Opinion ID: 805481
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statement of Purpose and Need

Text: [3] “[T]his court has afforded agencies considerable discretion to define the purpose and need of a project.” Friends of Southeast’s Future v. Morrison, 153 F.3d 1059, 1066 (9th Cir. 1998). “However, this discretion is not unlimited.” Westlands, 376 F.3d at 866. Because they determine the range of reasonable alternatives, an agency cannot define the purpose and need of a project in unreasonably narrow terms. See Nat’l Parks & Conservation Ass’n v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 606 F.3d 1058, 1070 (9th Cir. 2010). “ ‘[A]n agency may not define the objectives of its action in terms so unreasonably narrow that only one alternative from among the environmentally benign ones in the agency’s power would accomplish the goals of the agency’s action, and the EIS would become a foreordained formality.’ ” Friends of Southeast, 153 F.3d at 1066 (quoting Citizens Against Burlington, Inc. v. Busey, 938 F.2d 190, 196 (D.C. Cir. 1991)). The statement of purpose in the Project’s EIS provides: The primary purpose of the proposed project is to reduce risk to the site by reducing stand densities, and lowering susceptibility to catastrophic loss to insects, disease, and fire. By integrating the need to reduce risk to the site with the research goals of the PNW Research Station, treatments would be imple- mented in such a way that pertinent research ques- tions regarding long-term sustainability of ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests in a changing climate can be answered. The EIS identifies two needs for the Project. First, “[t]here is a need to address the risk of a severe insect epidemic or catastrophic fire.” Second, “[t]here is a need to provide operational scale research opportunities through a series of thinning and fuel reduction treatments applied across the landscape.” The EIS explains that this second need “comes generally from LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 8515 the establishment record for the Experimental Forest, and specifically from the study plan.” The EIS then lists the six research questions from the Study Plan that the Project is designed to address. [4] In assessing the reasonableness of a purpose and need specified in an EIS, we must consider the statutory context of the federal action. See Westlands, 376 F.3d at 866 (“Where an action is taken pursuant to a specific statute, the statutory objectives of the project serve as a guide by which to determine the reasonableness of objectives outlined in an EIS.”). Here, two statutes inform the Project’s purpose and need. The Organic Act gives the Service authority to “make provisions for the protection against destruction by fire.” 16 U.S.C. § 551. The Research Act gives the Service authority to carry out in experimental forests any research experiments that it “deems necessary.” Id. § 1642(a). One of the five major areas of research identified in the Research Act is “protecting vegetation and other forest and rangeland resources . . . from fires, insects, [and] diseases.” Id. § 1642(a)(3). The EIS’s dual purpose and need of risk reduction and research opportunities comes directly from these statutory authorities. The League argues that the EIS states “an unreasonably narrow purpose and need” and incorporates “rigid implementation” of the Study Plan. The League contends that, as a result of the narrowness of the stated purpose and need, only a single alternative — the Study Plan — could satisfy them. However, the statement does not incorporate the specifics of the Plan’s proposed experiment. Rather, the statement refers to the Plan because it contains an extensive discussion of the research objectives and working hypotheses behind the six study questions. See Muckleshoot Indian Tribe v. U.S. Forest Serv., 177 F.3d 800, 812-13 (9th Cir. 1999) (per curiam) (statement of purpose and need “appear[ed] too narrow” when read in isolation, but was ultimately reasonable because it “expressly incorporate[d]” broader objectives). 8516 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS As in Muckleshoot, some language in the EIS, when read in isolation, suggests that the statement of purpose and need contemplates implementation of the Study Plan. For example, the EIS asserts that it compares the alternatives “for their ability to implement the study plan.” The EIS also rejects a proposed alternative on the ground that it “would not meet the purpose and need of implementing the study plan.” When read in context, however, these and similar statements were directed to the six research questions and objectives described in the Plan, rather than to any rigid implementation of the specifics of the Plan. Thus, the first sentence excerpted above reads in full that the EIS compares the alternatives “for their ability to implement the study plan and answer the specific research questions.” (Emphasis added.) Moreover, the stated purpose and need could not have required “rigid implementation” of the Study Plan, as the League maintains, because Alternative 2, the preferred alternative that the Service ultimately selected, removed forty-nine acres of logging from the Plan’s proposed design in response to conservation groups’ concerns about a sensitive cinder butte in the northeast section of the Project area. Alternative 3 deviated even further from the Plan by removing an additional 372 acres in order to reduce the potential impact on spotted owl habitat. The League bases its challenge in part on an argument that the Service created the Study Plan “prior to initiating the NEPA process.” NEPA regulations require that an agency “integrate the NEPA process with other planning at the earliest possible time.” 40 C.F.R. § 1501.2. Here, the Service began the NEPA process nearly a year before the Plan was finally approved. As described above, in April 2008 the Service sent a scoping letter to interested parties and published a notice of intent to prepare an EIS in the Federal Register. A few months later, the Service hosted a field trip in the Unit to discuss the proposed Project with interested parties and then modified its proposal as a result of these discussions. In reviewing an EIS’s statement of purpose and need, the “ ‘touchstone for our inquiry’ ” is whether the resulting alterLEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 8517 natives analysis “ ‘fosters informed decision-making and informed public participation.’ ” Westlands, 376 F.3d at 868 (quoting California v. Block, 690 F.2d 753, 767 (9th Cir. 1982)). Based on the record before us, we conclude that the purpose and need in the challenged EIS adequately informed decisions by the Service and participation by the public. [5] In sum, given the purpose of the Research Act, the Project’s location in an experimental forest, and the “considerable discretion” we afford agencies in this area, Friends of Southeast, 153 F.3d at 1066, we agree with the district court that the EIS’s statement of purpose and need is reasonable.