Conservation Congress v. U.S. Forest Service

The federal district court for the Eastern District of California rejected challenges to the National Environmental Policy Act review for a forest thinning project. The court found that the U.S. Forest Service took a hard look at the project’s probable environmental consequences. Among the arguments rejected by the court were claims that the Forest Service’s consideration of the project’s greenhouse gas effects in the final environmental impact statement (EIS) was deficient. The court ruled that the plaintiffs were precluded from raising this argument because they did not raise greenhouse gas issues during the administrative process. The court also found that the plaintiffs failed to show that the Forest Service’s updated guidance for assessing greenhouse gas emissions constituted new information that affected the final EIS’s assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore did not show that a supplemental EIS was required. The court also rejected claims under the National Forest Management Act, the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, and the Endangered Species Act.