A district court held that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) when it authorized timber harvesting in the Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups argued the EIS, which included a conditio...
The Tenth Circuit held that the Forest Service's decision to eliminate an alternative from its study of an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that allowed coal mining on previously protected national forest land near the North Fork of the Gunnison River was arbitrary and capricious. Environment...
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to compel discovery in a challenge to the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA's), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers', and EPA's approval of permits for construction of a new interstate highway from North Carolina to Myrtle Beach. An environme...
The Second Circuit affirmed denial of a challenge to NPS' approval of a white-tailed deer management plan for the Fire Island National Seashore. An animal rights group argued that NPS violated NEPA because it lacked information about deer movement on the island that was essential to the decisionmaki...
A district court denied a request to invalidate BLM's approval of exploratory drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). Environmental groups and a Native village first argued that BLM's EA failed to account for significant impacts to caribou and subsistence activities, in violation ...
A district court granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the U.S. Forest Service's approval of a mining company's permit to explore for gold in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Environmental groups first argued that the Forest Service violated NEPA by f...
A district court vacated exempted fishing permits issued by NMFS that allowed two vessels to engage in commercial longline fishing in federal waters off the coast of California for two years. Environmental groups contended that the permits threatened the survival and recovery of Pacific leatherback ...
The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for NPS in a lawsuit concerning acceptable activities on land acquired by Wisconsin through the Federal Land to Parks Program for recreational use. An environmental group argued that NPS' approval of three activities at the park—dog training, off-road ...
A district court enjoined approved permits and suspended applications for new permits for oil and gas development in Colorado until BLM completes its analysis of reasonably foreseeable indirect impacts. In a previous ruling, the court concluded that BLM had failed to sufficiently explain the scope o...
A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of a permit for an already-constructed 17-mile transmission line after the D.C. Circuit found that the Corps had failed to prepare an EIS for the line in violation of NEPA. The court found that vacatur was not appropriate because rev...