The Ninth Circuit held that NMFS violated the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act when it excluded an historic net-fishing area of Cook Inlet from the salmon fishery management plan (FMP). The Magnuson-Stevens Act unambiguously requires a regional fishery management council to c...

A district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining FWS from conducting or authorizing the take of wild red wolves on private land without first demonstrating that the wolf at issue is a threat to humans, pets, or livestock. Animal rights groups argued that prior to 2014, FWS interpreted its ...

A district court held that animal rights groups lack standing to challenge FWS' decision to allow the National Primate Research Center to transfer eight of its chimpanzees to a zoo in the United Kingdom. FWS authorized the transfer under ESA §10 on the condition that the Center donate money to an u...

A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' and FWS' management plan, EIS, and associated permits authorizing the “take,” or killing, of double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary, even though the agencies failed to consider reasonable alternatives other than killing i...