Opinion ID: 164231
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Impacts on Livestock

Text: 50 Appellants argue that the U.S. Air Force should have conduct[ed] a contemporary study of the impact of low-altitude flights on livestock because the studies cited in the EIS were outdated and insufficient. Appellants' Br. at 33. Appellants cite anecdotal evidence, presented in the public hearings, which they claim demonstrates that low-altitude flights at Holloman have on occasion already caused significant disturbance to livestock. 51 We are unpersuaded that the U.S. Air Force was required to carry out its own study regarding the impact of low-level overflights on livestock. We have recognized that agencies must use the best available scientific information when assessing environmental impacts. Custer County, 256 F.3d at 1034. It appears that the U.S. Air Force has done so here. Appendix J of the EIS cites studies, dating from 1960 to 1996, reporting that livestock may run, buck, or be startled by sudden high (75 to 100 dB) noise levels but that livestock can adapt to regularly-occurring noise at such levels. Some of the studies suggested that low-level overflights produced a greater effect than sonic booms, and that the impact may be greater on gestating animals. The U.S. Air Force acknowledges that the number of studies addressing the effect of noise on livestock is small. However, we have no reason to believe that the studies' conclusions are inaccurate, particularly in light of other studies, also discussed in Appendix J, which reach the same conclusion in regard to bighorn sheep, bison, elk, deer, and antelope. See Appellants' App. at 202. 52 Appellants cite public hearing testimony that a horse startled by an overflight knocked over the person shoeing him and that a horse owner suspected that overflights were responsible for the deaths of a number of horses who ran over a fence at night. In response to such testimony, the U.S. Air Force expanded the EIS's Appendix J and acknowledged that low-level overflights may or may not lead to livestock damage. Id. at 292. Appellants argue that, based on one person's testimony that overflights had harmed her ostriches, the final EIS should have cited an army discussion of claims submitted to the military for damage to ostriches from overflights. Appellants' Br. at 32. However, as the U.S. Air Force points out, this testimony was given by someone who lived in the vicinity of Cannon Air Force Base, not Holloman, and there is no indication any of the affected landowners around Holloman have ostriches. We conclude that the EIS's discussion of livestock impacts was sufficient. 53