Opinion ID: 777060
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Port Orford Cedar Management Guidelines

Text: 15 The plaintiffs timely commented on the Coos Bay RMP and its accompanying EIS, on the Sandy-Remote EA, and on the revised Sandy-Remote EA. Plaintiffs' main concerns centered on the fact that both the EIS and the EA referred to a document entitled the Port Orford Cedar Management Guidelines (the Guidelines) but contained no analysis of the impact of the proposed RMP or proposed timber sales on the spread of the fungus and the effect of this spread on the Cedar. The Sandy-Remote EA was revised to respond to the concerns of plaintiffs and others by, inter alia, adding Section S, which provides some analysis of the effect of the proposed timber sales on the fungus and the Cedar. However, the revised EA also continued to refer to and rely on the Guidelines. 16 The BLM completed the Guidelines in 1994. The Guidelines describe strategies to minimize the spread of the fungus. These strategies have been incorporated by reference into a number of EISs and EAs in addition to the EIS for the Coos Bay RMP and the EAs for the Sandy-Remote Area, but the Guidelines themselves have never been subject to NEPA review. In 1995, a group of environmental organizations, including ONRC, filed suit alleging that the Guidelines were subject to NEPA review and required preparation of an EIS. In 1998, in Northcoast Environmental Center, we held that NEPA review and an EIS were not necessary for the Guidelines. We held first that the Guidelines did not constitute final agency action as required by the general review provision of the Administrative Procedure Act. See 136 F.3d at 669-70; see also 5 U.S.C. § 704; Lujan v. Nat'l Wildlife Fed'n, 497 U.S. 871, 882, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990). Additionally, we held that the promulgation of the Guidelines did not constitute a major federal action as required by § 102(2)(C) of NEPA, 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C). See Northcoast, 136 F.3d at 665. 17 However, we noted in Northcoast that although the Guidelines in and of themselves were not subject to NEPA, if they were incorporated into a specific agency action they would be subject to NEPA in the context of that action. We noted that [l]ong-range aims are quite different from concrete plans and specific undertakings such as the ... BLM's Resource Management Plans which the Secretaries have submitted for purposes of environmental analysis under NEPA. Id. at 668 (emphasis added). We also noted that we were not creating a `catch 22' situation in which the Guidelines would escape review under NEPA: 18 There is no reason plaintiffs cannot challenge the sufficiency of an agency EIS when a discrete agency action is called for. The agencies will be unable to shield their [Port Orford Cedar] program from NEPA review because they will not be able to avail themselves of the Council on Environmental Quality's tiering provision. 40 C.F.R. § 1502.20.... Furthermore, the Secretaries have stated their intentions to prepare an EIS when they propose to implement particular control strategies with environmental impacts. As we stated in [ Salmon River Concerned Citizens v. Robertson, 32 F.3d 1346 (9th Cir.1994)], judicial estoppel will prevent the Secretaries from arguing they have no further duty to consider their [Port Orford Cedar] management policies when site-specific programs are challenged. 32 F.3d at 1357-58. We assume that government agencies will ... comply with their NEPA obligations in later stages of development. Id. at 1358 19 136 F.3d at 670 (emphasis added).