Opinion ID: 764212
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Assessment of Cumulative Impacts under NEPA

Text: 46 We first address the Tribe's contention that the Forest Service failed to consider the cumulative impact of the exchange. A cumulative impact is defined as: 47 [T]he impact on the environment which results from the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency (Federal or non-Federal) or person undertakes such other actions. Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively significant actions taking place over a period of time. 48 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7. 49 Regulations implementing NEPA require that a federal agency consider [c]umulative actions, which when viewed with other proposed actions have cumulatively significant impacts and should therefore be discussed in the same impact statement. 40 C.F.R. § 1508.25(a)(2). 50 In City of Carmel-By-The-Sea v. U.S. Dept. of Transp., 123 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir.1997), we noted that an EIS must catalogue adequately the relevant past projects in the area. Id. at 1160. It must also include a useful analysis of the cumulative impacts of past, present and future projects. Id. This requires discussion of how [future] projects together with the proposed ... project will affect [the environment]. Id. The EIS must analyze the combined effects of the actions in sufficient detail to be useful to the decisionmaker in deciding whether, or how, to alter the program to lessen cumulative impacts. Id. at 1160 (internal citations omitted). Detail is therefore required in describing the cumulative effects of a proposed action with other proposed actions. Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain, 137 F.3d at 1379; see also Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project v. Blackwood, 161 F.3d 1208, 1214-15 (9th Cir.1998). 51 The Tribe contends that the EIS gives inadequate consideration to the cumulative impacts of logging on the 1984 Alpine Lakes Exchange lands, of existing logging and other disturbances in the Green River watershed, and of a future land exchange with the Plum Creek Timber Company that involves lands in the same vicinity as the Huckleberry Mountain Exchange. The district court held that the Forest Service did not need to consider the 1984 Alpine Lake Exchange because it was part of the baseline environment and, as such, was considered in the EIS for the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, as amended by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (LRMP). The district court also held that the Plum Creek exchange was too uncertain to require a discussion of cumulative effects. We do not agree with those conclusions. 52 Appellees urge that because the final EIS for the Huckleberry Exchange is tiered to the LRMP, it sufficiently analyzes the cumulative impacts of the Exchange. 53 Tiering is defined as: 54 [T]he coverage of general matters in broader environmental impact statements (such as national program or policy statements) with subsequent narrower statements or environmental analyses (such as regional or basinwide program statements or ultimately site-specific statements) incorporating by reference the general discussions and concentrating solely on the issues specific to the statement subsequently prepared. 55 40 C.F.R. § 1508.28; see also 40 C.F.R. § 1502.20. 56 We have previously interpreted the regulations to allow tiering only to another environmental impact statement. Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, 161 F.3d at 1214; see also 40 C.F.R. § 1508.28. The Huckleberry Exchange EIS is tiered erroneously to the Forest Plan, not the EIS for the Forest Plan. Our review of the Forest Plan and its accompanying EIS reveals that those documents do not account for the specific impacts of the Exchange and do not remedy the Forest Service's failure to account for the impacts of the Exchange in the Huckleberry Exchange EIS. See e.g., Resources Ltd. v. Robertson, 35 F.3d 1300, 1306 (9th Cir.1993) (specific analysis is better done when a specific development action is to be taken, not at the programmatic level.). 57 The LRMP EIS, prepared in 1990, was prepared before the Huckleberry Exchange lands were identified with any certainty. The concept of the Huckleberry exchange was mentioned only in a pool of possible projects that would help meet the goals of the Forest Plan. There was no detail concerning those projects and their impacts. The proposed Exchange simply was not concrete enough to allow for adequate analysis. Moreover, the LRMP EIS did not analyze the impact of increased logging on the parcels that had been transferred out of federal ownership in the 1984 Alpine Lakes Exchange. Many of those parcels are in the same vicinity as the old growth forest lands the Forest Service transferred to Weyerhaeuser. If we were to adopt the Forest Service's approach, the cumulative impacts of land exchanges would escape environmental review. 58 The problem is compounded by the very general and one-sided analysis of the cumulative impact information that the Huckleberry Exchange EIS does contain. While the district court was correct in observing that there are twelve sections entitled 'cumulative effects,'  these sections merely provide very broad and general statements devoid of specific, reasoned conclusions. 59 For example, the cumulative impact statement regarding the impact of alternatives two and three on natural vegetation simply indicates the amount of land to be exchanged, and whether or not the land will be subject to commercial harvest. It then concludes: 60 Under Alternatives two and three, the Forest Service would manage for non-harvest uses an additional 16,735 (16,876 under Alternative 3) acres of young forest and non-forest vegetation. Most of this acreage ... would over time develop greater species diversity and stand structure. 61 The statement notably contains no evaluation whatsoever of the impact on natural resources of timber harvesting on the lands transferred to Weyerhaeuser, nor does it assess the possible impacts that such harvesting could have upon surrounding areas. The statement focuses solely on the beneficial impact the exchange will have on lands received by the Forest Service. All of those described benefits are contingent on appropriate Forest Service action and funds to promote the recovery of the harvested lands that it will acquire. This lopsided analysis is repeated in virtually every cumulative impact statement throughout the EIS. 62 We hold that the cumulative impact statements that are provided in the EIS are far too general and one-sided to meet the NEPA requirements. See Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain 137 F.3d at 1379. The statements fall far short of a useful analysis as required by City of Carmel, 123 F.3d at 1160. See also Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, 161 F.3d at 1214-15. 63 The appellees also attempt to tier the Exchange EIS to the Green River Watershed Report to cure the deficiencies of the cumulative impact analysis of the Exchange EIS. Such reliance is impermissible under the NEPA regulations, which only permit tiering to prior EIS's. 40 C.F.R. §§ 1502.20 and 1508.28. 64 The analysis in the Green River Watershed Report, even if appropriately allowed as a tiering document, demonstrates the need for a more thorough cumulative impact analysis. The Green River Watershed Report explicitly states that the watershed area was degraded by logging prior to the Huckleberry exchange. The Report cautions that future exchanges should be sensitive to the need to avoid additional environmental degradation. Moreover, the Report covers only a portion of the area affected by the Exchange. The Huckleberry EIS should have analyzed the cumulative effects of the logging incident to this exchange upon that damaged watershed area in conjunction with the other degradation mentioned in that document. 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7; see also Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain, 137 F.3d at 1378. The EIS performs no such analysis. It fails to evaluate the near term impacts of Weyerhaeuser's logging of old growth timber in any meaningful fashion. Therefore, even if the Exchange EIS could be tiered to the Watershed Report, the Watershed Report is only the starting point for the required analysis. It does not fill the gaps in the Exchange EIS. 65 Plaintiffs also contend that the EIS failed to analyze adequately the cumulative effects of a future land exchange involving Plum Creek Timber Company that, according to plaintiffs, was reasonably foreseeable at the time the Exchange EIS was prepared. An agency must analyze the incremental impact of the action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions.... 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7 (emphasis added). The district court determined that the Plum Creek Exchange was too speculative to require analysis. 66 Our review of the record suggests that the Plum Creek transaction was not remote or highly speculative. Rather, it was reasonably foreseeable and it should have been considered in the EIS. A summary of the proposed Plum Creek transaction already had been prepared by the Forest Service by 1995. On June 27, 1996, five months before the Huckleberry EIS was issued, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman formally announced the proposed Plum Creek Exchange to the public. USDA Press Release (June 27, 1996), at 1. 67 Moreover, the record reflects that the Forest Service was all but certain that the National Forest lands in the upper Green River Basin would be included in the Plum Creek exchange. The Huckleberry Exchange EIS was issued in November 1996. In July 1996, the Green River Watershed plan described the Plum Creek exchange, and in January 1997, two months after the Huckleberry Exchange EIS issued, a revised map showing lands to be exchanged in the Plum Creek Exchange was published. The Plum Creek Exchange was not too speculative in November, 1996, to be analyzed in the Huckleberry Exchange EIS. 68 Given the virtual certainty of the transaction and its scope, the Forest Service was required under NEPA to evaluate the cumulative impacts of the Plum Creek transaction. See La Flamme v. Federal Energy Regulatory Comm'n, 852 F.2d 389, 401 (9th Cir.1988); Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain, 137 F.3d at 1379. In the absence of an EIS that takes into consideration the cumulative effects of the planned land sales and resultant environmental impacts, we cannot conclude that the Forest Service took the necessary hard look at the cumulative environmental impacts of the Huckleberry Exchange. See Blue Mountain, 161 F.3d at 1216. 69 Nor can the Forest Service's inappropriate use of tiering meet the requirements of the NEPA. While the LRMP EIS, which was completed in 1990, does mention the Plum Creek Exchange, it expressly indicates that at that time, its effects were too speculative to gauge. The tiering of documents that do not perform the required cumulative impact analysis falls far short of the standard articulated in Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain. In 1996, when the Huckleberry Exchange EIS was completed, the Plum Creek Exchange had moved well beyond mere speculation. The Forest Service abused its discretion in ignoring the impacts of that exchange. 70