Posts from August 2014

The Endangered Species Committee within the American Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources recently released its periodic Endangered Species Committee Newsletter (pdf).  The newsletter includes articles regarding efforts to address climate change impacts on listed species through assessment of impacts of carbon dioxide versus mercury emissions, the implications of comprehensive listing deadline settlements, the expanding reach of the ESA, and the intersection between mountaintop mining and the ESA.

On August 21, 2014, the United States District Court for the District of Montana remanded the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Forested State Trust Lands Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and suspended the associated Endangered Species Act Section 10(a)(1)(B) Permit(Permit) for incidental take of the threatened grizzly bear.  Friends of the Wild Swan v. Jewell, No. CV 13-61 (Aug. 21, 2014). The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (Department) prepared the HCP to support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) issuance of ...

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Posted in Court Decisions

Last week, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana upheld the designation of approximately 1,544 acres of privately-owned timber land located in Louisiana as critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog (Rana sevosa), concluding that even though the frog was last spotted on the property in the 1960s and the only known wild populations of the frog are all located in the State of Mississippi, the designation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) was not arbitrary or capricious.  Markle Interests, LLC v. U.S. Fish and ...

Posted in Listing

On August 20, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) declined to list (pdf) the Upper Missouri River Distinct Population Segment of the Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

According to the Service, ongoing conservation efforts initiated by private landowners and federal and state officials have worked to improve conditions for the species. These voluntary programs, including irrigation flow reductions and fish ladders, have improved habitat quality for the trout. The Service estimates that these ...

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Tags: Listing

In Center for Biological Diversity v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 11-cv-00293-JCS (pdf), plaintiffs alleged that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated section 7 of the Endangered Species Act by failing to initiate and reinitiate consultation with the National Marine Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with respect to its ongoing oversight of 382 active pesticide ingredients.

As previously reported, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted EPA’s motions to dismiss for failure to state an affirmative ...

Posted in Court Decisions

On August 12, a judge for the Northern District of California granted (pdf) a motion to dismiss claims alleging that a federal agency violated section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to consult with federal wildlife agencies concerning the potential effects of its actions on listed species in the Great Barrier Reef.

The case concerned $4.8 billion in funding for the construction of two liquefied natural gas projects in and around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. See Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. Export-Import Bank of the United ...

 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced today that it is withdrawing its proposal to list the North American wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The decision to withdraw the listing proposal followed the consensus recommendation of the Service’s three Regional Directors for the regions encompassing the wolverine’s known range in the contiguous United States – the Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest, and Pacific Southwest regions.

As we previously reported, the Regional Director of the Service’s Mountain ...

Posted in Court Decisions

On July 14, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) filed a petition for writ of certiorari (pdf) with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 749 F.3d 776 (9th Cir. 2014). In an en banc decision, the Ninth Circuit found that a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) action renewing settlement contracts with senior water rights holders is subject to consultation under section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 U.S.C. § 1536(a)(2). The Ninth Circuit’s ...

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California recently signed an order on a stipulation (pdf) in Murphy v. United States Forest Service that bars the Forest Service from proceeding with implementation of the Upper Echo Lake Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project in 2014 (Project), and requires the Forest Service to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the effects of the Project on the endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae) before proceeding further with the Project.

The Forest Service approved the Upper Echo ...

Posted in Listing

On August 4, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced its decision to list two small Texas minnows -- the sharpnose shiner (Notropis oxyrhynchus) and smalleye shiner (N. buccula) -- as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The two Texas minnows, which have been candidates species since 2002, measure less than 2 inches and have a life span of less than three years.  According to the announcement issued by the Service, the "two primary  factors affecting the status of the shiners are river fragmentation and alterations of the natural stream flow regime ...

Posted in Listing

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued a final rule (pdf) protecting three flowers under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The three flowers -- the Short's bladderpod (Physaria globosa), fleshy-fruit gladecress (Leavenworthia crassa), and whorled sunflower (Helianthus verticillatus) -- are found in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

According to the Service, whorled sunflowers are primarily threatened by industrial forestry and pine plantations. The flowers grow to be six feet tall and live in moist, prairie-like areas, woodlands ...

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Tags: Listing

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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