Home ›

Great Basin sage-grouse

This large case challenges several hundred grazing permits, oil and gas leases, and other land management decisions approved by BLM during the last years of the Bush Administration, which individually and together harm the Great Basin core population of greater sage-grouse in Idaho and Nevada.

BLM violated basic federal environmental laws -- including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) -- in approving these actions without any comprehensive environmental review of their impacts on sage-grouse and sagebrush habitats; and without following BLM's own policies requiring it to conserve sensitive species and maximize protection of remaining sagebrush.

More than 10 million acres of public lands are covered by litigation, including in BLM's Owyhee, Bruneau, and Burley Field Offices in Idaho; and the Elko, Ely, Winnemucca, and Battle Mountain Field Offices in Nevada.

Current Status: 
Pending
Case Title and Number: 
WWP v. Kempthorne, No. 08-cv-435-BLW (D. Idaho)
Date Filed: 
01/23/2009
Staff Attorney(s): 
Todd Tucci
Kristin Ruether
Clients: 
Western Watersheds Project
Species: 
Greater Sage Grouse
Files: 
application/pdf icon
Opening Brief for Summary Judgement August 2011
application/pdf icon
Statement of Facts August 2011
application/pdf icon
Map
application/pdf icon
Great Basin sage grouse complaint
application/pdf icon
Brief opposing BLM's motion to dismiss

Updates

01/27/2012
Todd Tucci Goes to Court to Protect the West's Wildlife

If you are in Boise next Monday, January 30, come watch Advocates for the West attorney Todd Tucci in action. He'll be using his legal expertise to protect the Great Basin population of Greater sage-grouse. Judge Winmill will preside. Kristin Ruether will provide co-counsel.

We are pleased to represent Western Watersheds Project.

Come support the Advocates for the West team as they work to safeguard the West's iconic wildlife and special places!

Monday January 30, 10:00am

US District Court 550 W. Fort St., Courtroom 3, Boise

 
08/05/2011
Opening Brief filed on the last Great Basin sage-grouse stronghold

Advocates for the West continues to hold the federal government responsible for habitat destruction in the West.
In a brief filed last Friday, Advocates for the West's Senior Staff Attorney Todd Tucci took on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for violating federal laws as well as its own management plans and regulations.
Historically the Greater sage-grouse ranged across 12 western states and 3 Canadian provinces, interconnected by sagebrush habitat. Now gone from several states and continuing to dwindle, the current range is 44% of the historic range.
Five allotments in southwestern Idaho's Bruneau and Owyhee Field Offices, totaling almost 327,000 acres of mostly BLM-administered public lands, contain key habitat for the Greater sage-grouse. BLM decided to continue grazing on these already degraded public lands, finding no significant impact to the sage-grouse population, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
BLM failed to consider the landscape as a whole and that sage-grouse travel between field offices. BLM also failed to listen to their own biologists when it was shown that the degradation occurring was due to livestock overgrazing. Instead, BLM seemed to focus on appeasing private livestock interests versus caring for the public trust.

Read the Opening Brief below.
Advocates for the West is representing Western Watersheds Project in this case.

application/pdf icon
Opening Brief for Summary Judgement
03/19/2009
Great Basin Sage Grouse Case Filed

The case takes on several hundred grazing permits, oil and gas leases, and other management decisions that BLM also issued near the end of the Bush Administration, affecting sage-grouse in the Great Basin region of Idaho and Nevada. The Great Basin still holds one of the last remaining "core" sage grouse populations, but they are suffering from habitat losses and degradation -- which BLM's decisions only worsen. Again, BLM refused to study the harms that these decisions together will have upon the public lands and sensitive species, including sage-grouse.

application/pdf icon
Read the complaint