the Forest Practice Act. As noted earlier, that record contained no site-specific data regarding the presence of four old-growth-dependent species, the red tree vole, the marbled murrelet, the goshawk, and the spotted owl, and indicated that neither the department nor Fish and Game had made site-specific recommendations regarding mitigation measures. In evaluating and approving the timber harvest plan in the absence of such data and recommendations the board failed to proceed in the manner prescribed by CEQA. The record confirms that Fish and Game had reasonably determined that the proposed timber harvest could have a significant adverse effect on the old-growth-dependent wildlife habitat. Therefore, the board, through the department, had an obligation imposed by CEQA to collect information regarding the presence of old-growth-dependent species on the site of the proposed timber harvest. Without that information the board could not identify the environmental impacts of the project or carry out its obligation to protect wildlife as required by the Forest Practice Act (§ 4551), and to prevent environmental damage by refusing to approve projects if feasible mitigation measures are available which will avoid or substantially lessen significant environmental effects as required by CEQA. (§§ 21000, 21002.) When it nonetheless approved the plan, the board failed to proceed in the manner prescribed by the Forest Practice Act and CEQA. The failure of the board to proceed as required by law was prejudicial. The absence of any information regarding the presence of the four old-growth-dependent species on the site frustrated the purpose of the public comment provisions of the Forest Practice Act. (§§ 4582.6, 4582.7.) It also made any meaningful assessment of the potentially significant environment impacts of timber harvesting and the development of site-specific mitigation measures impossible. In these circumstances prejudice is presumed. (See East Peninsula Ed. Council, Inc. v. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School Dist. (1989) 210 Cal. App.3d 155, 174 [258 Cal. Rptr. 147]; Rural Landowners Assn. v. City Council (1983) 143 Cal. App.3d 1013, 1023 [192 Cal. Rptr. 325].)