Endangered Species Law & Policy

The recent California wildfires have been devastating.  But it is during such times of devastation that we also get to see the good in people.  We see communities coming together, and support from around the State.  As reported by a number of news agencies, that support has extended to not just people, but also pets.  There are stories with pictures of police officers corralling pot belly pigs, horses being guided through smoke and flames, and dogs and cats being rescued by a variety of organizations.  However, it isn't just people and pets who called these places ...

Continuing the quarter century controversy over the listing of the Coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica) as a threatened subspecies, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has concluded that a petition to delist the gnatcatcher may be warranted. (Federal Register PDF).   The petition asserts that the listing of the Coastal California gnatcatcher as a distinct subspecies is not based on the best scientific data available as is required by the Endangered Species Act.  Nossaman prepared the petition on behalf of the National Association of Home ...

Citing new genetic evidence that the coastal California gnatcatcher is not a distinct subspecies as previously claimed, but is part of a single, healthy and abundant species that ranges from Southern California to the southern tip of Baja, Mexico, the National Association of Home Builders and several other parties filed a petition to remove the coastal California gnatcatcher from the list of threatened species.  The petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is based on a peer-reviewed study of gnatcatcher DNA by Dr. Robert Zink of the University of Minnesota and ...