Endangered Species Law & Policy

On May 17, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana and upheld the U.S. Forest Service’s (Forest Service) decision to construct 4.7 miles of new roads in the Kootenai National Forest. The Kootenai National Forest is managed pursuant to the Forest Service’s Kootenai National Forest Plan (Forest Plan) that includes access-related amendments prohibiting any net permanent increase[] in linear miles of total roads.  These Forest Plan access amendments incorporate a 2011 Biological Opinion and ...

On May 8, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted, in part, a motion for summary judgment brought by plaintiffs in a suit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of the registration and use of 73 pesticides containing the active ingredients clothianidin and thiamethoxam.  See Ellis v. Housenger, Case No. 13-cv-01266-MMC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70107 (N.D. Cal. May 8, 2017).  Plaintiffs, a collection of individuals and a number of environmental and advocacy groups, alleged that EPA’s decision to allow ...

On April 28, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the United States District Court for the District of Montana’s finding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) determination that listing the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) as a threatened or endangered species is warranted but precluded.  Wildwest Inst. v. Kurth, No. 14-35431 (9th Cir. Apr. 28, 2017). Two environmental groups, Wildwest Institute and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies (Plaintiffs), filed a lawsuit challenging the Service’s determination, asserting that the ...

Despite a slow start to 2017, largely due to the White House Memorandum delaying the effective date of new regulations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is picking up steam.  In April 2017, the Service initiated the following activities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA):

• On April 20, 2017, the Service initiated five-year status reviews for 138 species in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and California. The Service is conducting the status reviews pursuant to section 4(c)(2) of the ESA, which requires the Service to review each listed species’ status at least once every ...

On April 11, 2017, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon ruled on parties’ objections to a federal magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations in a case challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of temperature increases for over a dozen water bodies in Oregon under the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court ruled against EPA and overturned the magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations with respect to environmental plaintiff’s ...

On April 11, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) held in Carpenters Industrial Council v. Zinke, 2017 U.S.App.LEXIS 6175, that a lumber company trade association had standing to challenge a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) regulation designating critical habitat for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurinan).  Reversing the district court’s decision, the D.C. Circuit found that plaintiff demonstrated a substantial probability that the regulation would decrease the supply of timber from ...

On April 5, 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued a final rule in the Federal Register reclassifying the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  Despite the reclassification, the Federal Register explained that while some significant threats have been reduced or eliminated, there are still a number of threats that remain, such as habitat loss and poaching, and that implementation of recovery actions are needed for the manatee to fully recover.

The reclassification was the result ...

On March 29, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held (PDF) that Congress has authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate the take of the Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens).  Because Congress has this authority, it could authorize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to do the same.

The Utah prairie dog lives only in Utah.  Approximately 70 percent of the species’ population is on nonfederal land.  It was originally listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, but was reclassified as threatened in 1984.  At the time it was ...

On January 11, 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule listing the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The rusty patched bumble bee’s historic range encompassed areas of 28 states and the District of Columbia (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota ...

On March 13, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction relying primarily on Endangered Species Act (ESA) claims, halting operation of a mooring project on the Lydia Ann Channel near Corpus Christi, Texas. Friends of Lydia Ann Channel U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Lydia Ann Channel Moorings, LLC, No. 2:15-CV-0514, (S.D. Tex. Mar. 13, 2017).  The Friends of Lydia Ann Channel (Plaintiff) filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) seeking injunctive and declaratory relief for violations of the ESA and the ...