Chronology of Success 2008
‘Winning for the West’
February 2008
- U.S. District Court refuses to allow Fish and Wildlife Service to withdraw from a stipulation it reached with us, requiring that the next ESA listing decision on greater sage-grouse must await upcoming scientific reviews and include public comment. Effect of the decision is to deprive Bush Administration from again allowing politics to trump science in the ESA listing process for sage-grouse.
March 2008
- Settlement requires the U.S. Forest Service and BLM to conduct environmental analysis of impacts on many sensitive species from continued operation of a “sheep research station” in the Centennial Mountains near the Idaho-Montana border.
May 2008
- U.S. Magistrate Judge Mikel Williams ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service again acted unlawfully in withdrawing ESA protection for slickspot peppergrass, a rare Idaho desert flower. This is the fourth ruling that our Senior Staff Attorney Todd Tucci has won since 2003 rebuking the Service for not listing the plant under the ESA.
August 2008
- Ruling from Interior Dept. Administrative Law Judge throws out BLM grazing permits on 800,000 acres of public lands in Kemmerer District of southwestern Wyoming, based on BLM’s failure to study cumulative adverse effects of grazing and oil and gas development on sage- grouse.
September 2008
- In response to our legal pressure on behalf of clients Idaho Conservation League and The Wilderness Society, U.S. Forest Service issued an emergency closure order to protect Meadow Creek–a major tributary to the Selway River, and candidate Wild and Scenic River–from off-road vehicles, which are damaging soils and fisheries habitat.