A district court dismissed conservation groups' lawsuit challenging FWS' and DOI's decision to issue permits authorizing two American hunters to import the trophies they garnered in legal hunts of black rhinoceros in Namibia. The groups argued that issuance of the permits violated the APA, ESA, and ...

The Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court decision vacating FWS' designation of critical habitat in Alaska for the polar bear, a threatened species, and reinstated the designation. The designation encompasses sea ice, terrestrial denning, and barrier island habitat. Oil and gas associations, several ...

A district court denied a motion to amend its prior ruling vacating FWS' listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the ESA. FWS argued that the court should have remanded, rather than vacated, the rule. It claimed that there is a serious possibility that its decision to lis...

The D.C. Circuit upheld FWS' decision to withdraw its proposal to list as endangered the dunes sagebrush lizard in New Mexico and Texas. After FWS proposed to list the lizard, it received updated information about conservation efforts in the two states. Based on this information, which included a vo...

The Second Circuit upheld a "depredation permit" FWS issued to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorizing the emergency "take" of migratory birds that threaten to interfere with aircraft at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. FWS issued the permit under 50 C.F.R. §21.41, which...

A district court ordered NMFS to take a "hard look" at the environmental impacts of its definition of "fishery" with regard to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish fishery management plan (FMP) and whether river herring and shad should be included in the FMP. In 2014, the Mid-Atlantic Fisher...

A district court ordered the state of Idaho to propose a plan to protect the Canada lynx, a threatened species, from being inadvertently captured or killed in northern Idaho due to traps set by trappers intending to lure other species. The state does not restrict how many traps or snares a licensed ...

A district court dismissed recreational fishing groups' lawsuit against NMFS concerning its management of the red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. The groups challenged the enactment of Amendment 40 to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan and an a...

The D.C. Circuit dismissed recreational fishing groups' lawsuit against NMFS for failing to manage stocks of river herring and shad in the Atlantic Ocean from New York to North Carolina. In 2012, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council began developing Amendment 15 to the Mackerel, Squid, and Bu...

A district court held that USDA's Wildlife Services failed to comply with NEPA with respect to gray wolf management in Washington. The agency entered into a cooperative service agreement with Washington's wildlife agency to help implement the state's Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, particular...