A district court dismissed a challenge to FWS' denial of a petition to remove the coastal California gnatcatcher from the ESA's threatened species list. Advocacy groups argued the Service's denial of their petition to delist the bird species violated the ESA because the decision was not based on an ...

A state appellate court held invalid the Department of Ecology's administrative rule establishing summer minimum instream flows for the lower reach of the Spokane River. Environmental groups challenged the validity of the rule, arguing that it exceeded the Department's authority under the Water Reso...