Chronology of Success 2007

‘Winning for the West’

February 2007

  • Following a trial in which we presented expert evidence about the harms that snowmachines cause to the endangered woodland caribou in the Selkirk Mountains, we won a sweeping Court ruling holding that the Idaho Panhandle National Forest is violating “jeopardy” and “take” requirements of Endangered Species Act in failing to regulate winter motorized recreation in woodland caribou habitat. The Court also issued a new injunction which expands the closure of caribou habitat we won through preliminary injunctions in fall 2006.

March 2007

  • Idaho Public Utilities Commission issued two good decisions for energy efficiency in Idaho, approving plans to allow Idaho Power to “decouple” its rates from efficiency savings, and setting efficiency performance incentives. Our contract attorney Bill Eddie worked closely with NRDC and Northwest Energy Coalition to develop these proposals.

April 2007

  • Advocates for the West filed federal court brief detailing Bush Administration’s political interference in preventing greater sage-grouse from being protected under the Endangered Species Act, despite precipitous population losses caused by habitat losses from grazing, oil and gas, agriculture, weed invasions and other threats.

May 2007

  • Our lawsuit and injunction motion forced the U.S. Forest Service to close “high risk” sheep allotments in Hells Canyon and Salmon River Canyon to protect Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep from coming into contact with domestic sheep, which transmit fatal diseases to the bighorns.

June 2007

  • In a scathing decision, U.S. District Court holds that Bush Administration violated several federal laws in adopting new regulations for grazing on 160 million acres of public lands, finding that the new regulations would gut environmental protections and eliminate public involvement.

July 2007

  • Settlement of Clean Air Act lawsuit requires EPA to evaluate air quality impacts of emissions from Potlatch pulp mill in Lewiston.

August 2007

  • After we filed a new injunction motion aimed at protecting Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon and the Salmon River, U.S. Forest Service and permittees agreed to close a “sheep driveway” through bighorn habitat on the Payette National Forest this fall.
  • 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 and copying the documents, when BLM wrongly claimed that our non-profit client was engaged in “commercial” activities.

September 2007

  • U.S. District Court (Judge Lodge) reversed Fish and Wildlife Service’s rejection of our client’s 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.
  • Following up on our prior injunctions to protect endangered Selkirk Mountains woodland caribou from snowmobile impacts in the Idaho Panhandle, the Colville National Forest in eastern Washington agreed to alter its winter recreation plan to strictly limit motorized access to caribou habitat on that neighboring forest.

October 2007

  • 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 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.

November 2007

  • In our latest court victory to protect Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered that the Allison-Berg allotment near the Salmon River be closed to sheep grazing this year – rejecting rancher challenges to the science showing that domestic sheep grazing on public lands transmit fatal diseases to bighorn.

December 2007

  • In another nationally significant victory, U.S. District Judge Winmill reversed the January 2005 decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The Court ruled that the Bush Administration wrongly allowed politics to trump science, and remanded for a new listing decision. WWP v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 535 F. Supp. 2d 1173 (D. Idaho 2007).