The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to its 2017 offer and sale of oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmental groups argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EA or EIS for the lease sale and failing to take a hard look at it...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for BLM in a challenge to the agency's "geld and release" plan for wild horses in northeastern Nevada. An animal rights group argued that BLM violated NEPA by failing to prepare an EIS for the plan because five of the Act's intensity factors demonstrated t...

A district court vacated a timber harvesting project in Tongass National Forest after previously ruling that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the National Forest Management Act when it authorized the project. Both the plaintiff environmental ...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the Forest Service's approval of two forest-thinning projects in the Santa Fe National Forest. Environmental groups and individuals argued the Service violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the projects' effects on inventoried roadless areas and their cumulative imp...

A district court denied a request to vacate the Trump Administration's decision to lift the Obama Administration's moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands. Environmental groups, tribes, and states argued that BLM's issuance of a final EA and FONSI were insufficient to meet the court's previou...

A district court granted summary judgment for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a challenge to its proposal to dredge a portion of a harbor located in the Lower St. Johns River. An environmental group argued that the Corps violated NEPA by failing to analyze the present effects of past dredging ac...

A district court granted summary judgment for the U.S. Forest Service in a challenge to its approval of a tree-thinning and fire mitigation project in the Los Padres National Forest. Conservation groups and nearby residents argued the Service's decision to authorize the project with a categorical ex...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part summary judgment for DOI in a challenge to its issuance of secretarial procedures authorizing a Native American tribe to operate a hotel and casino in Madera, California. Nonprofit groups argued that issuance of the procedures violated NEPA and ...

A district court vacated 287 oil and gas leases that BLM issued on 145,000 acres of federal land in Montana. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated NEPA by failing to consider the leases' impacts on groundwater from shallow fracturing and surface casing depth. The court found that the ...

A district court vacated an EA and FONSI issued by the Forest Service approving a mining company to explore for gold on public lands near the Idaho-Montana border. Environmental groups previously argued before the court that the Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the impacts on groundwater...