Opinion ID: 1359302
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Disclose Inadequacy of Old-Growth Habitat

Text: Finally, WildWest argues that the Forest Service violated NEPA by failing to disclose in NEPA documents that the KNF no longer has adequate habitat to support a viable population of pileated woodpeckers. This is a variation of its argument that the Forest Service failed to disclose and respond to the Lesica study, which concluded a higher level of old growth existed prior to European settlement. Both formulations of this argument fail. As discussed above, the Forest Service has provided a rational basis for its choice of a ten percent old growth minimum. Moreover, an agency need not respond to every single scientific study or comment. See Lands Council II, 537 F.3d at 1001-02. WildWest claims that Center for Biological Diversity v. United States Forest Service, 349 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2003), requires the Forest Service to disclose and respond to the Lesica study because the evidence directly challenge[d] the scientific basis upon which the Final EIS rest[ed]. Id. at 1167. As discussed above, however, the Lesica study did not directly challenge the Forest Service's conclusion that ten percent old growth was sufficient to sustain viable populations of old-growth species. The record reveals the Forest Service took the requisite hard look at and disclosed the relevant available information in setting the ten percent standard.