Posts from March 2012
Posted in Litigation

In a case with a complicated procedural history, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon recently held (pdf) that a claim for failure to consult under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) arises under the citizen suit provision of that Act rather than under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).  In doing so, the Court followed the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Western Watersheds Project v. Kraayenbrink, 632 F.3d 472 (9th Cir. 2011) (pdf) and rejected a contrary interpretation included in proposed findings and recommendations (pdf) of the magistrate.  ...

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Posted in Litigation

On Tuesday, March 27, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington will hear argument in a suit filed by National Wildlife Federation against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for failure to fully implement the reasonable and prudent alternative (RPA) that accompanied the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) biological opinion regarding the impacts of the FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on listed species in the Puget Sound.

In 2004, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled

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A judge in the District of Washington D.C. recently denied a request by the Humane Society of the United States to halt the killing of sea lions that prey on endangered spring run salmon and steelhead on the Columbia River.  On March 15, 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) reauthorized the removal of California sea lions that congregate at the Bonneville dam and feed on the listed species as they pass the dam.  NMFS's authorization would have allowed the removal of up to 92 sea lions annually through 2016.  The Humane Society challenged NMFS's decision, claiming that NMFS ...

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a law that orders the Secretary of the Interior to reissue a rule that delists a distinct population of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains without regard to the Endangered Species Act ("ESA") and without judicial review.  Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Salazar, No. 11-36552 (9th Cir. March 14, 2012).  As previously reported, in 2009 the Fish and Wildlife Service ("Service") issued what is known as the "2009 Rule," which designated a distinct population of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and removed ESA ...

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Posted in Listing

The Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in order to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to make a determination whether to delist the valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Desmocerus californicus dimorphus), a species with a distribution from southern Shasta County to Fresno County in California's Central Valley.  The lawsuit was reported by a number of news outlets including the Sacramento Bee (March 15, 2012, by Matt Weiser).

The valley elderberry longhorn beetle was listed by the Service as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1980.  At that time, the ...

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Tags: Listing

On March 8, 2012, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior announced a new program for conserving wildlife habitat on private lands.  Under the new program, Federal, state, and local wildlife experts will jointly identify at-risk species that would benefit from habitat restoration on private lands and, using the best available science, prioritize restoration actions on a regional scale.  These efforts will initially be limited to seven species: the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis), bog turtle ...

On March 8, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California entered judgment in Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and Kern County Water Agency v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, et al., No 1:09-cv-02024 (E.D. Cal.) based on a settlement agreement in which FEMA agreed to request consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act regarding the impacts of its implementation of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on threatened and endangered ...

On February 29, 2012, the California Natural Resources Agency released approximately 10,000 pages of "preliminary" draft planning documents relating to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) for public review and comment.  The documents fall into two categories: Draft BDCP documents, and Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) documents (see the list below for details).

The BDCP is being developed in compliance with the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the California Natural Communities Conservation Planning Act (NCCPA ...

Nossaman’s Endangered Species Law & Policy blog focuses on news, events, and policies affecting endangered species issues in California and throughout the United States. Topics include listing and critical habitat decisions, conservation and recovery planning, inter-agency consultation, and related developments in law, policy, and science. We also inform readers about regulatory and legislative developments, as well as key court decisions.

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