Opinion ID: 779237
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of the EA

Text: 34 As discussed above, NEPA does not require that federal agencies always evaluate the feasibility of separate proposed projects in a single, comprehensive EIS. In contrast, NEPA always requires that an environmental analysis for a single project consider the cumulative impacts of that project together with past, present and reasonably foreseeable future actions. See 40 C.F.R. §§ 1508.7, 1508.25, 1508.27(b)(7) (2001); Hall v. Norton, 266 F.3d 969, 978 (9th Cir.2001); Kern v. United States Bureau of Land Management, 284 F.3d 1062, 1075-76 (9th Cir.2002). Cumulative impact is the impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions.  40 C.F.R. §§ 1508.7 (2001) (emphasis added). CEQ regulations specifically admonish agencies that cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time. Id. 35 We have recognized that even EAs, the less comprehensive of the two environmental reports envisioned by NEPA, must in some circumstances include an analysis of the cumulative impacts of a project. See Kern, 284 F.3d at 1078; 40 C.F.R. § 1508.9(a) (2001). An EA [s]hall include brief discussions of the need for the proposal, of alternatives as required by section 102(2)(E) [of NEPA], of the environmental impacts of the proposed action and alternatives, and a listing of agencies and persons consulted. Id. at § 1508.9(b). An EA may be deficient if it fails to include a cumulative impact analysis or to tier to an EIS that reflects such an analysis. See Kern, 284 F.3d at 1077; Hall v. Norton, 266 F.3d at 978; Blue Mountains, 161 F.3d at 1214; Idaho Sporting Congress, 137 F.3d at 1152 (9th Cir.1998). 36 The importance of ensuring that EAs consider the additive effect of many incremental environmental encroachments is clear. [I]n a typical year, 45,000 EAs are prepared compared to 450 EISs.... Given that so many more EAs are prepared than EISs, adequate consideration of cumulative effects requires that EAs address them fully.  Kern, 284 F.3d at 1076 (emphasis in original) (quoting Council on Environmental Quality, Considering Cumulative Effects Under the National Environmental Policy Act at 4, January 1997). As we have previously emphasized when considering the sufficiency of a timber sale EA, without a consideration of individually minor but cumulatively significant effects it would be easy to underestimate the cumulative impacts of the timber sales ..., and of other reasonably foreseeable future actions, on the [environment]. Id. at 1078. 37 Here, the EA for the Darroch-Eagle sale does contain a section discussing the cumulative effects of some reasonably foreseeable future actions to be taken in the area around the sale. It does not, however, include the other Gallatin II road density amendments among these reasonably foreseeable future actions. As a result, the Forest Service does not analyze what, if any, environmental impacts the Darroch-Eagle road density amendment might have in combination with the contemplated road density amendments in the other Gallatin II sales. This omission violates NEPA. 2 38 The future road amendments are certainly reasonably foreseeable within the meaning of 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7, as illustrated by the Kempff memorandum and the various amendment proposals in the record. The Kempff memorandum evidences a decision to consider these amendments seriously with each Gallatin II timber sale. The Forest Service repeatedly acknowledges in the record that many road density amendments will be required to implement the Gallatin II timber sales, and the record contains several of these proposals. 39 Moreover, the road density amendments may have cumulative impacts. All of the sales are proposed to occur within the next two years or so, in order to comply with a December 31, 2003, deadline for providing funds for the purchase of land under the Gallatin Land Consolidation Act. All are proposed for the same national forest and will effect separate but additive changes to the density of roads within that geographic area. Because the amendments are reasonably foreseeable and may have cumulative impacts within the Gallatin National Forest, the Forest Service has a duty to consider them in its analysis of impacts within the Darroch-Eagle EA. See 40 C.F.R. §§ 1508.25, 1508.7 (2001); Kern, 284 F.3d at 1078-79 (requiring the BLM to consider all reasonably foreseeable future actions with an impact on the resource being managed, including future timber sales proposed within the same district, as part of a cumulative impacts analysis within an EA); City of Tenakee Springs v. Clough, 915 F.2d 1308, 1313 (9th Cir.1990) (granting a preliminary injunction halting logging because the Forest Service failed to analyze the cumulative impacts of a proposed timber sale together with four other proposed sales within the Tongass National Forest). 40 The Forest Service argues that it need not consider the other road density amendments within the Darroch-Eagle EA because the amendments are spread throughout the Gallatin National Forest. We disagree. The national forest was the geographic unit within which the Forest Service chose to set forth binding road density standards in the Forest Plan. All of these sales are proposed within the Gallatin National Forest and will necessarily have additive effects within that management unit. Unless the cumulative impacts of these amendments are subject to analysis even though distantly spaced throughout the Forest, the Forest Service will be free to amend road density standards throughout the forest piecemeal, without ever having to evaluate the amendments' cumulative environmental impacts. NEPA does not permit this, but rather requires the assessment of the cumulative impact of individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time. 3 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7 (2001). 41 NEPA requires an EA that analyzes the cumulative impacts of all reasonably foreseeable future road density amendments in the Gallatin National Forest. We therefore hold that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to defendants on this claim.