Opinion ID: 3054099
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cumulative Effects Analysis

Text: LOWD first claims that the Forest Service failed to consider adequately the cumulative environmental effects of other timber sales and grazing in the Project planning area. The Forest Service responds that its responsibility is to consider cumulative effects in the aggregate rather than on an individual basis, and that the FSEIS contains a sufficient discussion of cumulative effects to satisfy the agency’s duty under NEPA. We conclude that the Forest Service may aggregate its cumulative effects analysis, and that it properly did so with respect to grazing and future timber sales. However, we find the aggregated cumulative effects analysis of past timber sales deficient because the Forest Service failed to include the relevant inputs in the FSEIS itself. [1] NEPA provides that a federal agency that proposes a “major Federal action[ ] significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” must prepare a detailed EIS on the proposed action, including an analysis of “alternatives to the proposed action” and a discussion of the significant environmental impacts. 42 U.S.C. § 4332(2)(C). To comply with this requirement, the Forest Service must consider, among other things, the “cumulative impacts” of the proposed action, which NEPA’s implementing regulations define as the “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.” 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7. 16214 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS

LOWD contends that the cumulative effects analysis in the FSEIS regarding past timber sales is insufficient because it “only mentions one . . . past timber sale, the Summit timber sale,” and otherwise generally “states that timber harvest has occurred in the past.” The Forest Service counters that, under its reading of Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen, 541 U.S. 752 (2004), “agencies can conduct an adequate cumulative effects analysis by focusing on the current aggregate effects of past actions.”
In rejecting LOWD’s past-timber-sales arguments, the district court agreed with the Forest Service’s interpretation of Public Citizen: The Supreme Court recently construed [the cumulative effects] regulation and found it required an evaluation of the incremental impact of the project at issue rather than focusing on the incremental impacts attributable to each of the past, present and reasonably foreseeable future actions in the planning area. Dep’t of Transportation v. Public Citizen, 541 U.S. 752, 769-70 (2004). Thus, the Court in Public Citizen approved an agency’s approach that considers the effects of past actions in the aggregate, and explained that actions need not be considered separately and distinctly when analyzing cumulative effects. The district court then concluded, without elaboration or citation to the record, that “the FSEIS discusses cumulative effects from past vegetation management activities in the watershed to a sufficient degree.” LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 16215 This reading of Public Citizen is inaccurate. In that case, the Court addressed the narrow issue of whether NEPA “require[d] the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to evaluate the environmental effects of crossborder operations of Mexican-domiciled motor carriers” when FMCSA merely promulgated administrative rules implementing a presidential order “allow[ing] such border-crossing activities to occur.” Public Citizen, 541 U.S. at 756, 766. In concluding that NEPA lacked such a requirement, the Court did state that “[t]he ‘cumulative impact’ regulation required FMCSA to consider the ‘incremental impact’ of the safety rules themselves, in the context of the [presidential order] and other relevant circumstances,” not “to treat the [presidential order] itself, or consequences from the [order].” Id. at 669-70 (quoting 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7). Nevertheless, the Court emphasized twice that its analysis and holding were limited to the “critical feature” of the case—i.e., that FMCSA lacked authority to countermand the presidential order allowing Mexican carriers into the United States, id. at 766, 770—and subsequent Ninth Circuit cases have limited their application of Public Citizen on that basis. See, e.g., Or. Natural Res. Council Fund v. Brong, 492 F.3d 1120, 1134 n.20 (9th Cir. 2007) (holding that “Public Citizen’s limitation on NEPA does not apply” where an agency has statutory authority to prevent the relevant effects). Accordingly, because the Forest Service has statutory authority to regulate the environmental consequences of the Project, Public Citizen does not support the agency’s position. [2] We conclude, however, that a different source does permit the Forest Service to consider cumulative effects in the aggregate. During the summary judgment proceedings, the Forest Service introduced a June 24, 2005 memorandum issued by the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), entitled “Guidance on Consideration of Past Actions in Cumulative Effects Analysis.” This CEQ memorandum advises that “[a]gencies are not required to list or analyze the effects of individual past actions unless such 16216 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS information is necessary to describe the cumulative effects of all past actions combined.” Instead, the memorandum explains, “agencies can conduct an adequate cumulative effects analysis by focusing on the current aggregate effects of past actions without delving into the historical details of individual past actions.” The magistrate judge struck the CEQ memorandum from the record, characterizing it as a “post-hoc rationalization” with no relevance to judicial