Opinion ID: 214218
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Burden on the Forest Service

Text: The burden imposed upon the Forest Service by the obligation to consult under Section 7 of the ESA is not great. Indeed, District Ranger Vandiver has already consulted with Forest Service biologists Bemis and Grunbaum in formulating the detailed criteria for suction dredge mining NOIs in the Happy Camp District of the Klamath National Forest. That consultation could not satisfy Section 7 because Bemis and Grunbaum work for the Forest Service rather than the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. But if Vandiver had consulted with employees of those agencies, that consultation could have satisfied Section 7. If, after engaging in that consultation, Vandiver had formulated sufficiently detailed coho-protective criteria based on the views of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, any NOIs approved using those criteria would not have required the exercise of further discretion and therefore would not have required further consultation. See Texas Indep. Producers, 410 F.3d at 979; Envtl. Def. Ctr., 344 F.3d at 853. Of course, Vandiver formulated his criteria for NOIs only for the Happy Camp District. But there is no reason why the Forest Service could not consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to formulate comparable criteria for all of the districts in the Klamath National Forest, with the result that any individual NOI approved under those criteria would not require further consultation.