GREATER SAGE GROUSE: In another nationally significant victory, U.S. District Court reversed a January 2005 decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list Greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act. Western Watersheds Project v. Kraayenbrink, 2007 WL 1667618 (D. Idaho 2007). The Court ruled that the Bush Administration wrongly allowed politics to trump science, and remanded for a new listing decision.
Client: Western Watersheds Project.

WOODLAND CARIBOU: Following a week-long trial, US District Court ruled in March 2008 that the Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act in failing to protect woodland caribou from snowmachines in the Selkirk Mountaions of northern Idaho. The court also issued an expanded injunction closing most of the caribou recovery zone to protect caribou.
Clients: Defenders of Wildlife, Conservation Northwest, Idaho Conservation League, The Lands Council, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity (Case No. 05-cv-248-RHW, E.D. Wash.).

BIGHORN SHEEP: New lawsuit and injunction motion forced Forest Service to close five “high risk” domestic sheep grazing allotments in Hells Canyon and Salmon River to protect Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep from coming into contact with domestic sheep, which transmit fatal diseases to the bighorns.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 07-cv-151-BLW, D. Idaho).

PYGMY RABBIT: In September 2007, US District Court reversed Fish and Wildlife Service’s rejection of Endangered Species Act listing petition for the pygmy rabbit - North America’s smallest rabbit, which is imperiled by declining sagebrush habitat in Idaho and other states. The court ruled that the Service misapplied the ESA’s standards for evaluating listing petitions; and gave the agency 90 days to issue a new determination.
Clients: Western Watersheds Project, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Native Ecosystems (Civ. No. 06-cv-127-EJL, D. Idaho).

INTERIOR MOUNTAIN QUAIL: Pending litigation challenges Service’s rejection of petition to list Interior mountain quail, another imperiled high desert species, as endangered or threatened.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 06-cv-73-ELJ, D. Idaho).

SLICKSPOT PEPPERGRASS: Defying prior court orders, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in January 2007 again refused to list Slickspot peppergrass - a rare Idaho desert flower - under the ESA, so we returned to court to challenge that decision.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 07-cv-161-MHW, D. Idaho).

BLM CATEGORICAL EXCLUSION POLICIES: This new case challenges BLM’s adoption of "categorical exclusion" policies allowing it to avoid environmental review of large numbers of grazing, vegetation management, hazardous fuels and other actions that affect public lands across the West.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 07-cv-394-BLW, D. Idaho.)

SALMON, STEELHEAD AND BULL TROUT/UPPER SALMON RIVER BASIN: ESA litigation over Forest Service and BLM authorization of irrigation diversions on public lands that harm imperiled fish. Partial settlement requires Forest Service to prepare watershed analyses over several years.
Clients: Committee for Idaho’s High Desert; Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 01-cv-259-BLW, D. Idaho).

SHEEP RESEARCH STATION, CENTENNIAL MOUNTAINS: New litigation challenges BLM and Forest Service failure to analyze impacts of sheep grazing on grizzly bears and other wildlife in Centennial Mountains of Idaho/Montana border.
Clients: Center for Biological Diversity; Western Watersheds Project.

JARBIDGE RESOURCE AREA, IDAHO In 2007, Advocates for the West engaged expert scientists to monitor BLM’s implementation of our October 2005 consent decree requiring new studies and more ecologically protective grazing management on nearly 1 million acres of sage grouse habitat in southern Idaho.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 04-cv-181-BLW, D. Idaho).

OWYHEE RESOURCE AREA, IDAHO: Amended complaint filed in long-pending case challenging BLM grazing mismanagement on 1 million acres of Owyhee Resource Area of southwestern Idaho, to protect streams, sage grouse, and other sensitive resources.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 97-cv-0519-S-BLW, D. Idaho).

NICKEL CREEK ALLOTMENT, IDAHO: In a 120-page ruling after a four week trial, an Administrative Law Judge with the Department of Interior agreed with us that BLM violated range management science and allowed unacceptable ecological harm in authorizing livestock grazing on the 72,000-acre Nickel Creek allotment in the Owyhee Resource Area of southwestern Idaho. This ruling may affect dozens of allotments around the West, where BLM has similarly allowed excessive grazing to imperil wildlife habitats and water quality.
Clients: Western Watersheds Project; Idaho Bird Hunters Ass’n.

