Opinion ID: 170421
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Old Growth Forest

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.