Inland Empire Public Lands Council v. United States Forest Service

CYNTHIA HOLCOMB HALL, Circuit Judge:

The United States Forest Service proposed eight timber sales in the Upper Sunday Creek Watershed region of the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana. The environmental impact statement it prepared *757in anticipation of the sales evaluated the project’s impact on a number of “sensitive species” living in that region. Plaintiffs, a number of environmental groups, challenged the sale first in administrative hearings and ultimately in district court, claiming that the Service’s analysis of the sale’s impact on seven species — the lynx, boreal owl,…