Endangered Species Law & Policy

On October 1, 2010, the California Fish and Game Commission declared the mountain yellow-legged frog a candidate species (PDF) as defined by section 2068 of the Fish and Game Code.  The Commission accepted the petition to list the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered at its September 15, 2010 meeting.  The Center for Biological Diversity previously submitted (PDF) a petition to the Commission to list the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered on January 27, 2010.  The Commission transmitted the petition to the California Department of Fish and Game for review.

The ...

The burrowing owl (pdf) is a species broadly distributed in the western United States that also occupies other parts of the continental United States as well as Central and South America.  The species is resident in much of the State of California.  Populations of the species have declined in certain areas of the State over time, but the population in Imperial County increased with the expansion of agriculture in the region over the past century.  It was recently reported that the Imperial County population, which was as high as 5600 pairs in the past decade, totaled less than 4900 pairs in ...

On Monday, September 27, 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its determination that the Gunnison sage-grouse warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act, but that proposing that it be listed as threatened or endangered be postponed while the Service addresses the needs of higher priority species.

Historically, the Gunnison sage-grouse occupied southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico, and northeastern Arizona.  But according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, its range has been reduced to seven separate populations in southwestern ...

Last week, a man in southeast Alaska pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by twice intentionally ramming the boat he was operating into humpback whales, a listed species under the Act.  Federal prosecutors charged Kevin Carle with knowingly harassing, pursuing and harming whales, a violation that resulted in two years of probation and a $1,025 fine, reports the Juneau Empire.  Carle is now required to participate in an ESA Awareness program and must notify a probation officer if hired as a boat operator.

While in both instances Carle intentionally veered ...

Recently, a number of news outlets reported that the population of the palila (Loxioides bailleui), a Hawaiian songbird that the Fish and Wildlife Service listed as endangered in 1967 under the predecessor to the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA), has decline dramatically in recent years according to surveys conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and other entities.  In a five year status review of the species (pdf), the Fish and Wildlife Service previously identified the population decline.

From 2003 to 2007, the estimated number of palila on the southwestern slope of Mauna Kea ...

Two statewide snowmobile associations challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service's 2009 final rule designating critical habitat for the contiguous United States distinct population segment of the Canada lynx on the grounds the Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  In an order (PDF) dated September 10, 2010, the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming rejected plaintiffs' NEPA claims but concurred with plaintiffs that certain lands were designated as critical habitat in the final rule due to the ...

As we previously reported, representatives of the Federal government asked the National Research Council’s Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta to consider amending its existing task by agreeing to conduct a review of the draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).  In a letter (PDF) dated September 10, 2010 and addressed to representatives of the Departments of the Interior and Commerce, the National Research Council agreed to provide a "short report" assessing the adequacy of the use of science and adaptive management in ...

The Service released a draft Revised Recovery Plan (PDF) for the northern spotted owl dated September 8, 2010.  The species, which inhabits portions of California, Oregon, and Washington, was listed as threatened in 1990.  A chronology of regulatory actions taken by the Service with respect to the northern spotted owl is available here (PDF).  According to a news release (PDF) issued by the Service, "[t]he draft revision is not an overhaul of the existing recovery plan but includes significant refinements based on scientific and technological advancements, especially related to ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit amended an opinion it filed earlier this year in Butte Environmental Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which we wrote about here.  The case concerns a challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) finding that a proposed business park would not adversely modify the critical habitat of three listed species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While the Ninth Circuit did not change its holding from the June opinion (PDF), it did clarify previous dicta concerning the Service’s analysis of adverse modification ...

The Ninth Circuit issued a decision (PDF) recently in which it held that the removal of an endangered plant from privately-owned waters of the United States is not a violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Section 9(a)(2)(B) of the ESA makes it unlawful to remove and reduce to possession any [endangered species of plant] from areas under federal jurisdiction. The court rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the term areas under federal jurisdiction includes areas that qualify as wetlands and other waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act. The decision is important ...