review of the Forest Service’s compliance with NEPA. Based on Supreme Court precedent, however, this determination constituted an abuse of the magistrate judge’s discretion. See Golden Gate Hotel Ass’n v. City & County of S.F., 18 F.3d 1482, 1485 (9th Cir. 1994) (“We review a district court’s decision to grant a motion to strike unscheduled supplementary material for abuse of discretion.”). In Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452, 461 (1997), the Court granted deference to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation even though the agency offered the interpretation for the first time as a litigation position. The Court noted that the agency’s interpretation was “controlling unless plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation,” and that “[t]here [was] simply no reason to suspect that the interpretation d[id] not reflect the agency’s fair and considered judgment on the matter in question.” Id. at 461-62 (internal quotation marks omitted). [3] Similarly here, CEQ’s interpretation that 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7 permits consideration of all past impacts in the aggregate is not plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the language of the regulation, and CEQ is the agency charged with interpreting NEPA and that adopted the regulation. See Jones v. Gordon, 792 F.2d 821, 827 (9th Cir. 1986). In addition, LOWD points to no evidence to suggest that CEQ’s interpretation does not reflect the agency’s fair and considered judgment on the cumulative effects issue, and CEQ’s interpretation is just as plausible as LOWD’s position that analysis of “past effects” requires evaluation of discrete past LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 16217 events. The CEQ memorandum is therefore entitled to Auer deference and, as a result, we hold that the Forest Service may aggregate its cumulative effects analysis pursuant to 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7. Our circuit’s precedent further supports this conclusion. Although LOWD argues that Lands Council v. Powell (Lands Council I), 395 F.3d 1019, 1028 (9th Cir. 2005), requires a complete cataloguing of all prior timber sales in all cases, this interpretation is incorrect. Lands Council I instead merely reaffirms the general rule that “NEPA requires adequate cataloguing of relevant past projects in the area.” Id. at 1027 (citing Muckleshoot Indian Tribe v. U.S. Forest Serv., 177 F.3d 800, 809-10 (9th Cir. 1999)) (emphasis added). An aggregated cumulative effects analysis that includes the relevant past-timber-sale inputs comports with this standard, and also furthers NEPA’s purpose of “concentrat[ing] on the issues that are truly significant to the action in question.” See 40 C.F.R. § 1500.1(b). Moreover, sitting en banc, this court recently clarified that Lands Council I does not require the Forest Service to conduct any particular test or to use any particular method, so long as “the evidence . . . provided to support [the Forest Service’s] conclusions, along with other materials in the record,” ensure that the agency “made no clear error of judgment that would render its action arbitrary and capricious.” Lands Council II, 537 F.3d at 993 (internal quotation marks omitted). In Lands Council II, the en banc court reasoned that this approach not only “respects our law that requires us to defer to an agency’s determination in an area involving a high level of technical expertise,” but also “acknowledges that “[w]e are not free to impose on the agency [our] own notion of which procedures are best or most likely to further some vague, undefined public good.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted) (alterations in original). [4] Accordingly, to the extent that 40 C.F.R. § 1508.7 does not explicitly provide otherwise, the Forest Service is free to 16218 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS consider cumulative effects in the aggregate or to use any other procedure it deems appropriate. It is not for this court to tell the Forest Service what specific evidence to include, nor how specifically to present it.
Notwithstanding our conclusion that the Forest Service may aggregate its cumulative effects analyses, the Forest Service’s almost complete failure to include the relevant pasttimber-sale inputs in the FSEIS itself fails to survive arbitrary and capricious review. See Lands Council II, 537 F.3d at 987 (noting that “we will reverse a decision as arbitrary and capricious . . . if the agency . . . ‘entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem’ ”) (quoting Earth Island Inst., 442 F.3d at 1156)). [5] As LOWD observes, the FSEIS itself mentions only one past timber sale, the Summit Timber Sale, and otherwise notes generally that other timber sales occurred in the past. The Forest Service counters that no deficiency exists because the omitted information about the past timber sales appears in the Watershed Analysis: [T]he Deep Creek Watershed Analysis . . . collec- tively considered past actions in the watershed and the results of those actions . . . to determine existing conditions and trends in the watershed. This comprehensive analysis served as the basis for the FSEIS. While each timber sale may not have been identi- fied by name, the Deep Creek Watershed Analysis evaluated the cumulative impacts of several human activities, including past timber harvests, to inform the Forest Service and the public about baseline conditions within the Deep Creek Watershed. The FSEIS states, in turn, that “[t]he purpose and need for action is based on the analysis and conclusions regarding the LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 16219 conditions described in the Deep Creek Watershed Analysis,” and that the Watershed Analysis “is tiered to the [FSEIS] . . . and its applicable [ROD]. The management direction, along with standards and guidelines, for activities proposed are based, in part, on these documents.” [6] The problem with the Forest Service’s approach, however, is that the FSEIS cannot “tier” to the Watershed Analysis to analyze sufficiently the cumulative effects of the Project. The NEPA implementing regulations define “tiering” as: [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. 