A district court denied summary judgment for landowners in Idaho who sought to halt construction of a public recreational trail across their ranch. The landowners argued the Forest Service violated the ESA by failing to complete §7 consultation with FWS; the CWA by failing to disclose the nature of...

A district court temporarily suspended a logging project in grizzly bear habitat in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. An environmental group argued the Forest Service's approval of the project violated NEPA. The court found that the Service's failure to apply the Healthy Forests Restoration Act's...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for DOI and a Native American tribe in a lawsuit brought by a nearby tribe challenging DOI's decision that the former tribe's proposed casino on newly acquired off-reservation land would not be detrimental to the surrounding community. The plaintiff tribe ...

A magistrate judge dismissed a lawsuit concerning ownership of a grazing allotment in the Apache National Forest. Ranchers argued the allotment was privately owned and thus relieved them of any obligation to obtain a cattle grazing permit from the Forest Service or to comply with the permit's requir...

A district court vacated BLM's 2018 instruction memorandum (IM) and oil and gas lease sales in Montana and Wyoming issued in reliance on the IM for failing to maintain federal protections for the greater sage-grouse. Environmental groups challenged the IM and lease sales, arguing that they violated ...

The Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded the U.S. Tax Court's decision disallowing a charitable deduction for a conservation easement over property that included a private golf course and undeveloped land. The appellate court found that the Internal Revenue Code did not disqualify an easement simpl...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed a Native American tribe's petition to review a FERC order denying the tribe's motion to intervene in the Commission's proceeding over construction of a natural gas pipeline in Massachusetts. The tribe argued that, in authorizing construction of a pipeline across land that ...

In an unpublished opinion, a state appellate court reversed a lower court decision that ordered a Michigan township to issue a zoning permit to a food and beverage company to construct a well pumping station on agricultural land. The lower court had concluded that the company's proposed pumping stat...

A district court granted environmental groups' motions for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's 2017 determination that it did not need to authorize a proposed water pipeline project in southern California because the project fell within the scope of a right-of-way granted to a railroad company ...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's decision in a challenge to a natural gas pipeline company's expired easement on tribal land. The pipeline company appealed the district court's granting of summary judgment to tribal members on their trespass claims, arguing tha...