The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' claim that the U.S. Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated NEPA, the ESA, and the APA in deciding to install and operate an undersea warfare training range in waters adjacent to the only kno...

The Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) did not violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) or NEPA when it authorized Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to kill up to 85 California sea lions annually at the Bonneville Dam in order to prote...

A district court upheld critical habitat protections for the marbled murrelet, a small seabird found in the Pacific Northwest that nests in old-growth forests. FWS designated critical habitat for the tri-state population of marbled murrelets in 1996. In 2010, FWS determined that delisting the murrel...

The Ninth Circuit dismissed a conservation group's lawsuit challenging DOI's diversion of water from Icicle Creek, a tributary of the Wenatchee River and the Columbia River, to the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery without a state permit. The group argued that DOI violated §8 of the Reclamation Ac...

The D.C. Circuit denied petitions to downlist the straighthorned markhor, a subspecies of wild goat found in Pakistan, from endangered to threatened. The petitioners—safari clubs, hunters, and international conservationists—argued that FWS violated the ESA and APA by failing to issue a 12-month ...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision rejecting claims that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the ESA when it placed commercial fishing restrictions on sub-regions of the Pacific Ocean inhabited by the endangered western distinct population segment of Stellar sea lion...

A district court held unlawful BLM's methodology for assessing the impact of federal actions on the northern spotted owl as well as its failure to offer for sale a declared amount of timber from two western Oregon districts. Under the Oregon and California Lands Act of 1937 (O&C Act), once BLM d...

A district court granted environmental groups' motion to intervene in a landowner's lawsuit challenging FWS' critical habitat designation for the dusky gopher frog in portions of Louisiana and Mississippi. The landowner, who owns property that falls within the designation, argued that the designatio...

A district court ordered three men to pay South Africa $29.5 million in restitution for illegally harvesting and importing into the United States large quantities of West Coast rock lobsters from South African waters in violation of the Lacey Act. But because the men already paid $7 million to South...

The D.C. Circuit upheld FWS's determination that sport-hunted polar bear "trophies" may no longer be imported into the United States under the Marine Mammals Protection Act (MMPA) as of the effective date of the ESA listing rule for the species. In May 2008, FWS determined threatened status for the ...