A district court granted in part and denied in part summary judgment for an animal rights group in a lawsuit concerning BLM's adoption of four 10-year management plans for controlling wild horse populations in certain herd management areas. The group argued BLM exceeded its statutory authority under...
FWS revised regulations concerning the issuance of enhancement of survival and incidental take permits under the ESA.
FWS revised its regulations concerning protections of endangered and threatened species under the ESA by reinstating the general application of the "blanket rule'' option for protecting newly listed threatened species pursuant to §4(d) of the Act, with the continued option to promulgate species-specific §4(d) rules, and extending to federally recognized tribes the exceptions to prohibitions for threatened species that the regulations currently provide to the employees or agents of FWS and other federal and state agencies to aid, salvage, or dispose of threatened species.
FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §4 of the ESA, concerning procedures and criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species on the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants and designating critical habitat.
FWS and NMFS finalized revisions to portions of their regulations that implement §7 of the ESA concerning interagency cooperation procedures.
FWS proposed to remove the Roanoke logperch from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife due to recovery.
A district court granted in part and denied in part summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to an Idaho law authorizing expanded authorization of recreational wolf trapping and snaring in the state's grizzly bear habitat. The groups argued Idaho's continued authorization and expansi...
A district court denied the state of Alaska's and North Slope Borough's challenge to NMFS' decision not to delist the Arctic ringed seal as an endangered species following their 2019 petition. The plaintiffs argued NMFS failed to credit new information from FWS' analysis, failed to credit the Interg...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part summary judgment for FWS in a challenge to the Service's issuance of an incidental take regulation for polar bears living along Alaska's Beaufort Sea. Environmental groups argued FWS failed to satisfy the Marine Mamma...
FWS revised the rule for the African elephant promulgated under §4(d) of the ESA in order to increase protection for the species, clarify the existing enhancement requirement, and incorporate a Party’s designation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora National Legislation Project into various decisionmaking processes regarding imports.