Endangered Species Law & Policy

On July 21, 2010, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ordered the dismissal of an Endangered Species Act ("ESA") challenge brought by no less than three states, six cities, and a host of local agencies (collectively, "Plaintiffs"), holding that the determination of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ("Service") was entitled to deference. 

The multi-district litigation, which also included a claim under the National Environmental Policy Act, alleged that the 2008 Biological Opinion issued by the Service for the U.S. Army Corps of ...

According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal this week, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan will be subject to further delays that will preclude the planned released of a draft in November 2010.  The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is intended to service as a Habitat Conservation Plan under the federal Endangered Species Act and Natural Communities Conservation Plan under the California Fish and Game Code.  If approved, it would provide authorizations for operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project, which provide water to approximately 25 million ...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced this week the final rule for the revised 2005 critical habitat designation for the bull trout, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The 2005 critical habitat designation had been struck down by a federal court last year after an inspector general’s report found improper political influence during the rulemaking process.

The final rule, which will become effective November 17, 2010, identifies 32 critical habitat units on 3,500 water body segments across five states.  Approximately 18,975 miles of ...

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule (pdf) designating critical habitat for spreading navarretia (Navarretia fossalis), a plant species native to southern California.  The rule designates approximately 6,720 acres of land as critical habitat for the species in five southern California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura.  In a previous rule issued in 2005, the Service had designated approximately 652 acres as critical habitat for the species.  The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the Service in the United ...

In compliance with a settlement agreement previously blogged about here, the Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule (PDF) effective October 28, 2010 listing the African Penguin as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act.  Unlike its prior listing decision for five other species of penguins, in this instance, the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that climate change contributes to the threats facing the species "through rising sea levels, increasing sea surface temperatures, declines in upwelling intensities, predicted increases in frequency and ...

The Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced yesterday that the Sacramento splittail, a fish endemic to California's Central Valley, does not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, stating that the best available science shows no recent decline in the overall abundance of the species nor threats that rise to the level of being significant to the splittail at the population level.

This decision marks the conclusion of a seven year controversy between politicians and scientists that began when the Service removed the fish from the threatened species list ...

On Wednesday, September 22nd, Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho introduced SB 3825 (.PDF), which would remove the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the list of threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the states of Idaho and Montana.  The proposed legislation, titled the State Wolf Management Act of 2010, is intended to turn wolf management over to the states to promote certainty among citizens, hunters, and sheep and cattle ranchers.  The bill was introduced in response to a federal court’s ruling in early August, which put gray wolves in Idaho and ...

On October 1, 2010, the California Fish and Game Commission declared the mountain yellow-legged frog a candidate species (PDF) as defined by section 2068 of the Fish and Game Code.  The Commission accepted the petition to list the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered at its September 15, 2010 meeting.  The Center for Biological Diversity previously submitted (PDF) a petition to the Commission to list the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered on January 27, 2010.  The Commission transmitted the petition to the California Department of Fish and Game for review.

The ...

The burrowing owl (pdf) is a species broadly distributed in the western United States that also occupies other parts of the continental United States as well as Central and South America.  The species is resident in much of the State of California.  Populations of the species have declined in certain areas of the State over time, but the population in Imperial County increased with the expansion of agriculture in the region over the past century.  It was recently reported that the Imperial County population, which was as high as 5600 pairs in the past decade, totaled less than 4900 pairs in ...

On Monday, September 27, 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its determination that the Gunnison sage-grouse warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act, but that proposing that it be listed as threatened or endangered be postponed while the Service addresses the needs of higher priority species.

Historically, the Gunnison sage-grouse occupied southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico, and northeastern Arizona.  But according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, its range has been reduced to seven separate populations in southwestern ...