Native Ecosystems Council v. Tom Tidwell

FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION FEB 19 2010 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS COUNCIL, and No. 09-35544 ALLIANCE FOR THE WILD ROCKIES; D.C. No. 9:08-cv-00121-DWM Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. MEMORANDUM * TOM TIDWELL, Regional Forester of Region One of the United States Forest Service, and UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Defendants - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana Donald W. Molloy, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted February 2, 2010 Seattle, Washington Before: W. FLETCHER and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, and MOSMAN, ** District Judge. * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3. ** The Honorable Michael W. Mosman, United States District Judge for the District of Oregon, sitting by designation. Appellants Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies (collectively NEC) appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellees Tom Tidwell and the United States Forest Service (collectively Forest Service). The Forest Service met its NEPA obligation when it determined that the challenged project fell within two of its categorical exclusions. See Bicycle Trails Council of Marin v. Babbitt, 82 F.3d 1445, 1456 n.5 (9th Cir. 1996), as amended (“An agency satisfies NEPA if it applies its categorical exclusions and determines that neither an EA nor an EIS is required[.]” ). Contrary to NEC’s assertion, general citations to General Accounting Office reports regarding the overall economic success of the Forest Service’s timber sale program do not establish a violation of the National Forest Management Act (NFMA). Because “we are not free to impose on [an] agency our own notion of which procedures are best or most likely to further some vague, undefined public good[,]” The Lands Council v. McNair, 537 F.3d 981, 993 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc) (citation, alterations and internal quotation marks omitted), we conclude that 2 the Forest Service’s accounting methodology satisfied the requirements of the NFMA. AFFIRMED. 3