BIGHORN NATIONAL FOREST, WYOMING: New case filed in Wyoming federal court to challenge revised Forest Plan on Bighorn National Forest which did not examine any grazing alternatives.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 07-cv-323, D. Wyoming).

KEMMERER FIELD OFFICE, WYOMING: Administrative appeals over BLM’s reauthorization of livestock grazing on 800,000 acres of southwestern Wyoming lands occupied by sage-grouse, w ithout evaluating combined impacts of energy development plus grazing.
Client: Western Watersheds Project.

CURLEW NATIONAL GRASSLANDS, IDAHO: Settlement reached in case challenging Forest Service’s recent management plan for the Curlew National Grasslands in the Caribou National Forest, which notably fails to protect sage-grouse.
Clients: National Wildlife Federation; Idaho Wildlife Federation; Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 04-cv-372-BLW, D. Idaho).

SOLDIER MEADOWS AND BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEVADA: Litigation challenging BLM decision authorizing increased grazing in Black Rock Desert wilderness of northern Nevada.
Client: Western Watersheds Project (Case No. 05-cv-362-VES, D. Nevada).

MIDDLE RIO GRANDE, NEW MEXICO: We have represented state and national conservation groups promoting better water management in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico for the last decade. In 2007, we defended district court wins before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
Clients: National Audubon Society, New Mexico Audubon, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Forest Guardians, Southwest Environmental Center (Nos. 05-2293 & 05-2399, 10th Cir.).

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: Settlement under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires BLM to disclose public documents about grazing management in Nevada without charging costs of searching for the documents, when BLM wrongly claimed that our non-profit client was engaged in "commercial" activities.
Client: Western Watersheds Project.

SALMON WILD AND SCENIC RIVER: To protect our recent settlement establishing minimum instream flows in the wild and scenic Salmon River, we filed objections to irrigator "flood flow" claims in the Lemhi River (a major Salmon tributary and important anadromous fisheries habitat).
Clients: Gene Bray; Tom Stuart (Snake River Basin Adjudication).

BOISE RIVER/SRBA: Represent individual conservationist water right holders in Idaho Supreme Court appeal over ownership of storage water rights in Boise Project reservoirs, which are used for winter flows in the Boise River and to aid endangered salmon.
Clients: Gene Bray, Tom Stuart, Tom Cade, Amy Williams (Case No. 31794, Id. S.Ct.).

BOISE RIVER/ATLANTA GOLD MINE: We are working with coalition of clients opposing a proposed cyanide heap leach gold mine at Atlanta on the Middle Fork Boise River. During 2007, we opposed Atlanta Mine’s claimed water rights in the SRBA.
Clients: Idaho Conservation League, Gene Bray, Tom Stuart, others (Subcase No. 63-2499, SRBA).

UTILITY CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY: We continued to represented conservationists in various Idaho Public Utility Commission proceedings to promote renewable energy sources (particularly wind power) and energy conservation and efficiency. Among other notable steps, in March 2008 the Idaho Public Utilities Commission approved plans to allow Idaho Power to "decouple" its rates from efficiency savings, and setting efficiency performance incentives - both good decisions promoting energy efficiency in Idaho.
Clients: NW Energy Coalition; Northwest Clean Energy Advocates; NRDC; Renewable Northwest Project.

NEVADA GOLD MINE MERCURY POLLUTION: Continued working with clients to investigate and publicize high levels of mercury pollution from northern Nevada gold mining operations, which contaminate air and water in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and other states.
Clients: Idaho Conservation League; Earthworks; Great Basin Mine Watch.

POTLATCH PULP MILL: Settlement of Clean Air Act lawsuit requires EPA to evaluate the air quality impacts of emissions from the massive Potlatch pulp mill in Lewiston, Idaho.
Clients: Idaho Conservation League; concerned residents.