40 C.F.R. § 1508.28. Meanwhile, this court “ha[s] previously interpreted the regulations to allow tiering only to another environmental impact statement.” Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, 177 F.3d at 810; see also Or. Natural Res. Council v. U.S. BLM, 470 F.3d 818, 823 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding similarly proposed tiering impermissible because “the Watershed Analysis is not a NEPA document”); Kern v. U.S. BLM, 284 F.3d 1062, 1073 (9th Cir. 2002) (holding that “tiering to a document that has not itself been subject to NEPA review is not permitted”). [7] Accordingly, although we in no way doubt what the Forest Service says about the Watershed Analysis, the FSEIS’s cumulative effects analysis is insufficient because it cannot tier to a non-NEPA document that the FSEIS fails to include. We therefore reverse the district court’s grant of sum16220 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS mary judgment in favor of the Forest Service, and remand so that the agency can reissue its NEPA documentation to include the omitted, but clearly relevant, information regarding past timber sales contained in the Watershed Analysis. See Kern, 284 F.3d at 1073 (“While NEPA empowers neither the plaintiffs nor this court to second-guess the [agency’s] management decisions, it does require the [agency] to articulate, publicly and in detail, the reasons for and likely effects of those management decisions, and to allow public comment on that articulation.”).
[8] LOWD also argues that “there is simply no mention of future timber sales in the FSEIS.” Regarding such projects, however, the FSEIS states: “No other timber vegetation management activities are planned within this watershed within the foreseeable future.” As the district court noted, “this distinguishes the . . . Project from other timber harvest cases where courts found that multiple planned timber sales in one area required consideration of cumulative effects as to timber management activities.” See, e.g., Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project v. Blackwood, 161 F.3d 1208, 1214-16 (9th Cir. 1998). Accordingly, the district court properly concluded that the FSEIS need say nothing more regarding future timber sales to satisfy the cumulative effects standard.1
LOWD further asserts that the FSEIS fails to consider adequately the cumulative environmental effects of grazing in the Project planning area. This argument lacks merit for the following reasons. First, the FSEIS adequately evaluates the cumulative effects of past grazing. For example, the FSEIS 1 Although LOWD does not focus on “ongoing” timber sale activities in the Project planning area, the record reflects that the FSEIS’s cumulative effects analysis is also sufficient in that regard. LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS 16221 discusses how unregulated sheep grazing dating back to the 1880s, before the conversion of the allotments to cattle, contributed to “the loss of [soil], stream bank degradation, and channel erosion”; explains the past development of an allotment “to draw cattle from riparian areas and improve livestock distribution” and its resulting “effects [on] sensitive aquatic habitats”; and notes “[t]he cumulative effects of fire suppression, roads, conifer invasion, and browsing by cattle and native ungulates have had detrimental effects on hydrology . . . and riparian vegetation.” Second, the FSEIS adequately evaluates the cumulative effects of present grazing. In a section entitled “Cumulative Effects on Range,” for instance, the FSEIS states that “[l]ivestock plays no role in the overstory stand composition, structures, or density aspects of the Purpose and Need” of the Project, “[n]or does it have much influence on the risk of moderate and high intensity fires.” Although the Forest Service acknowledges in that section that limited areas exist where grazing could affect the vegetative conditions of riparian communities, the agency explains that limited thinning and no-treatment buffers along streams will mitigate any such effects. The FSEIS also discusses grazing effects in the cumulative-effects-analysis sections for noxious weeds, soils, threatened, endangered, and sensitive species, riparian habitats, and habitat-indicator species like deer and elk. [9] Finally, regarding future grazing, the FSEIS explains that “Allotment Management Plan updates . . . were initiated in 2002 and alternative grazing regimes will be developed and considered under a separate environmental analysis and decision that is scheduled for completion in 2004.” A cumulative effects analysis of those future grazing regimes was therefore impracticable because the Forest Service had not yet designated the specific grazing allotments at the time it issued the FSEIS. Cf. N. Alaska Envtl. Ctr. v. Kempthorne, 457 F.3d 969, 976-77 (9th Cir. 2006) (“We conclude that the government[, in its EIS for oil and gas leases,] was not required at 16222 LEAGUE OF WILDERNESS DEFENDERS v. USFS this stage to do a parcel by parcel examination of potential environmental effects. Such effects are currently unidentifiable, because the parcels likely to be affected are not yet known.”). Accordingly, the district court properly held that the FSEIS adequately considers the cumulative effects of grazing.