Opinion ID: 788487
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: West Side Packers

Text: 46 Intervenors argue that facts specific to the west side packers 7 show that the injunctive relief was overbroad as applied to those operators. 47 The district court recognized that the Sierra National Forest prepared EAs before issuing permit renewals for the High Sierra Pack Station and the D & F Pack Station. Acknowledging these efforts, the district court carved out an exemption to the mandated 20% reduction in service days to the injunctive relief order, finding that D & F Pack Station and High Sierra Pack Station are exempt from this reduction because the Forest Service has already conducted environmental analyses for those pack stations. 48 Intervenors argue that because the Sierra National Forest complied with NEPA in issuing the special-use permits to D & F and High Sierra Pack Stations, they should be excluded from all the limitations. We disagree. 49 As mentioned previously, the district court has broad discretion in granting equitable relief. The injunctive relief order recognizes that the Forest Service has prepared EAs for the two pack stations. However, it also recognizes that in the overall management practices of wilderness areas, the Forest Service failed to consider the cumulative impact of the multiple pack stations operating over a substantially similar area. Further, the Forest Service acknowledges that the issuance of special-use permits constitutes a major Federal action which requires that the agency complete an EIS, not just an EA. 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C). We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the injunctive relief order on the D & F and High Sierra Pack Stations. 8 50 Intervenors also argue that since the remaining west side operators, the Clyde Pack Outfitters, Lost Valley Pack Station, Minarets Pack Station, and the Yosemite Trails Pack Station account for only about half of the service days in the wilderness, the impact of these operations is not significant and, therefore, falls outside the requirements of NEPA. This argument misses the point. The Forest Service is required to make the necessary determination of whether an EA or EIS needs to be completed in order to comply with NEPA. The agency has admitted noncompliance with NEPA, and, further, the requirement that an EIS be prepared for every special-use permit is not an abuse of the district court's discretion. The effects of the individual pack operators may very well be de minimis, but the agency has failed to make this evaluation and has failed to make findings regarding the cumulative impacts of these pack stations operating in the same areas. Cumulative impacts that result from individually minor but collectively significant actions are the crux of what the regulations implementing NEPA seek to avoid. See 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7; Earth Island Inst. v. United States Forest Serv., 351 F.3d 1291, 1306-07 (9th Cir.2003). The district court's imposition of the injunctive relief order on the west side packers was not in error. Because the district court did not abuse its discretion and did not rely on erroneous legal principles, we affirm the injunctive relief order in full.