On February 3, 2010, Advocates for the West sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its violation of the Endangered Species Act in refusing to determine if the pygmy rabbit warrants protection under the ESA. This case is now the third time we have had to sue the Service for its continued and repeated violations of the ESA with respect to our efforts to protect the pygmy rabbit.

Back in 2007, a federal court ordered the Service to determine whether pygmy rabbits needed protection under the ESA, which the Service has failed to do.  In the meantime, scientific evidence continues to mount, which shows that rabbit populations and habitat are continuing a downward spiral toward extinction.  This lawsuit is seeking to force the Service to acknowledge this science, and protect the pygmy rabbit under the Endangered Species Act.

In another precedent setting decision, the Idaho federal court ruled that BLM violated its grazing regulations by authorizing livestock grazing on the 70,000-acre Nickel Creek allotment in the Owyhee Plateau of southwestern Idaho without imposing mandatory terms to protect streams and fish and wildlife habitat.  This ruling followed a 4-week trial in which an Administrative Law Judge found that BLM failed to follow basic scientific principles in its grazing management on the Nickel Creek allotment, despite extensive degradation caused by too many cows on the allotment. 

Idaho settles anti-discrimination lawsuit agreeing to pay legal fees and revise rules governing leasing of state endowment trust lands to not discriminate against bids to use the lands for conservation.

Staff attorney Laurie Rule has just filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop BLM from allowing domestic sheep turnout on the Partridge Creek allotment, because of dangers posed to the last remaining native Bighorn Sheep population in the Salmon River area of central Idaho.

Our litigation previously forced the Forest Service to close several domestic sheep allotments in the surrounding Payette and Nez Perce National Forests, based on agency and independent science showing that bighorn sheep can catch fatal diseases from domestic sheep.  Yet the BLM refuses to follow the Forest Service's lead, and is allowing sheep grazing to continue on the Partridge Creek allotment.

An injunction hearing is set for 9:30 AM on October 6, 2009, in federal court in Pocatello. 

THREE NEW CASES FILED TO PROTECT PAHSIMEROI AND LEMHI WATERSHEDS.

Advocates for the West filed three new cases in June and July 2009 for client Western Watersheds Project, suing the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management over their legal violations in managing public lands in the Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds of central Idaho.  

The Pahsimeroi and Lemhi watersheds offer vital habitat for endangered fish -- including salmon, steelhead and bull trout -- as well as sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, and other sagebrush species.  Yet the federal agencies continue to authorize livestock grazing and grazing-related water developments and diversions without accounting for the harms they cause to these imperiled species and their habitats.  These three cases are the first of a suite of lawsuits aimed at improving habitat conditions in the Upper Salmon basin.  

 The recently published article linked below aptly points out the hypocrisy of Western Senators 'self-reliant' talking points and subsidy based policy decisions.

The 18 land use plans that BLM approved in the waning months of the Bush Administration determine long-term management on more than 25 million acres of key sage-grouse habitat in Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. As the lawsuit explains, BLM failed to study the harmful effects of grazing plus energy development and other actions on sagebrush habitat and sage-grouse populations; and it refused to take the steps its own 2004 Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Strategy requires to prevent further declines in this imperiled species.

Advocates for the West has recently filed two major new lawsuits on behalf of our client Western Watersheds Project, which together challenge BLM decisions that harm sage-grouse on more than 35 million acres of public lands in the Interior West.

Both these cases target Bush Administration decisions that open up the public lands to more energy development, livestock grazing, and other harmful industries, thus ensuring that sage-grouse continue a downward spiral toward Endangered Species Act listing.