Opinion ID: 3049493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Snag Retention

Text: [7] As we explained in Section I, supra, the Timbered Rock Project proposes substantial salvage logging in the acreage affected by the fire in an effort to recover economic value from the timber therein. The salvage would remove from the Elk Creek LSR a significant number of large, standing dead or dying trees, known as “snags.”11 This is significant because snags play an integral role in the ecology of old-growth forests. Indeed, the NFP expressly states: Tree mortality is an important and natural process within a forest ecosystem. Diseased and damaged trees and logs are key structural components of latesuccessional and old-growth forests. Salvage of dead trees affects the development of future stands and habitat quality for a number of organisms. Snag removal may result in long-term influences on forest stands because large snags are not produced in natural stands until trees become large and begin to die from natural mortality. Snags are used extensively by cavity-nesting birds and mammals such as wood- peckers, nuthatches, chickadees, squirrels, red tree voles, and American marten. Removal of snags fol- lowing disturbance can reduce the carrying capacity for these species for many years. NFP S&G at B-8; see also id. at B-9 (“[T]rees injured by disturbance may develop cavities, deformed crowns, and limbs which are habitat components for a variety of wildlife species.”). [8] Given the importance of snags in late-successional eco11 Specifically, the Project would only leave up to six snags per acre greater than twenty inches in diameter at breast height (“dbh”) in the research units, and between eight to twelve snags per acre greater than fourteen dbh in the non-research units. 8944 OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS systems, it is not surprising the NFP restricts removal of snags in LSRs. In fact, the NFP’s salvage guideline no. 3 expressly limits the removal of such snags: Snags provide a variety of habitat benefits for a variety of wildlife species associated with late- successional forests. Accordingly, following standreplacing disturbance, management should focus on retaining snags that are likely to persist until latesuccessional conditions have developed and the new stand is again producing large snags. Late- successional conditions are not associated with stands less than 80 years old. Id. at C-14 (emphasis added). Despite this clear directive against removing large snags (i.e., those likely to persist until late-successional conditions have developed), the BLM asserts that the Project, which entails the removal of a significant number of large snags in late-successional areas, is nonetheless consistent with the NFP. We disagree, and find the BLM’s reasoning lacking in multiple respects. The BLM asserts that removing a significant number of large snags is consistent with the NFP because leaving some large snags—between eight and twelve per acre in the nonresearch units—would provide sufficient habitat for species that rely upon large snags for survival (i.e., a “some-isenough” standard). The BLM supports this conclusion with data produced by the DecAID Wood Advisor. DecAID is a newly-developed model designed to “help managers evaluate effects[ ] of forest conditions and existing or proposed management activities on organisms that use snags and down wood.” Timbered Rock FEIS at D-16. However, “DecAID does not specifically address effects of fire,” id. at D-17, and it “is not intended to predict occurrence of wildlife species at the scale of individual forest stands or specific locations,” id. at D-19. OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS 8945 ONRC argues that the BLM’s use of DecAID is arbitrary and capricious,12 yet even if we assume, arguendo, that using DecAID is permissible, the BLM’s argument that the Project, in employing the model’s recommended snag-retention levels, complies with the NFP still fails for two principal reasons. First, the BLM can point to no part of the NFP to support its argument that using the some-is-enough standard satisfies the Plan. In light of the Plan’s clear directive against removing snags that will remain until the late-successional forest regenerates, this is not surprising. Indeed, the salvage guidelines expressly state that snags likely to persist “until latesuccessional conditions have developed and the new stand is again producing large snags” should not be removed. NFP S&G at C-14.13 Moreover, the importance of developing and retaining snags is emphasized in other parts of the NFP. For example, when discussing the role of silviculture in preserving LSRs, the Plan states that the “development of old-growth forest characteristics including snags” is a “principal objective.” NFP S&G at B-5. The Plan similarly states that “[d]esired late-successional and old-growth characteristics that will be created as younger stands change through successional devel12 The district court agreed with ONRC, finding the use of DecAID arbitrary and capricious and, therefore, a violation of NEPA. Because we find the Project’s proposal for retaining only “some” large snags a violation of the NFP, we need not decide whether the use of the model was itself unlawful. 13 Our dissenting colleague seems to suggest that the burden is on us to show that retaining “some snags is never enough.” Dissenting Opin. at 8958. However, by mandating that land management agencies must “focus on retaining” large snags, the Plan clearly places a burden on the BLM to (at least) explain how retaining only a handful of large snags per acre is sufficient to sustain late-successional habitat. The dissent’s colorful assertions notwithstanding, we do not “divine an ‘express limitation’ ” on removing large snags. Id. We merely endeavor to ensure that the BLM complies with the requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan and that its actions do not substitute economic interests for the paramount goal of preserving late-successional ecosystems. 