Endangered Species Law & Policy

Last week, environmental advocacy groups celebrated a victory in a decade-long fight over the proper balance between agricultural and environmental interests in the Pacific Northwest. On October 1, in Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides v. EPA, the federal district court for the Western District of Washington denied the defendant’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit thereby permitting plaintiffs' citizen suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to move forward. (A .pdf copy of the court's decision is ...

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposed rule (pdf) to remove the valley elderberry Longhorn beetle (Desmocerus californicus dimorphus) from the list of threatened species.

The delisting will be significant for landowners, flood control agencies, and irrigation districts throughout the Central Valley of California because they will no longer be required to seek prior authorization for the incidental take of the beetle.  The beetle, as its name suggests, depends upon its host plant species, the valley elderberry, which grows along streams, rivers ...

Governor Brown signed a bill into law that generally makes it unlawful to permit or allow a dog to pursue a bear or bobcat at any time. The bill, introduced as SB 1221 by State Senator Ted Lieu, is intended to curb the use of dogs to hunt bears or bobcats.  Debate over the bill divided both houses of the California legislature.  David Siders reported that "[t]he legislation pitted wildlife advocates against hunters at the California Capitol – the former raising concerns about the humane treatment of animals, the latter about urban elitism" (Sacramento Bee, Sept. 27, 2012).

The bill to ban ...

In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) reached a settlement agreement with environmental groups in which it agreed to make final listing decisions on over 200 species over the next six years. Last month, we noted that the national effects of this settlement agreement had yet to be fully discerned.  (See Signs of Trouble Ahead?)  Today, its effects became a little clearer as the Service issued a proposed rule to list the Mount Charleston blue butterfly (Icaricia shasta charlestonensis) as an endangered specie.  In addition, the Service intends to list as threatened ...

On September 17, 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced (pdf) that it had issued a final rule listing 23 species native to the Hawaiian island of Oahu as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  The species include 20 plants and three damselflies. The rule follows a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity that required the agency to make determinations with respect to 757 species, including 17 of the 23 Oahu species granted protection.  At the same time it issued the listing determinations, the Service designated 42,804 acres (or ...

On September 4, 2012, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will issue a final rule today listing the Franciscan manzanita (Arctostaphylos franciscana) as an endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act.  (See article by Peter Fimrite).  The Chronicle also reported that the Service proposes to designate more than 300 acres of critical habitat in San Francisco for the plant.  The proposed critical habitat includes areas in Presidio, Corona Heights, Twin Peaks, Mount Davidson, Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights, and Bayview ...

 In a 2-1 decision (pdf), the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently upheld the decision of the Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the West Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus). The lower court held that the Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by removing the species from the list of endangered and threatened species despite the fact that several Recovery Plan Criteria had not been satisfied. In its decision, the D.C. Circuit held that [a] plan is a statement of intention, not a contract, and that [i]f the plan ...

We previously reported the Fish and Wildlife Service's intention to delist the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the State of Wyoming.  Today the Service announced "that the Wyoming population of gray wolves is recovered and no longer warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act."  A host of news outlets reported the announcement, including the New York Times (Aug. 31, 2012, by Feilicity Barringer).  Delisting of the gray wolf is controversial, but the species has been delisted in numerous parts of the upper mid-west and western United States.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted (pdf) a motion by appellees to dismiss an appeal pursued by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations from an interim order enjoining one component of a reasonable and prudent alternative imposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service on operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project.  The order, which we reported on here, enjoined implementation of a water management action, referred to as the Fall X2 Action, which requires a combination of reservoir releases upstream from the ...

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) recently completed its initial evaluation (pdf) of a petition to list the gray wolf (Canis lupus) under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).  The Center for Biological Diversity, Big Wildlife, the Environmental Protection Information Center, and the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (collectively, Petitioners) submitted a petition for the listing to DFG on March 5, 2012.  DFG recommended the Fish and Game Commission (Commission) accept the petition for further consideration, finding that there is ...