Opinion ID: 1359302
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Meet Ten Percent Standard

Text: The Forest Plan requires that at least ten percent of land below 5500 feet in elevation be in old-growth condition. Additionally, old growth must be spread evenly through most major drainages, and will represent the major forest types in each drainage. WildWest claims the KNF as a whole, and the challenged project areas individually, fall below the ten percent minimum. It also claims the Forest Service failed to disclose the relevant data. WildWest has properly raised this argument with respect to all nine site-specific projects. The latest available data, which appears in the Monitoring and Evaluation Report for Fiscal Years 2003-2004, indicates that 10.5% of total KNF lands below 5500 feet are designated effective old-growth. This alone would be sufficient to meet the standard set forth in the Forest Plan. When replacement old growth is included in the analysis, it reveals that 15.7% of the forest is in old-growth condition. The number would be higher still if undesignated old growth were included in this analysis. [2] The Monitoring and Evaluation Report concludes: the Forest is meeting its Forest Plan requirement for designating 10% [] old growth habitat well distributed across KNF lands below 5,500 feet elevation. This conclusion is also true for the nine challenged projects. Counting only designated old growth, the record reveals that five of the nine site-specific projects Pipestone, South McSwede, West Troy, McSutten, and Lower Big Creekmeet the ten percent standard based on effective old growth alone. The other four Bristow, Fortine, Alder Creek, and Cow Creekexceed the ten percent standard when both effective and replacement old growth are included. Again, the numbers are higher still when undesignated old growth areas are considered. Because we conclude that designation of replacement old growth is proper under the Forest Plan, then all nine projects were in compliance with the ten percent standard as of the date of the project studies. The projects authorize no commercial harvesting of designated effective old growth, and only limited amounts of harvesting in undesignated areas. Completion of these projects would therefore have no impact on whether the KNF as a whole meets the ten percent standard. Therefore, approval of these projects was lawful under the Forest Plan.