WE WORK WONDERS for NATURAL WONDERS
When an environmental plight calls for lean and hard-hitting legal muscle, conservation groups, Native American Tribes, and concerned citizens call on us. Advocates for the West boosts the strength of our partners by providing free legal representation in federal court—advancing the mission of every client by putting the power of law and science on the side of the West.
Since our founding in 2003, Advocates for the West has provided free legal support to our partners with an 85% record of success.
Smart and efficient, our attorneys work with partners to develop strategic cases aimed at enforcing the nation’s bedrock environmental laws. We handle an extensive caseload with an impressive win record.
We work wonders to perpetuate natural wonders. We win for the West.
BLM Secret Permit Transfer
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Arnold L. Pike, Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of the Interior
Advocates for the West filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management challenging BLM secret grazing permit transfer to one of the largest livestock corporations in the U.S., J.R. Simplot Livestock Co (“Simplot”). In the midst of separate litigation over the BLM’s grazing permits on the Battle Creek allotment, BLM secretly transferred two of these…
Steens Mountain Wind Development
Case: Oregon Natural Desert Association and Audubon Society of Portland v. Ken Salazar and Bureau of Land Management
May 26, 2016 — Oregon Natural Desert Association won a 9th circuit court ruling that an environmental review by the BLM failed to adequately address the population of greater sage-grouse during winter at the proposed wind farm facility at Steens Mountain. ONDA filed the appeal with the 9th circuit following our 2013 settlement, after the…
Grazing Allotment EA Challenges in ID, WY, UT
Case: Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Utah Environmental Congress v. U.S. Forest Service
February 14, 2013 — U.S. Magistrate Judge Ron Bush ruled in our favor on all 4 challenged decisions allowing the U.S. Forest Service to forgo conducting environmental analysis on 43 grazing allotments in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. In 2010, Region 4 of the Forest Service renewed grazing permits for hundreds of allotments without conducting any…
Spring Valley Wind Energy Facility
Case: Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, and Ely Shoshone Tribe v. Bureau of Land Management
January 25, 2011 — Two conservation groups and three American Indian tribes filed suit to protect a mountain valley adjacent to Great Basin National Park in Nevada from a poorly-sited industrial wind energy project approved by BLM with minimal environmental review. The Spring Valley Wind Energy Project is a mere 4 miles from one of the…
Ruby Pipeline
Case: Western Watersheds Project, Oregon Natural Desert Association and Ruby Pipeline Agree to Establish Conservation Funds
Ruby settlement established new conservation fund. Advocates for the West recently helped broker an innovative settlement between WWP and El Paso Pipeline Corp. to establish a $15 million Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund. The Fund will work to retire grazing permits on a willing seller basis to mitigate for impacts of the 650-mile Ruby natural gas…
Grouse, Meadow, Rock, & Trail Creek grazing allotments
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. David Rosenkrance and Bureau of Land Management
The Court ordered BLM to develop a new Environmental Assessment (EA) and new grazing decisions within one year or grazing cannot continue. January 5, 2011 — Judge Lodge ruled in our favor on all three of our claims under the National Environmental Policy Act: that BLM failed to take a “hard look” at impacts to…
Pleasantview allotment
Case: Idaho Conservation League and Western Watersheds Projects v. Steele
The Pleasantview allotment covers 70,000 acres of mostly public lands near Malad City, in southeast Idaho. It offers habitat for greater sage-grouse, Columbia sharp-tail grouse, and other imperiled species; yet BLM has allowed excessive livestock grazing to badly damage the uplands and stream bottoms. Weeds and alien species are spreading, aided by livestock overgrazing of native…
Kemmerer sheep grazing
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management, J.R. Broadbent Grazing Assoc., LLC
August 15, 2008 — An Administrative Law Judge with the Dept. of Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals agreed with us that BLM thus violated NEPA in approving the grazing permits; and ordered them reversed and remanded with instructions for BLM to prepare a full environmental analysis. The Granger and Carter Lease allotments encompass 720,000…
Bully Creek grazing
Case: Western Watersheds Project and Oregon Natural Desert Association v. Massington
Over several years we have brought various administrative appeals and court cases seeking to force BLM to protect sage-grouse, redband trout and other sensitive resources from livestock grazing damage in the Bully Creek area of eastern Oregon. BLM adopted and promised to follow an improved grazing regime after our initial 2001 lawsuit; but monitoring showed that objectives…
Washington State Lands
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Jennifer Quan
The Thurston County Superior Court ruled that WDFW’s action in approving the latest Asotin grazing permit was arbitrary and capricious, noting that the agency had disregarded its own scientists’ concerns about wildlife. January of 2011 — We successfully settled our case challenging the Whiskey Dick EIS with an agreement that will close about 35,000 acres of…
