A district court ordered FWS to reconsider its decision not to designate critical habitat for the Canada lynx in Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. When it published the September 2014 final rule designating lynx critical habitat in the United States, FWS erred in excluding the state of Colorado from the...

The Eleventh Circuit upheld the National Park Service's (NPS') wilderness assessment and management plan for the addition of approximately 112,400 acres of land to the Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, including its decision to allow off-road vehicle (ORV) use on the added land. Environmenta...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state's moratorium on the use of suction dredges to mine gold from rivers was not preempted by federal mining law. The case arose after an individual challenged his conviction for the possession and unpermitted use of a suction dredge. He argued that the...

The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must bear all the costs of deauthorizing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO), instead holding that the Corps' cost-sharing formula with the state of Louisiana was reasonable. The Corps has completed buildin...

The Ninth Circuit upheld BLM's proposal to expand access for off-road vehicle use in the Imperial Sand Dunes Special Recreation Management Area. The Dunes, located in California, are home to two threatened species: the desert tortoise and the Peirson's milkvetch. Under the proposed plan, a 26,098-ac...

The Ninth Circuit held that NMFS may collect cost recovery fees for the Pacific groundfish fishery from individual members of the Pacific whiting catcher-processing sector, but that NMFS’ calculation of the 2014 cost recovery fee for that sector was inconsistent with its own regulation. Under the ...

The Ninth Circuit upheld NMFS' 2013 quota regulations for Pacific whiting. NMFS calculated the amount of fish harvesters' and fish processors' initial share of the total allowable catch based on their participation in the fishery prior to 2003 and 2004, respectively. A fish harvester and fish proces...

The D.C. Circuit held that FWS violated NEPA when it issued an incidental take permit for the Indiana bat, an endangered species, in connection with a wind farm project in Ohio. Because the farm may pose a danger to the bat, the developer applied for an incidental take permit and submitted a conserv...

The Supreme Court of California held that the state may enter and conduct environmental and geological studies and testing on more than 150 privately owned properties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that the state might seek to acquire for construction of two new tunnels to deliver fresh water f...