8946 OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS opment include . . . moderate-to-high accumulations of large logs and snags.” Id. Again, the NFP’s emphasis on retaining snags in LSRs is not surprising given the Plan’s clear prioritization of preserving LSR ecosystems, see Section III.A, supra, and the key role snags play in that process. Second, the amount of large snag retention the BLM claims to be “enough” to satisfy the NFP is only achieved by averaging salvaged and non-salvaged areas together across all the acres included in the logging. The Timbered Rock FEIS states: The snags would be concentrated in portions of the units that receive no harvest. Approximately 1,004 acres would be included as harvest units, with 679 acres receiving harvest of all fire-killed trees and the remaining 325 acres retaining all trees, accounting for the 8-12 snags per acre. Timbered Rock FEIS at 3-112. Thus, the BLM’s representation that between eight and twelve large snags per acre will still be standing after the logging occurs is grossly misleading, as over two-thirds of the affected acreage will be completely stripped of all salvageable trees. The BLM’s attempt to dilute the effects of its proposed activities by averaging the snag retention over such a wide area is inconsistent with the NFP and improper under our precedent. See Pac. Coast Fed’n of Fishermen’s Ass’ns v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., 265 F.3d 1028, 1035-37 (9th Cir. 2001) (holding that an agency cannot try to “minimize” the environmental impact of an activity by simply adopting a scale of analysis so broad that it marginalizes the site-level impact of the activity on ecosystem health). In fact, if using such an approach was permitted, the Project could clear-cut all 1,004 acres and still claim to be retaining eight to twelve snags per acre by merely expanding the Project to “include” OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS 8947 more land.14 Clearly, this would be unreasonable, as any adverse environmental effect could be “diluted to insignificance.”15 Id. at 1036. Furthermore, even if the DecAID recommendations for snag density happen to approximate the density actually required to sustain late-successional forests, the BLM offers no evidence that a wide-scale averaging approach is compatible with these recommendations. The BLM notes it relied on two studies that recommended leaving snags in clumps rather than scattered across the landscape. The BLM does not explain, however, how it achieves the desired distribution of clumps by leaving roughly thirty large snags per acre in less than one-third of the land covered by the Project while clearcutting the remaining lion’s share. The BLM cites a specific passage in the NFP to support its argument that salvaging large snags at the level proposed in the Project is consistent with the Plan. The passage states: Salvage is not required to be beneficial, but is designed to permit the recovery of timber volume in those instances where catastrophic events clearly kill more trees (resulting in more snags and down logs in the short and long term) than are needed to maintain late-successional conditions. For example, if a major blowdown event leaves dead trees 15 feet deep over the landscape, a determination could be made that only a portion of those logs are needed to meet the 14 Although the dissent attempts to mitigate the illustrative import of this example by characterizing it as a “straw man,” Dissenting Opin. at 8958, the fact remains that averaging snag removal in this fashion is grossly misleading. 15 Justice Brandeis creatively captured the illogic of this approach: “I abhor averages. . . . A man may have six meals one day and none the next, making an average of three meals per day, but that is not a good way to live.” THE WORDS OF JUSTICE BRANDEIS 32 (Solomon Goldman ed., 1953). 8948 OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS objectives of the reserve. The rest . . . might be available for salvage. NFP ROD at 66. Thus, under certain limited circumstances, salvage can occur in LSRs; indeed, we noted this in Section III.A, supra. However, the BLM does not claim or offer evidence to demonstrate that the Timbered Rock Fire “clearly kill[ed] more trees than are needed to maintain latesuccessional conditions,” or that only a portion of dead trees “are needed to meet the objectives of the reserve.” Instead, the BLM relies on its some-is-enough argument without making the threshold findings required by the NFP. The BLM also cites the NFP’s statement that “some commercial wood volume removal” is permitted in LSRs. See NFP S&G at C-13. But again, the NFP clearly states that salvaging should be minimal, that environmental concerns ought to take priority over potential commercial benefits, and that large snags should be retained so as to ensure the development and preservation of late-successional habitat. Despite these numerous mandates emphasizing that logging snags should not harm LSRs, the BLM neglects to explain how the Timbered Rock Project avoids doing just that. [9] In sum, we require an agency to “present a rational connection between the facts found and the conclusions made.” Native Ecosystems, 418 F.3d at 960 (internal quotation marks omitted). The BLM’s decision to preserve a baseline number of snags is insufficient in a fundamental way: it neglects to explain why the snag removal it does authorize, which undisputably harms late-successional habitat in the short term, will somehow maintain overall habitat suitability now or in the future, as expressly required by the NFP. See NFP S&G at B-8, C-14. Consequently, the Timbered Rock Project violates FLPMA. OREGON NATURAL RESOURCES v. TIMBER PRODUCTS 8949