Opinion ID: 170421
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: NFMA and the Forest Plan

Text: UEC maintains the Forest Service failed to adhere to its selected methodology for evaluating the presence of old growth forest and thus failed to satisfy old growth requirements set out in the Forest Plan. As the EA notes, the Project's proposed tree harvest is expected to reduce old growth. Aplt. App., vol. 6 at 2471. The Forest Plan provides that [s]even to ten percent [of each drainage] should be managed as old growth. Aplt. App., vol. 1 at 141. The Forest Service sought to catalog existing old growth areas to establish a baseline for examining the effects of the proposed action. To this end, the Forest Service selected the Hamilton methodology [8] for identifying old growth forest. Hamilton establishes empirical standards for classifying forests as old-growth, including tree diameter, age and density, number of canopy layers, and presence and characteristics of dead and decadent trees. See Aple. Supp. App., tab 3. In this case, each drainage was delineated into stands and evaluated as to old growth qualification. Aplt. App., vol. 6 at 2470. The administrative record includes a table listing individual stands in the drainages and identifies each as either old growth or non-old growth forest. See Aplt. App., vol. 3 at 1076-1121. More specifically, the table includes a single column relating to old-growth classification marked with either a Y for yes, old growth, or left blank to indicate the absence of old growth. Id. Additionally, a separate table providing greater statistical detail characterizes the trees within the Project area. This multi-column spreadsheet presents data for each individual Hamilton evaluation criterion for all stands in the Project area. See Aplt. App., vol. 4 at 1278-80. In its complaint in the district court, UEC asserted only that the Forest Service violated the Forest Plan because it failed to determine whether the requisite amount of old growth exists by drainage. Aplt. App., vol. 1 at 37. See also Mem. in Supp. of Mot. for UEC's Olenhouse Mot. at 22 ([T]he Forest [Service] has failed to determine whether sufficient old growth exists by drainage[, and b]ecause the Forest Plan demands that old growth be determined by drainage it has violated its Forest Plan and the NFMA.). Both the administrative record and the EA contradict this claim. As noted above, the record includes a table identifying the old growth character of each stand, see Aplt. App., vol. 3 at 1076-1121, and the EA presented a chart entitled Old Growth by Drainage, detailing the acreage of old growth present in each drainage. Aplt. App., vol. 6 at 2471. Thus, the record indisputably demonstrates the Forest Service determined the amount of old growth by drainage as required by the Forest Plan. On appeal, UEC alleges two flaws in the Forest Service's old growth conclusions. First, UEC argues the record fails to present the underlying data for each individual Hamilton element that would have enabled the Forest Service to reach a reasoned final old growth conclusion as to stands in the broader area. Aplt. Br. at 30-31. Second, UEC asserts that even where the underlying data was provided for the Project area, several of the stands were classified as old growth notwithstanding the fact that they did not meet all of the minimum criteria. Id. at 32. In both regards, UEC contends the Forest Service has therefore failed to reach a reasoned, non-arbitrary conclusion as to the presence of old growth forest in the drainage area. UEC's argument on appeal differs markedly from the old growth claim it presented to the district court. There, UEC asserted the Forest Service failed to determine old growth by drainage. By contrast, it now acknowledges that old growth was identified by drainage, but asserts these old growth classifications were not supported by adequate data. Reply Br. at 12. Generally, we do not consider issues not presented to, considered and decided by the trial court, Lyons v. Jefferson Bank & Trust, 994 F.2d 716, 721 (10th Cir.1993) (brackets omitted) (quoting Cavic v. Pioneer Astro Indus., 825 F.2d 1421, 1425 (10th Cir., 1987)), because an appellant's new argument gives rise to a host of new issues, and [Appellee] had no opportunity to present evidence it may have thought relevant to these issues. Bancamerica Commercial Corp. v. Mosher Steel of Kan., Inc., 100 F.3d 792, 799 (10th Cir.1996), modified on other grounds, 103 F.3d 80 (10th Cir.1996). In this case, if UEC had raised its present assertion in the district court, the Forest Service would have had the opportunity to respond by producing additional data or explaining its data gathering procedures in greater detail. See Lyons, 994 F.2d at 720 (We have no idea what evidence, if any, the opposing party would, or could offer . . ., but this is only because it has had no opportunity to proffer such evidence.) (brackets omitted) (quoting Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 120, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976)). Because UEC did not raise the claim below, we do not consider its present contentions that the Forest Service's calculations of old growth acreage by drainage were arbitrary.
