ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20080
No(s). 20-15654 (9th Cir. May 17, 2023)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed vacatur of FWS' designation of an area in the northern Santa Rita Mountains as occupied critical habitat for jaguar. An environmental group initially sued FWS, challenging the Service's conclusion that a proposed copper mine project in the area would not destroy or adversely modify the designated critical habitat for the jaguar. The mine owner intervened, arguing that certain of FWS' critical habitat designations violated the ESA. The district court had concluded that FWS erred in designating occupied critical habitat in the area because the record did not establish jaguar occupied the area when the species was listed as endangered in 1972, but it upheld the Service's designation of the same area and an adjacent area as unoccupied critical habitat for the species. It also granted summary judgment for the group on its claim and remanded for FWS to conduct a proper analysis. The appellate court found that because FWS designated the area as occupied critical habitat based on photographs from decades after the jaguar was listed as endangered and a single sighting from a different mountain range, the district court correctly vacated that designation; but that it erred in upholding the unoccupied critical habitat designations. The appellate court reversed summary judgment for FWS, vacated summary judgment for the group, remanded to the district court to vacate FWS' designations, and remanded to the Service for further proceedings.