The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and remanded in part a district court order remanding to FWS several issues concerning its 2017 rule removing ESA protections for the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population. The district court held that FWS failed to adequately consider the impact of delisting...

A district court denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin grizzly bear killings in connection with a 2019 biological opinion and incidental take statement issued by FWS that allow for their lethal removal in Bridger-Teton National Forest as a result of conflict with livestock. Conservation groups arg...

A district court vacated an incidental take permit issued by FWS for a transmission line project on a historic section of the Oregon and California Trail in Nebraska. Companies and conservation groups argued that FWS' decision to issue the permit, which allowed for the incidental taking of American ...

The D.C. Circuit upheld FWS' withdrawal of prior findings for elephant trophy hunting in southern Africa. Conservation groups argued that FWS violated the APA by withdrawing its prior findings without providing notice and comment. The court found that a notice-and-comment period was not required for...

A district court denied a Native American tribe's request to lift a stay in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation seeking to protect endangered coho salmon from the impacts of an irrigation project in the Klamath River Basin. The tribe asserted that the Bureau failed to comply with the terms o...

The Fifth Circuit dismissed a challenge to FWS' constitutional authority to regulate activities affecting the Bone Cave harvestman, a small arachnid known to live only in caves in central Texas that is currently listed as endangered under the ESA. A county and an individual, intervening plaintiffs i...

A district court denied FWS' and NMFS' motion to dismiss a challenge to the agencies' issuance of rules that revised key requirements of the ESA's implementing regulations. States and conservation groups argued that the agencies exceeded their statutory authority in issuing the rules in violation of...

A district court dismissed for lack of standing a challenge to FWS' and NMFS' issuance of rules that revised key requirements of ESA's implementing regulations. Conservation groups argued that the rules failed to provide an adequate EIS in violation of NEPA, failed to provide adequate notice and com...

A district court amended a previous order that vacated a nationwide permit (NWP 12) reissued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and enjoined the Corps from authorizing any dredge or fill activities under the permit pending completion of the ESA §7 consultation process. The Corps moved for a partia...

A magistrate judge granted in part and denied in part the Forest Service's and FWS' motion to dismiss a lawsuit concerning a Forest Service policy that allows states to decide whether bait can be used to hunt black bears in national forests. Environmental groups argued that numerous grizzly bears ha...