Lastly, UEC asserts the Forest Service failed to ensure the viability of the goshawk, an old growth dependent species. UEC begins this argument by contending that the Forest Service failed to use the best available science standard in determining the effects of the Project on the goshawk and its habitat. Alternatively, UEC asserts that even if the best available science standard was employed, the Forest Service failed to comply with the substantive requirements of the science. Both parties agree that the Forest Service was required to operate under the best available science standard when dealing with management indicator species, as we held in UEC V, 483 F.3d at 1132. The Dixie Forest Plan was adopted in 1986 and, as we noted above, it was in March 2000 that the Goshawk Amendment was added to it to include the Conservation Strategy. The Decision Notice for the Barney Top Project was issued in August 2004. UEC contends this case is governed by Ecology Center., 451 F.3d at 1192, where this court determined that the Forest Service's decision to implement a challenged project was arbitrary and capricious because the Service did not consider or mention the best available science standard during the administrative process. The record here, however, is markedly different. In contrast to the record in Ecology Center, the record in the present case makes clear that the Forest Service not only recognized the Conservation Strategy as the best available science governing the preservation of the goshawk, but that it was also guided by this standard throughout the administrative process. In amending the Utah forest plans to incorporate the Conservation Strategy, the Forest Service expressly found that the Conservation Strategy was based on the best available scientific information specific to forested habitats in Utah. See Aple. Supp. App. at 14. The Service further noted that the recommendations in the Reynolds and Graham Reports regarding the goshawk, and embodied in the Conservation Strategy, are most appropriate for the situation in Utah. See id. at 9-10. Finally, the signatory agencies  the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources  all agreed that the Conservation Strategy represents the best available scientific information on the northern goshawk and its use of the habitat in the State of Utah. Aple. Add. at 8-9. In the years following the adoption of the Conservation Strategy, the Forest Service has reaffirmed its view that the Strategy is based on the best available science. For example, in 2004, in the LIFE HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF ENDANGERED, THREATENED, CANDIDATE, SENSITIVE, AND MANAGEMENT INDICATOR SPECIES OF THE DIXIE NATIONAL FOREST the Forest Service noted again that the Conservation Strategy is the best science available on goshawk management in Utah. Aplt. App., vol. 5 at 2044. See also id. at 2095 (referring to the Conservation as the best science available on goshawk management in Utah). Even this court has noted the unchallenged status of the Reynolds Report as the best available science. Ecology Ctr., 451 F.3d at 1188. Having acknowledged that the Conservation Strategy was the best available science, the Forest Service considered it throughout its decision on the Barney Top Project. For example, in the EA for the Project, the Conservation Strategy, or the reports encompassed therein, are mentioned numerous times. See Aplt. App., vol. 6 at p. 2387, 2388, 2404-05, 2466, 2467-68, 2482, 2483, 2534, 2535, 2591, 2593. Unlike the record in Ecology Center, this record makes it abundantly clear that the Forest Service was considering the best available science when it evaluated how the Project would affect the goshawk and its habitat. Although the Forest Service did not specifically cite the 2000 regulation requiring application of the best available science standard in its Decision Notice, the administrative record establishes that the agency considered the best available science through its attention to the Conservation Strategy, which was added by the Goshawk Amendment to the Dixie National Forest Plan before the 2000 regulations became effective. The Decision Notice explicitly references the Goshawk Amendment, which itself bound the Forest Service to consider the best available science by its incorporation of the Conservation Strategy. We thus have no cause to remand for consideration of the Project under the appropriate standard as we did in Ecology Center [9] Finally, we assess whether the Forest Service complied with the substantive requirements of the best available science standard. First, UEC asserts the Project is in direct conflict with the management recommendations and science