Endangered Species Law & Policy

Recently, two separate petitions were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in San Luis and Delta Mendota Water Authority v. Jewell, a case involving a challenge to the biological opinion and reasonable and prudent alternative issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding continuing operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project in California. The two projects provide water to over 20 million Californians.

One petition (pdf) was filed on behalf of Stewart & Jasper Orchards, Arroyo Farms, and King Pistachio ...

On October 6, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued a news release (pdf) announcing its proposal to list the West Coast Distinct Population Segment (West Coast DPS) of fisher (Pekanian pennanti) as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), in part due to significant threats from illegal marijuana farming. 

The fisher belongs to a family of mammals that includes weasels and otters, and grows to about the size of a large house cat.  The Federal Register notice (pdf) regarding the proposed listing, which was published yesterday, states that the ...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has published (pdf) a proposed rule to list 21 species as endangered and 2 species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Of the 21 species the Service proposes to list as endangered, twelve are plant species and nine are animal species. The two proposed threatened species are animal species.

All 23 species are found in the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. According to the proposed rule, the species are experiencing population level impacts as a result of habitat loss and ...

Last Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published its final rule listing the western yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species is an insect-eating bird found in riparian woodland habitat. The final rule lists loss of riparian habitat as the primary threat to the species and notes that conversion to agriculture, dam construction, river flow management, and overgrazing have all contributed to loss of the species’ habitat over the last several decades. The species has been listed in twelve ...

On September 30, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld (PDF) the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) decision to withdraw (PDF) its proposal to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species.  The Service found that threats to the lizard and its habitat have been reduced such that the species no longer meets the statutory definition of an endangered (or threatened) species.  

The dunes sagebrush lizard’s (Sceloporus arenicolus) range spans approximately 745,000 acres across southeastern New Mexico and western Texas in shinnery oak ...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has declined to list two Nevada plants under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). On Wednesday, the Service published its 12-month findings on a petition to list the Churchill Narrows buckwheat (Eriogonum diatomaceum) and the Las Vegas buckwheat (Eriogonum corymbosum var. nilesii).

Section 4(a)(1) of the ESA lists five factors that the Service must examine when deciding whether to list a species as threatened or endangered: (1) the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; (2 ...

On September 23, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia invalidated the final rule issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) delisting the Wyoming Gray Wolf distinct population segment from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Species, concluding that Wyoming's regulatory protections were unenforceable and therefore inadequate for purposes of delisting the species.  Despite this conclusion, the court still affirmed the Service's finding that the species has "recovered" and that it was not "endangered or threatened within a ...

On September 17, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) withdrew (pdf) its proposal (pdf) to remove the valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Desmocerus californicus dimorphus) from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species.  While this means the beetle will continue to be protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Service did reduce the area in which the species is presumed to occur.

The beetle was listed as threatened and critical habitat designated, in 1980 (pdf).  Until recently, the beetle’s range was believed to ...

On September 12, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published notice of its final rule listing the Georgia rockcress (Arabis georgiana) as a threatened plant species under the Endangered Species Act.  On the same day, the Service published notice of its final rule designating 732 acres within Georgia and Alabama as critical habitat for the species.  Designated critical habitat for the Georgia rockcress includes riparian and river bluff habitat within Gordon, Floyd, Harris, Muscogee and Clay Counties in Georgia and Bibb, Dallas, Elmore, Monroe, Sumter, and ...

 On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued a final rule (pdf) revising the critical habitat designation for the contiguous United States distinct population segment (DPS) of the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) and revising the boundary of the Canada lynx DPS. The revised critical habitat designation consists of approximately 38,954 square miles of critical habitat in five units in Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming.

The Service’s final rule also rescinds the existing State-boundary-based definition of the Canada lynx DPS and ...