Opinion ID: 217548
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Basin Project: Cumulative Impacts

Text: Sierra Forest separately challenges approval of the Basin Project under NEPA, arguing that the Basin EA failed to assess the cumulative impact of the Project. To comply with a NEPA alternatives analysis, the Forest Service must consider, among other things, the cumulative impacts of the proposed action, which NEPA's implementing regulations define as the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions. ... League of Wilderness Defenders v. U.S. Forest Serv., 549 F.3d 1211, 1216 (9th Cir. 2008) (quoting 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7). A cumulative impact analysis must describe related projects, enumerate the environmental effects of those projects and consider the interaction of multiple activities. Or. Natural Res. Council, 492 F.3d at 1133. The Basin EA provides detailed cumulative analysis of soil and watershed effects and incorporates a substantial cumulative analysis concerning fish and wildlife in the area. A section of the EA is titled Potential Cumulative Impacts and summarizes cumulative effects of the Basin Project alongside both prior management and other planned projects in the vicinity. Sierra Forest's argument that the EA fails to disclose the cumulative impact that these projects have had and will have on old forest wildlife or to provide any explanation of cumulative effects is largely conclusory and is belied by the record. The EA cumulative impact analysis covers a variety of factors that could contribute to an overall decline in old forest wildlife, including group logging, HFQLG pilot projects and barred owl range expansion. The EA is supplemented by the extensive discussions of cumulative impact in the 2004 Framework SEIS, which is the cumulative assessment of planned management throughout the Sierra Nevada. Sierra Forest argues that it would be improper for the Basin Project to rely on the 2004 Framework SEIS. Although the 2004 Framework commits to [d]etailed cumulative effects analysis at the ... project level concerning soil and watershed effects, this does not preclude reliance on cumulative effects ... addressed programmatically in the [2004 Framework] SEIS. Between the EA and SEIS analysis, the Forest Service has conducted and disclosed a substantial assessment of cumulative impacts. Therefore, the Forest Service did not violate NEPA when approving the Basin Project.