Bureau of Land Management Districts and National Forests Within the Range of the Northern Spotted Owl; Western Oregon and Washington, and Northwestern California; Removal of Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standards and Guidelines

Résumé

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and USDA Forest Service (collectively the Agencies) will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) to address the order of Judge Marshal J. Pechman, United States District Court, Western District of Washington. (Northwest Ecosystem Alliance v. Rey, August 1, 2005) Specifically, the court found that the 2004 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to Remove or Modify the Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standards and Guideline (2004 SEIS) was deficient because the Agencies failed to: (1) "* * analyze potential impacts to Survey and Manage species if they are not added to or are removed from the Forest Service's and BLM's respective programs for special status species;" (2) "* * * provide a thorough analysis of their assumption that the late-successional reserves would adequately protect species that the Survey and Manage standard was introduced to protect, particularly in light of their previous positions in earlier environmental impact statements;" and (3) "* * * disclose and analyze flaws in their methodology for calculating the acreage in need of hazardous fuel treatments. Part of the cost analysis was similarly