advocated in the Reynolds Report for management of the goshawk. Id. at 36. Second, UEC contends implementation of the Project will significantly reduce the availability of suitable goshawk habitat, thus undermining the Forest Service's FONSI. Third, UEC argues the Forest Service violated the Forest Plan by failing to change management direction in light of a decrease in the goshawk population. After reviewing the record, we disagree with these contentions. Addressing UEC's first two concerns, we begin by noting the Dixie National Forest encompasses over 654,000 acres of potentially suitable goshawk habitat, but no goshawks were observed in the Project area during surveys from 2001-2004. Aplt. App., vol. 6 at 2535. Moreover, no treatments are planned in the nest and post-fledgling habitat in the Project area. Thus, the effects of the Project only concern foraging habitats. Id. at 2535. We reiterate that the purpose of the Project, as is clear from the EA, is to improve goshawk habitat in accordance with the Conservation Strategy. See, e.g., Aplt. App., vol. 6 at 2387, 2388, 2404-05, 2466, 2467-68, 2482, 2483, 2534, 2535, 2591, 2593. The reason the habitat needs improvement is that the spruce beetle infestation which was first discovered in 2000 has since reached epidemic levels. Significantly, the older the tree, the greater its susceptibility to spruce beetle infestation. To achieve the levels of old growth trees dictated by the Reynolds Report, the Forest Service must control the spruce beetle infestation, and that requires ridding the Project area of some older growth trees. [10] The Project's 643 acres of thinning, sanitation, and salvage harvest will result in short-term loss of 78 acres of the 5,400 acres of goshawk foraging habitat in the Project area. What the Forest Service considers more important, however, is the long-term gain in suitable goshawk habitat. By improving the potential for old growth and reducing the risk of loss of those trees from beetle infestation, the Project will heighten the possibility of reaching the percentages of old growth trees prescribed in the Reynolds Report. In fact, the Forest Service determined that failure to undertake the project would have a long-term negative impact on the goshawk due to increased losses of older growth trees caused by the continuing spread of the spruce beetle. Tellingly, even UEC has acknowledged that the Project will have significant positive cumulative effects on the goshawk habitat and populations. . . . Aplt. App., vol. 7 at 2662. Given this evidence, we are not persuaded that the Project conflicts with the Reynolds Report. Rather, as the record demonstrates, the Project actually strives to meet the goals set forth in the Conservation Strategy for the preservation of the goshawk. Id. at 2466 (The design of the various vegetation treatments is based on moving the area towards desired future condition[s] for aspen and spruce/fir habitat (Reynolds, 1992; Graham and others, 1999; LRMP. . . . )). Accordingly, the FONSI correctly concluded that there was no significant environmental impact on the suitable goshawk habitat. Concerning UEC's complaint that the Forest Plan failed to change management direction in light of a decrease in goshawk population, the record does not support UEC's argument. Initially, we note that the decrease in the overall population of goshawks is due to drought and other environmental factors such as the spruce beetle epidemic, not forest management activities. [11] Despite being faced with factors beyond its control, the Forest Service has attempted management changes that address the declining goshawk population. The most obvious change was the Goshawk Amendment to the Plan to include the Conservation Strategy, the best available science for maintaining goshawk populations and habitat. Moreover, the Project itself also represents a change in management direction. With the Project, the Forest Service has proposed measures to improve goshawk habitat for the long term and thereby increase the population of goshawks. UEC's argument ignores these efforts. The Goshawk Amendment and the Project efforts to improve the goshawk habitat by ensuring potential old growth and maintaining current foraging habitat demonstrate the Forest Service's management activities are appropriately addressing concerns regarding the decrease in the goshawk population. [12] Given the Forest Service's rationale for the Project and its consideration and compliance with the best available science standard in approving the Project, its decision as it pertains to the goshawk and its habitat is not arbitrary and capricious. For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM.