Opinion ID: 221481
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overview Of The Federal Regulatory Structure

Text: The Forest Service, an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, manages the National Forest System. See Utah Envtl. Congress v. Richmond, 483 F.3d 1127, 1131 (10th Cir.2007). Among the laws governing that management is the NFMA, which requires the Forest Service to develop, maintain, and, as appropriate, revise land and resource management plans for units of the National Forest System. 16 U.S.C. § 1604(a). Those plans, commonly known as forest plans, guide all natural resource management activities. See 36 C.F.R. § 219.1(a). They must provide for multiple uses of the forests, and include coordination of outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness. 16 U.S.C. § 1604(e)(1). All resource plans and permits, contracts, and other instruments for use and occupancy of the National Forest lands must be consistent with the governing forest plan. See id. § 1604(i). The BLM, which is in the Department of the Interior, administers oil and gas leases on federal land. See 30 U.S.C. § 226; Wyoming Outdoor Council v. Bosworth, 284 F.Supp.2d 81, 81-83 (D.D.C.2003). For land within the National Forest System, however, a lease may not be issued over the objection of the Forest Service, see 30 U.S.C. § 226(h), and the Forest Service regulates surface-disturbing activity on the leasehold, see id. § 226(g); Bosworth, 284 F.Supp.2d at 82-83. The Forest Service and BLM are subject to NEPA, which requires federal agencies to examine and disclose the environmental impacts of their proposed actions, Richmond, 483 F.3d at 1133. It has twin aims: First, it places upon an agency the obligation to consider every significant aspect of the environmental impact of a proposed action. Second, it ensures that the agency will inform the public that it has indeed considered environmental concerns in its decisionmaking process. Under NEPA, before an agency may take major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, [it] must prepare an environmental impact statement ... in which [it] considers the environmental impacts of the proposed action and evaluates alternatives to the proposed action, including the option of taking no action. In doing so, the agency must take a hard look at information relevant to its decision. Forest Guardians v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., 611 F.3d 692, 711 (10th Cir.2010) (citations, brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). NEPA imposes only procedural requirements.... Richmond, 483 F.3d at 1133. It does not mandat[e] that agencies achieve particular substantive environmental results. Marsh v. Oregon Natural Res. Council, 490 U.S. 360, 371, 109 S.Ct. 1851, 104 L.Ed.2d 377 (1989). Nor does it require the court to fly speck the [EIS], but rather, to make a pragmatic judgment whether the [EIS]'s form, content and preparation foster both informed decision-making and informed public participation. Custer Cnty. Action Ass'n v. Garvey, 256 F.3d 1024, 1035 (10th Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks omitted).