Description: Challenge to Forest Service’s adoption of EIS concerning forest management plan.
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Conservation Northwest v. Rey
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/17/2009 Opinion Download Opinion issued. A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging a plan prepared by the U.S. Forest Service concerning forest areas where the northern spotted owl is located. The plan covers 24.5 million acres of federal land in three states in the Northwest. The plan was amended in 2001 based on a 2000 supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). After the SEIS was challenged, a new SEIS was prepared in 2004, which was finalized in 2007 (FEIS). The FEIS was challenged on the grounds that it violated NEPA, including that it did not take the requisite “hard look” at the impact of increased logging on climate change and vice versa. The district court held that the agencies which prepared the FEIS were only obligated to disclose opposing viewpoints in the FEIS and explain their decision, which they did.