Opinion ID: 3050627
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Highly Controversial and Risks Uncertain

Text: [10] The Forest Service also erred in assessing significance by failing to consider the extent to which the impact of the fuels reduction projects on the environment was highly controversial and the risks uncertain. See 40 C.F.R. § 1508.27; Jones, 792 F.2d at 828. A proposal is highly controversial when “substantial questions are raised as to whether a project . . . may cause significant degradation of some human environmental factor,” Nw. Envtl. Def. Ctr. v. Bonneville Power Admin., 117 F.3d 1520, 1536 (9th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation marks omitted), or there is a “substantial dispute [about] the size, nature, or effect of the major Federal action,” Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, 161 F.3d at 1212 (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). “A substantial dispute exists when evidence, raised prior to the preparation of an EIS or FONSI, casts serious doubt upon the reasonableness of an agency’s conclusions.” Nat’l Parks & Conservation Ass’n, 241 F.3d at 736 (citation omitted). [11] Here, the comments of several federal and state agencies submitted in response to the Fuels CE raised substantial questions as to whether the project would cause significant environmental harm and expressed serious concerns about the uncertain risk, size, nature, and effects of actions under the CE. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) stated that reconstruction of decommissioned roads or creSIERRA CLUB v. BOSWORTH 15955 ation of temporary roads could increase road density, decrease wolf security habitat and grizzly bear core area, and contribute to increased sedimentation rate in streams. The FWS further questioned the need for a categorical exclusion, stating that it “supports the intent of the Healthy Forest Initiative, but believes the existing NEPA processes are a useful and necessary tool to analyze the full environmental effects of most hazardous fuels reduction projects.” The FWS also expressed concern that “efforts to streamline these analyses should not results [sic] in a process counter to the basic premise of NEPA — public disclosure.” The Arizona Game and Fish Department (“AGFD”) noted that fuel reduction activities have a higher likelihood of affecting the environment than rehabilitation/stabilization activities, yet the Forest Service data call does not adequately identify the nature or scope of individual projects to allow for a more detailed evaluation. AGFD pointed out that a recent Forest Service timber sale proposed as a means to reduce fuel loading provided for the cutting of large-diameter ponderosa pine trees, even though ponderosa pine is a fire-resistant tree species. AGFD also disputed the Forest Service’s determination that the Fuels CE would cause no significant impacts and identified five of the ten evaluation criteria for significance that are implicated by the Fuels CE, including highly uncertain risks on forest structure, wildlife species, exotic species invasion, erosion/sedimentation, and wildlife disease transmission. The AGFD further commented that it was “concerned about making hazardous fuels reduction and rehabilitation/ stabilization actions for categorical exclusion.” The AGFD expressed other concerns, including: “the types of activities that will be categorically excluded; the lack of limitations on the scope and scale of such activities; the lack of monitoring of effects of the categorical exclusions on non-listed wildlife species and habitats; and the over-all general nature of the categorical exclusion language.” 15956 SIERRA CLUB v. BOSWORTH The California Resources Agency (“CRA”) commented that the Forest Service has not evaluated the impacts of understory treatments on native plants and animals, and noted that the brush to be removed in California under fuels reduction is a significant component of fire-adapted ecosystems. The CRA also cited a scientific article which finds that the effects of thinning on wildlife and habitat are negative for at least 10 years, and unknown in the long-term. The CRA concluded that “[a] significant amount of uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of treatments on reduced risk and habitat use remain.” In addition, the CRA expressed disapproval of the use of a categorical exclusion not requiring full NEPA review, concluding that “the proposal could lead to significant degradation of public forestland in the state, especially when considered in combination with the many other federal forest policy proposals pending on both the state and regional levels.” The CRA explained that “[f]uel reduction projects will require trade-offs that need analysis and debate by the public and decision-makers; and this is the very purpose for which Congress passed, and President Nixon signed, the National Environmental Policy Act.” [12] The Forest Service failed to meet its burden to provide a “well-reasoned explanation” demonstrating that these responses to the Fuels CE “do not suffice to create a public controversy based on potential environmental consequences.” Nat’l Parks & Conservation Ass’n, 241 F.3d at 736 (internal quotation marks omitted). Given the large number of comments, close to 39,000, and the strong criticism from several affected Western state agencies, we cannot summarily conclude that the effects of the Fuels CE are not controversial. See id. (stating that 450 comments, with 85% negative, was “more than sufficient to meet the outpouring of public protest” test (internal quotation marks omitted)); Sierra Club v. U.S. Forest Serv., 843 F.2d 1190, 1193 (9th Cir. 1988) (Forest Service awarded timber contracts containing groves of giant SIERRA CLUB v. BOSWORTH 15957 sequoia redwoods without preparing an EIS; after evidence from numerous experts showing the EA’s inadequacies and casting serious doubt on the Forest Service’s conclusions, we held that this was “precisely the type of ‘controversial’ action for which an EIS must be prepared”). The Forest Service must address these issues prior to promulgating the Fuels CE.