A state appellate court upheld the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission's 2015 decision to remove the gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Oregon Endangered Species Act (OESA). Environmental groups argued the Commission's conclusion that the wolf species was no longer endangered was...
A district court denied a neighborhood group's request to temporarily block bison hunting near Yellowstone National Park. The group argued that NPS and USDA violated NEPA when they authorized an annual bison hunt at a location on the edge of the park called Beattie Gulch, and sought a temporary rest...
A district court denied NMFS’ motion to stay a lawsuit concerning the effects of lobster fishing on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The agency requested a stay pending its promulgation of two conservation measures—a new biological opinion for the American lobster fishery and a regulat...
A district court enjoined a NMFS rule that opened two areas of previously protected North Atlantic right whale habitat off the New England coast to gillnet fishing. An environmental group argued that the Sustainable Fisheries Division (SFD) of NMFS failed to consult with the agency’s Protected Res...
A district court denied summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning potential harms to local trout populations from a proposed copper and silver mine in Montana. Environmental groups and a Native American tribe argued that FWS violated the ESA by using a habitat surrogate to establish the mine's author...
The Fourth Circuit granted a motion to stay FWS' issuance of a biological opinion and incidental take statement for a proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline running through Virginia and West Virginia, and to hold in abeyance litigation concerning authorization for the pipeline in order to allow FWS ...
In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed in part and affirmed in part a summary judgment in favor of NMFS and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a challenge against NMFS' 2014 opinions that reversed its decades-long approach to classifying water diversions and hydroelectric dams on the...
A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Hawaiian resident alleging that an early start to a county construction project harmed two endangered species—the Hawaiian hawk and Hawaiian hoary bat—in violation of the ESA. The resident argued that the county violated its EIS by allowing const...
A district court vacated in part and remanded in part FWS' 2014 determination to remove the Rio Grande cutthroat trout from the ESA list of endangered and threatened wildlife. An environmental group argued that FWS failed to adequately explain why it used different methodologies in its 2008 and 2014...
A district court granted in part a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to FWS' 2012 biological opinions concerning protections for the threatened Mexican spotted owl. An environmental group argued the opinions, which concluded that timber management activities proposed by the U.S. Forest Serv...