Opinion ID: 742736
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ensuring Viability of the Species

Text: 76 The plaintiffs argue that the ALRMP is invalid because it fails to comply with the Forest Service's mandate to ensure viability of certain forest interior species. For purposes of this lawsuit, the plaintiffs have focused mainly on the Cerulean Warbler, which is one of the neotropical migratory songbirds with special habitat needs as identified in the 1989 Robbins study. 77 As the plaintiffs point out, the Forest Service planning regulations provide that [f]ish and wildlife habitat shall be managed to maintain viable populations of existing native and desired non-native vertebrate species in the planning area. 36 C.F.R. § 219.19 (1992). 78 For planning purposes, a viable population shall be regarded as one which has the estimated numbers and distribution of reproductive individuals to insure its continued existence is well distributed in the planning area. In order to insure that viable populations will be maintained, habitat must be provided to support, at least, a minimum number of reproductive individuals and that habitat must be well distributed so that those individuals can interact with others in the planning area. 79 Id. The regulation goes on to require the Forest Service to identify certain vertebrate and/or invertebrate species as management indicator species and to require that each planning alternative shall establish objectives for the maintenance and improvement of habitat for management indicator species ... to the degree consistent with overall multiple use objectives of the alternative. 36 C.F.R. § 219.19(a) (1992); see also 36 C.F.R. § 219.27(a)(6) (1992) (All management prescriptions shall [p]rovide for adequate fish and wildlife habitat to maintain viable populations of existing native vertebrate species and provide that habitat for species chosen under § 219.19 is maintained and improved to the degree consistent with multiple-use objectives established in the plan....). 80 The plaintiffs argue that the ALRMP fails to comply with this mandate because it does not provide the minimum breeding habitat for the Cerulean Warbler as identified in the 1989 Robbins study. As the plaintiffs point out, the 1989 study suggests that the minimum area for breeding for the Cerulean Warbler is 700 hectares (1,729 acres). (Pls.' Ex. at 25 (Table 5).) Because the ALRMP provides for FIMUs of about 1,100 acres in size, the plaintiffs argue that the plan does not meet the minimum breeding requirement for this management indicator species. 81 The Forest Service acknowledged the 1989 Robbins study when discussing the Cerulean Warbler's needs as part of the FSEIS. (FSEIS App. at H-21, I-17.) As part of its wildlife analysis, the Forest Service referred to the study's findings that the probability of detecting Cerulean Warblers is reduced by 50 percent in areas of 700 hectares in size. (FSEIS App. at H-21.) However, the FSEIS does not discuss the ramifications of this data in terms of maintaining the viability of the Cerulean Warbler, i.e., that the study suggests that the 1,100-acres FIMUs established by the ALRMP are about 630 acres smaller than required to supply the minimum breeding area for this species. Instead, the Forest Service uses its own mathematical formula, based in part on the outdated Graber data, to calculate that the ALRMP will support a minimum acceptable population level. (FSEIS App. at H-21 to H-22.) 82 The Court recognizes, as stated above, that the Forest Service's choice of methodology is generally left to its expertise. However, the Court finds it arbitrary and capricious to rely upon a generalized mathematical formula without at least some rational explanation as to why that method of calculating the minimum viable population is preferable to the calculations and methodology presented in the 1989 study. 83 Even more disturbing is the fact that the conclusions regarding Cerulean Warbler viability in the wildlife analysis and the FSEIS's environmental effects analysis are contrary to the Forest Service's statements in response to public comments about the ALRMP. For example, when asked about the size requirements set forth in the 1989 Robbins study, the Forest Service acknowledged that three species, including the Cerulean Warbler, require tracts larger than the 1,100-acre FIMUs provided for in the ALRMP. (FSEIS App. at I-19.) In response to another question, the Forest Service appears to concede that the size of its FIMUs will not support viable populations of certain species: 84 The current Forest Interior Management Units were developed as part of the Settlement Agreement signed by the Audubon Council of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Conservation, E. Allan Englehart and Sierra Club, et al., (1988). The boundaries were developed in cooperation with the Illinois Department of Conservation, Audubon Council of Illinois, the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Association of Concerned Environmentalists. In many cases the boundaries of these units border on roads, private land, or other major breaks in the forest. In such cases moving these boundaries on a map would not effectively change what the organisms that use these areas experience. In other cases the boundaries could be increased some, but data presented by Robbins et al. (1989) indicates that little would be gained by doing so. They have developed a graph depicting the probability of finding a certain number of Forest Interior birds in an area of certain size. For instance, in an area of 1,100 acres (the minimum size of our forest interior management units) there is a 50% probability of detecting at least 8 species of forest interior birds. [A 50% probability of occurrence is the lowest Robbins suggests will still maintain breeding potential.] The 50% probability of detecting at least 9 species is not reached until an area is 2,322 acres in size, more than double the minimum size of our present forest interior management units. Clearly, increasing the size by even a few hundred acres gives little, if any, advantage. 