Endangered Species Law & Policy

On September 17, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) proposed listing the Kentucky creekshell (Villosa ortmanni) as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and designating critical habitat for the species (Proposed Rule). The freshwater mussel is found in rivers and streams in both Kentucky and Tennessee. Historically, the species was found in thirteen river basins in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, but it has been extirpated from four of those basins.

The Proposed Rule identifies water quality degradation, urbanization ...

On September 5, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas held in General Land Office v. U.S. Department of the Interior, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) improperly denied a petition to delist the federally-endangered golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia) (GCWA) by holding the petition to an unlawfully heightened standard at the initial, 90-day finding stage. As a result of the court’s ruling, the Service is required to undertake a review of the GCWA delisting petition and make a 90-day finding as to whether the petition presents ...

On September 4, 2024, the Center for Biological Diversity, along with more than 20 other groups, (collectively, CBD) delivered a petition (Petition) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in which CBD requested the Service promulgate regulations establishing a process, set of criteria, and other requirements for permitting “take” of migratory birds as a result of colliding with buildings. Specifically, the Petition requests the Service require permits for new construction of buildings with glass facades or other features that would foreseeably lead to ...

On July 24, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its Draft Insecticide Strategy to Reduce Exposure of Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Species and Designated Critical Habitats from the Use of Conventional Agricultural Insecticides (Draft Insecticide Strategy). The purpose of the Draft Insecticide Strategy is to identify and implement early mitigation measures to address population-level impacts from the use of agricultural pesticides to species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The Draft Insecticide Strategy was developed ...

On July 18, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Fifth Circuit) vacated a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (District Court) that upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2022 environmental, social and governance (ESG) rule (ESG Rule). The ESG Rule, issued pursuant to President Biden’s Executive Order, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” allows Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciaries to give weight to “the economic effects of ...

On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued a final rule listing the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelids suwanniensis) as a threatened species with a 4(d) rule under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Suwannee alligator snapping turtle is a large, freshwater turtle species occurring in the Suwannee River basin in Florida and Georgia. The species’ listing follows a 2012 petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity to list 53 amphibians and reptiles, including the alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii), which, due ...

Recently, the California Assembly passed Assembly Bill 1889, the “Room to Roam Act.” If enacted without changes, the Room to Roam Act would amend Section 65302 of the Government Code to add certain “fish, wildlife, and habitat connectivity” considerations to the provisions governing general plans for land use in Californian cities and counties.

The bill’s passage in the Assembly is a significant development in efforts to reform California’s land use and wildlife conservation policies, as the bill would require local land use decisions to factor in wildlife movement ...

On May 20, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule listing the dunes sagebrush lizard (Scleroperus arenicolus) (DSL) as endangered (Final Rule) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the Final Rule, the Service identifies habitat loss and fragmentation of dunelands associated with oil and natural gas production and frac sand mining as the primary threat to the species, with climate change causing additional impacts.

The Service received more than 18,000 comments on its proposed rule to list the DSL, with many urging the Service not to list the ...

On April 24 and 25, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously upheld two federal district court decisions rejecting challenges to the federal approvals for the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm in the cases of Nantucket Residents Against Turbines v. U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (ACK RATs),^[1] No. 23-1501, and Melone v. Coit et al., No. 23-1736. Each of the cases challenged different aspects of the federal government’s approvals for Vineyard Wind, but both argued that the project would harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale ...

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and Center for Biological Diversity entered into a settlement agreement wherein the Service agreed to submit to the Federal Register final listing decisions on the following six mussel species no later than May 23, 2024:

• Texas fatmucket (Lampsilis bracteate);
• Guadalupe fatmucket (Lampsilis bergmanni);
• Texas fawnsfoot (Truncilla macrodon);
• Texas pimpleback (Cyclonaias (= Quadrula) petrina);
• Guadalupe orb (Cyclonaias necki); and
• False spike (Fusconaia (= Quincuncina) mitchelli).

As Nossaman previously reported, on ...