A district court upheld the National Park Service's (NPS') plan to allow off-road vehicle (ORV) use on designated trails in the "addition lands" of Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve. In 1988, Congress authorized the acquisition of what is referred to as the "addition lands," consisting of appr...

A district court upheld DOI's decision to withdraw more than one million acres of federal land adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining. The withdrawal will close these lands to the exploration and development of uranium mining claims for 20 years, although mining of a few exis...

A district court denied an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM from issuing oil and gas leases in central and southwest Nevada due to allegedly defective environmental analyses. Although BLM has conducted a lease sale, it retains discretion to issue any leases resulting from tha...

The Fifth Circuit held that DOI's ban on owning bald eagle feathers under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). DOI's implementation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act prohibits American Indians who are not members of federally recog...

A district court upheld FWS' designation of 1,544 acres of a privately owned tree farm in Louisiana as critical habitat essential for the conservation of the dusky gopher frog, an endangered species. The frog, listed in 2001, is located only in Mississippi; it does not presently occupy the tree farm...