Opinion ID: 781557
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Monitoring Indicator Species Under the NFMA

Text: 20 In addition to challenging the Forest Service's decision not to prepare an EIS, the plaintiffs also contend that the Forest Service has violated the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), 36 C.F.R. §§ 219.19 & 219.26, by not monitoring management indicator and sensitive species adequately. 21 The NFMA requires that the Forest Service create Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMP) to manage National Forests. 16 U.S.C. § 1604(a). The NFMA further requires that each plan set forth objectives to, among other things, ensure a diversity of plant and animal species and maintain the viability of desired species. 16 U.S.C. § 1604(e). The Forest Service has promulgated regulations to carry out this mandate under the NFMA. See 36 C.F.R. § 219 (1999). Section 219.19 requires the Forest Service to identify management indicator species (MIS) and monitor their populations: [p]opulation trends of the management indicator species will be monitored and relationships to habitat changes determined. 36 C.F.R. § 219.19(a)(6) (1999). Another subsection of Section 219 further mandates that: 22 [f]orest planning shall provide for diversity of plant and animal communities and tree species consistent with the overall multiple-use objectives of the planning area. Such diversity shall be considered throughout the planning process. Inventories shall include quantitative data making possible the evaluation of diversity in terms of its prior and present condition. For each planning alternative, the interdisciplinary team shall consider how diversity will be affected by various mixes of resource outputs and uses, including proposed management practices. 23 36 C.F.R. § 219.26 (1999). 24 Consistent with these requirements, the LRMP for the Hoosier National Forest requires that the Forest Service monitor MIS to determine the effects of the management activities. The LRMP states that [r]ather comprehensive monitoring of these species will provide data on population trends under a variety of habitat conditions found in the forest. However, in order to achieve this goal the Plan only requires that the Forest Service (1) identify trends of populations of management indicator species and their relationship to habitat changes; and (2) monitor effects of management on populations of sensitive species. Hoosier National Forest Plan (April 1991), 5-4 to 5-7. The plaintiffs contend that the Forest Service has violated the NFMA, and therefore acted arbitrarily and capriciously, because in the EA for the forest openings decision, the Forest Service has not included any hard data regarding the actual impacts of those openings on management indicator species. 25 Because the NFMA does not create a private right of action, the plaintiffs' claim under the NFMA must be analyzed under the APA. See Sierra Club v. Marita, 46 F.3d 606, 610 n. 3 (7th Cir.1995); accord Sierra Club v. Peterson, 228 F.3d 559, 565 (5th Cir.2000) ( en banc ). Thus, we consider only whether the decision to proceed with the forest openings maintenance project, the final agency action at issue, was arbitrary or capricious in light of applicable NFMA standards. Under this deferential standard, see supra p.858-59, the Forest Service's decision to implement the forest openings maintenance project must be upheld if the record shows that the Forest Service took a hard look at relevant NFMA issues in making its decision. See Kleppe v. Sierra Club, 427 U.S. 390, 410 n. 21, 96 S.Ct. 2718, 49 L.Ed.2d 576 (1976). 26 The administrative record shows that the Forest Service relied on a variety of data types to determine management indicator species population trends and to monitor the effects of agency actions on sensitive species. For example, the Forest Service has gathered this data in coordination with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Division, as contemplated by the regulations. See 36 C.F.R. § 219.19(a)(6) (1999) ([t]his [MIS] monitoring will be done in cooperation with State fish and wildlife agencies, to the extent practicable). The record also contains quantitative population information from the following sources: (1) Indiana Non-game and Endangered Wildlife Program of Indiana Department of Natural Resources Atlas of Breeding Birds Of Indiana; (2) archers' index of fur-bearing animal populations; (3) wild turkey hunter bag; (4) maps of transect survey routes on national forest lands; (4) ruffed grouse survey; (5) woodcock survey; and (6) waterfowl surveys. The Forest Service claims that it did not yet have adequate population data to project population trends for fish, stream invertebrates, and cave invertebrates, but it had conducted surveys that provide a baseline of information about population trends. In addition to this direct population information, the Forest Service also tracks habitat in the Forest using a database inventory of forest stand and vegetative type information. The Forest Service claims that tracking habitat in this manner generally allows them to monitor the habitat available for management indicator species. 27 The plaintiffs allege that the NFMA and its regulations, the Plan for the Hoosier National Forest, and the Forest Service Manual required the Forest Service to inventory all management indicator and sensitive species before making a final decision on the forest openings maintenance project. They allege that the Forest Service failed that directive by using data on habitat availability as an approximation of the population of MIS, instead of going into the field and actually counting all of the birds. 