85 (FSEIS App. at I-17.) However, in response to a comment that the FSEIS failed to demonstrate how minimum viable populations of forest interior species will be maintained, the Forest Service gave this almost schizophrenic statement: 86 We have revised the discussion of effects on Management Indicator Species in Chapter 4 of the FSEIS: all things remaining equal, our increases in habitat will result in increasing numbers of birds; and it is on that that we base our statement in the FSEIS. We know, though, that all things do not remain the same; factors beyond our control, and beyond our Nation's borders (severe loss of winter habitat), may make our habitat increases meaningless. We are doing what we realistically can do to help neotropical songbirds survive. 87 (FSEIS App. at I-19.) 88 Thus, while the Forest Service admits that its FIMUs are not large enough, according to the 1989 Robbins study, to provide sufficient breeding area for the Cerulean Warbler, the Forest Service makes no mention of this fact when discussing the viability of this and other forest interior species. Instead, the environmental effects analysis of the FSEIS suggests that the FIMUs should benefit forest-interior birds by reducing the amount of edge habitat available to avian predators.... However, with the alarming rate of nest parasitiem [sic] of cowbirds occurring on the Forest, even with these areas set aside ... it is likely that neotropical migrant birds will not show any population increases. (FSEIS at 4-121.) 89 The failure to reconcile these inconsistencies is fatal to the FSEIS's analysis. The purpose of NEPA's EIS requirement is to ensure that federal agencies consider every significant aspect of the environmental impact of a proposed action and to ensure[ ] that the agency will inform the public that it has indeed considered environmental concerns in its decisionmaking process. Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 462 U.S. 87, 97 (1983). The inconsistencies in the FSEIS make it impossible to determine whether the Forest Service is conceding or denying that its ALRMP will not provide for the viability of Cerulean Warbler because of the size of the FIMUs. As a result, the Court is unable to determine whether the agency considers its plan in compliance with the mandate of ensuring viability of management indicator species or whether the agency has justified its plan on other grounds. 11 The Court, therefore, finds that the FSEIS must be remanded to the agency to remedy this defect. 90 Although this conclusion resolves the issue for purposes of this lawsuit, several additional observations are in order. First, the Forest Service argues that the Sierra Club and Audubon Council agreed to 1, 100-acre FIMUs in the 1988 Settlement Agreement. However, as the Forest Service itself argues, the 1988 agreement provided that the ALRMP would be developed in compliance with NEPA and NFMA. Thus, if either of these statutes required a different result, neither the agency nor the environmental groups were bound by the guidelines set forth in the settlement agreement. Furthermore, the plaintiffs point out, and the Forest Service does not dispute, that plaintiff RACE did not sign the agreement and, therefore, is not bound by its provisions. And, finally, the language of the settlement agreement itself does not absolutely prohibit a breach; it merely provides that if one of the environmental groups appeals an issue upon which it had agreed as part of the settlement, the entire agreement was void as to that party. 91 Secondly, the Forest Service argues that the FIMU issue was already decided in Donham v. United States Forest Serv., No. 93-CV-4172-JPG (S.D.Ill. Jan. 24, 1995), and, therefore, the plaintiffs are collaterally estopped to relitigate it. Collateral estoppel applies, however, only when the same parties or their privies attempt to relitigate an issue. Kunzelman v. Thompson, 799 F.2d 1172, 1176 (7th Cir.1986). The prior decision involved only an individual plaintiff, Mark Donham, who was litigating his own individual claims pro se and who is not a party to this litigation. Donham is a member of RACE and courts have sometimes applied collateral estoppel where the parties are so closely aligned that they represent the same legal interest. Id. at 1178 (citations omitted). However, the Forest Service has made no attempt whatsoever' to demonstrate such a close alignment between Donham and RACE, or any of the other plaintiffs. 92 More significantly, the Donham opinion resolved only a very limited issue regarding the FIMUs, i.e., whether the Forest Service violated NEPA by failing to consider an alternative that featured 7,400-acre FIMUs. This Court held that the Forest Service properly declined to consider such an alternative because there was conflicting scientific evidence as to whether 7,400-acre tracts were necessary. Indeed, the 1989 Robbins study itself does not suggest that 7,400-acre tracts are required. It states that 7,400-acre tracts provide the maximum probability of occurrence for forest interior species; the study identifies much smaller tracts as the minimum area for breeding. Thus, the Donham lawsuit involved the question of whether the Forest Service should have maximized the habitat for forest interior species. This case, on the other hand, involves the very different question of whether the Forest Service has provided the minimum requirements to ensure the viability of a management indicator species. Thus, the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not apply.