The D.C. Circuit dismissed a conservation group's lawsuit against FWS for failing to make a timely determination on their petition to list certain species of sturgeon as endangered or threatened under the ESA. Upon the filing of a listing petition, FWS must make an initial determination within 90 da...

A district court refused to preliminarily enjoin federal land use restrictions intended to protect the greater sage grouse. Mining companies, the state of Nevada, and other plaintiffs filed suit challenging BLM's and the U.S. Forest Service's decisions to amend their resource management plans to pro...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying environmental groups' motion to preliminarily enjoin a forest fire recovery project in the southern Oregon Klamath Mountains. After a fire destroyed approximately 48,000 acres of forest in Oregon, BLM initiated the project to salvage remainin...

A California appellate court, in an unpublished opinion, held that the California Department of Food and Agriculture's environmental impact report (EIR) for a seven-year program to control the light brown apple moth, an invasive pest, violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The age...

A district court denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin BLM and the U.S. Forest Service from implementing certain amendments to their resource management plans that were made to better protect the greater sage-grouse and its habitat. The amended resource management plans govern 67 million acres of ...

A district court dismissed several claims a group of cattle ranchers filed against USDA and DOI concerning actions taken to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, an endangered species. Following the listing of the species in 2014, the U.S. Forest Service proposed to erect a five-foot pipe fen...

A district court, on motions for reconsideration and clarification of a prior remand order, vacated and remanded DOI's record of decision (ROD), EIS, and biological opinion (BiOp) concerning a large wind energy project in Nevada. In the prior remand court, the court held that DOI failed to fully exp...

The Ninth Circuit held that California's commercial fishing fees for nonresidents violates the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the U.S. Constitution. California's commercial fishing license fees are significantly higher for out-of-state fishers than for residents. For example, California residen...

A district court upheld FWS' decision to terminate the southern sea otter translocation program off the coast of California. Due to the threatened species' vulnerability to extinction from oil spills, environmental contamination, disease, shooting, and entanglement in fishing gear, FWS began the tra...

The Fifth Circuit reversed an oil company's convictions for violating the CAA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) in connection with its wastewater treatment system at its Corpus Christi refinery. The company was convicted for knowingly operating two uncovered tanks as oil-water separators without ...