28 However, the plaintiffs' argument fails because none of these regulatory sources imposes such a specific requirement on the Forest Service. We have previously acknowledged that the NFMA grants the Forest Service considerable discretion: The drafters of the NFMA diversity regulations themselves recognized that diversity was a complex term and declined to adopt any particular means or methodology of providing for diversity. Sierra Club v. Marita, 46 F.3d at 620. In Marita, we approved the consideration of habitat changes as one means of managing a forest to encourage diversity and monitor management indicator species. In Marita, the Forest Service was logically proceeding under the assumption that an increase in the diversity of habitats would increase the potential livelihood of diverse kinds of organisms. Id. at 616. Pursuant to that plan, the Forest Service surveyed vegetative diversity in the relevant planning areas and then assessed animal diversity primarily on the basis of vegetative diversity. The Forest Service then selected MISs for various habitat types and calculated the minimum viable population necessary to continue the vitality of the species. Id. at 617. We concluded that the Forest Service was entitled to use its own methodology to fulfill its obligations unless it was irrational. Id. at 621. In that case we found that the method of tracking habitat was rational and therefore not in violation of the NFMA. 29 We are not alone in this approach. In Inland Empire v. United States Forest Service, 88 F.3d 754, 762-63 (9th Cir.1996), the Ninth Circuit found that the Forest Service complied with 36 C.F.R. § 219 by analyzing the effects of a proposed timber sale on habitats for sensitive species. See id. at 761. The court rejected the plaintiffs' arguments that the Forest Service must assess population viability in terms of actual population size or population trends. Inland Empire, 88 F.3d at 761 n. 8. The court reached this conclusion because it concluded that monitoring available habitat as a method of monitoring species populations was eminently reasonable. Id. 14 30 Admittedly, this conclusion is not universally applied. Several courts have held that § 219.19 does not allow use of habitat as a proxy for hard population data. Sierra Club v. Martin, 168 F.3d 1 (11th Cir.1999). See also Utah Environmental Congress v. Zieroth, 190 F.Supp.2d 1265, 1271-72 (D.Utah 2002) ( accord ); Forest Guardians v. U.S. Forest Service, 180 F.Supp.2d 1273, 1279 (D.N.M.2001) ( accord ). Specifically, in Sierra Club v. Martin, 168 F.3d 1 (11th Cir.1999), the Eleventh Circuit held that the Forest Service violated the NFMA because it did not have adequate population data for sensitive species. In reaching that decision, the Eleventh Circuit disagreed with the Ninth Circuit's conclusion in Inland Empire that the Forest Service could use habitat information as a means of complying with NEPA regulations' monitoring requirements. Id. at 7 & n. 10. Significantly, however, that court based its decision in part on the specific management requirements imposed by the Forest Plan itself. Id. at 5 (While it is true that the regulations make no such demand [regarding population data], the Forest Plan explicitly does so.). In that case, the plan provided that: [w]hen adequate population inventory information is unavailable, it must be collected when the site has high potential for occupancy by a [proposed, endangered, threatened, or sensitive species of plants and animals]. In addition, the court observed that the Forest Service had no information at all in terms of many of the [sensitive] species. Id. The Martin court was concerned that the Forest Service had acknowledged that the proposed timber sales would destroy some sensitive species in the affected habitats yet failed to provide specific data concerning the extent of the population declines. Id. at 4. 15 31 In this case we find ourselves in a situation more analogous to the scenarios analyzed in Marita and Inland Empire. The conclusion reached in those cases, that the Forest Service's methods of monitoring various types of data, including the use of available habitat, were reasonable, is applicable in this case. The use of available habitat is eminently reasonable under the Forest Service's plan because the forest openings project is specifically designed to provide a form of habitat in short supply in the Forest. Unlike Sierra Club v. Martin, and other cases that reached the opposite conclusion, the plaintiffs have not identified any language in the Plan for the Hoosier National Forest that specifically requires the Forest Service to inventory the populations of management indicator or sensitive species before taking a site-specific action. Instead, the Plan for the Hoosier National Forest more generally requires that the Forest Service (1) identify trends of populations of management indicator species and their relationship to habitat changes; and (2) monitor effects of management on populations of sensitive species. Plan, 5-4 to 5-7. The Forest Service has rated the desired precision, reliability of the monitoring of management indicator and sensitive species as moderate. Id. In the EA and the accompanying Biological Evaluation, the Forest Service adequately satisfied these requirements to the extent they relate to the forest openings maintenance project. For example the EA contained synopses on fifteen different avian MIS, including the Scarlet Tanager, and the relevant population trends of each bird. While it is true that the Forest Service could have used more recent data in many cases, the methods employed by the Forest Service were not unreasonable considering the purpose of the plan. Therefore, we find that the Forest Service reasonably relied on habitat and survey information about management indicator species to monitor the effects of the forest openings management project on those species. Because this method was reasonable, the Forest Service did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in proceeding with the action.