Sensitive Species

Challenge to Forest Service grazing management in Fossil Creek Range allotment of the Coconino National Forest in central Arizona, which is harming habitat for the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, Yuma clapper rail, Southwestern willow flycatcher and other imperiled species. The grazing also impairs wilderness values of the Fossil Springs and Mazatzal Wilderness Areas by causing soil erosion in steep slopes and degrading riparian habitats.

Files: 

Fossil Creek Complaint

Fossil Creek Decision

Advocates for the West recently sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its refusal to protect the pygmy rabbit as an threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

Files: 

Complaint 10/03/2011

Region 4 of the Forest Service has renewed grazing permits for hundreds of allotments without conducting any environmental analysis despite harm from grazing to many special resources. 

Files: 

Complaint

The Mono Basin Sage-Grouse isn't like other sage-grouse.  He struts on leks the same way sage-grouse accross the West have been doing for millenia, but the Mono Basin sage-grouse has unique genetic material that makes him uniquely important to the preservation of the species. 

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Bodie Hills Complaint

This case challenges a poorly-sited wind facility consisting of 75 wind turbines (each over 400 feet tall) as well as over 25 miles of new roads on BLM public land in Spring Valley, Nevada (east of Ely).  The facility near Great Basin National Park would be only 4 miles from a regionally-significant bat roost known as the Rose Guano Cave.  This cave houses up to 1 million Brazilian free-tailed bats during their fall migration.  

Files: 

9th Circuit concurrence (7-15-11)

9th Circuit memorandum opinion (7-15-11)

Advocates for the West is working with concerned individuals and conservation groups to oppose plans by Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and other Big Oil companies to create a high-and-wide industrial corridor for massive equipment to be transported from overseas shippers up Idaho's Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers over the Lolo Pass into Montana, and on to the Alberta tar sands fields.

Files: 

ITD lawsuit

Our Idaho Supreme Court brief

Overview of Idaho Opposition to Megaloads

Post Hearing Brief

The Ruby pipeline is a project of El Paso Pipeline Corp., the country's largest pipeline company, which will cover 650 miles from southwestern Wyoming to southern Oregon.  The Ruby pipeline will carry 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, providing a coal substitute for utilities on the West Coast. 

But the Ruby pipeline route cuts through key sagebrush habitats, and will contribute to fragmentation of sage-grouse and pygmy rabbits - both declining species that warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. 

Files: 

WWP - Ruby settlement press release

Map of the Ruby Pipeline Route

This case challenges BLM decisions allowing grazing and construction of numerous livestock watering troughs and fences in the Grouse Creek, Meadow Creek, Trail Creek, and Rock Creek allotments, located in the Pahsimeroi watershed of central Idaho. 

Files: 

Opinion and Order (January 2011)

Reply Brief in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment (July 2010)

Opening Brief in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment (March 2010)

Complaint (June 2009)

Challis Area Map, courtesy of IDFG.

The Granger and Carter Lease allotments encompass 720,000 acres of prime sage grouse habitat in BLM's Kemmerer Field Office of southwestern Wyoming.

BLM previously approved oil and gas drilling on the Moxa Arch project here, which has already harmed the sage-grouse population.  And BLM is planning to expand the Moxa Arch field, which will further fragment the sagebrush habitat and displace sensitive species, including pygmy rabbit and sage-grouse.

Files: 

Kemmerer ALJ decision

The 330,00-acre Soldier Meadows allotment lies adjacent to the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada; and includes parts of the recently-designated Black Rock wilderness and other new wilderness areas. 

Soldier Meadows also has numerous springs and streams occupied by endangered fish species, including the Lahontan cutthroat trout and desert dace.