A district court held that NOAA Fisheries adequately considered economic impacts when it designated 8.6 million acres in California, Oregon, and Washington as critical habitat for the green sturgeon, a threatened species. Developers argued that the agency was required to balance the economic impacts...

A district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by five states seeking an order requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create physical barriers in the waterways connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River Basin in order to prevent bighead and silver carp from migrating into the Great Lake...

A district court granted an environmental group's motion to preliminarily enjoin the logging of 11 timber sales and to halt any further logging activities in known occupied marbled murrelet sites in Oregon's Tillamook, Clatsop, and Elliot state forests. Defendants argued that the case was moot becau...

The First Circuit upheld an amendment to the fishery management plan for the Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery. Among other things, the amendment altered and expanded the fishery's preexisting "sector allocation program" and established new restrictions on fishing activities to prevent overf...

A district court held that DOI complied with NEPA, the ESA, and FLPMA when it approved the construction of a large solar power plant in California's Mojave Desert. Environmental groups filed suit, alleging that BLM and FWS inadequately considered the project's effect on existing populations of deser...

The Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded FWS' biological opinion for a pipeline project involving the construction, operation, and maintenance of a 678-mile, 42-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline extending from Wyoming to Oregon. The right-of-way for the pipeline encompasses approximately 2,291 acres ...

The D.C. Circuit held that FWS did not violate the ESA by removing the West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel from the list of endangered species even though several criteria in the agency's recovery plan for the species had not been satisfied. The FWS Secretary reasonably interpreted the ESA as not...

The Ninth Circuit upheld FWS regulations issued under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) that authorize the incidental take of polar bears and Pacific walruses resulting from oil and gas exploration activities in the Chukchi Sea and on the adjacent coast of Alaska. MMPA §101(a)(5)(A) requires ...

The First Circuit upheld an individual's conviction for illegally trafficking in sperm whale teeth and narwhal tusks in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The individual argued that the lower court should have instructed the jury...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's lawsuit challenging the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's annual operating plans for the Glen Canyon Dam along the Colorado River under NEPA, the ESA, and the APA. The group was concerned about the dam's impact ...