News
BLM Re-Approves Highway Through Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, Abandons Own Scientific Findings
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) re-approved a proposal from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), at the behest of Washington County, for the construction of a four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George, Utah. The decision reverses a December 2024 rejection of the same proposal by the…
Victory! Army Corps Permit Required for NEXT Refinery’s Levee Impacts
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc.’s current proposal to construct a diesel refinery at Port Westward requires another major federal permit. Represented by Advocates for the West, Columbia Riverkeeper and 1000 Friends of Oregon in 2024 sued the Army Corps for failing to require this permit, which would protect levee infrastructure from NEXT’s…
Army Corps Halts Work on Marina, Luxury Development on Idaho’s Trestle Creek
In response to litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity, Idaho Conservation League, and Advocates for the West, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the Idaho Club to stop construction on a commercial marina and lakeside housing development at the mouth of Trestle Creek on Lake Pend Oreille. The creek accounts for more than…
Lawsuit Challenges Commercial Marina, Luxury Housing on Trestle Creek
Advocates for the West and our partners at the Center for Biological Diversity and Idaho Conservation League (ICL) filed suit against two federal agencies for approving a commercial marina and luxury housing near the mouth of Trestle Creek on Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille. Work on the project is underway in apparent violation of the federal permits. Advocates…
Lawsuit Prompts Court to Require Reconsideration of Livestock Grazing at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge
A Montana federal court judge issued a ruling this week granting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to reevaluate its determination justifying livestock grazing at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana’s Centennial Valley, to reconsider its grazing permit approach, and to reevaluate the environmental impacts of commercial cattle grazing at the Refuge….
Conservation groups warn reckless CRA use has thrown public lands management into question
Advocates for the West and five of our conservation partner organizations sent a letter to the Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), warning that at least 5,033 oil and gas leases—covering nearly 4 million acres—may now be legally invalid. The letter asks the agency to halt all new leasing and permitting until…
Court action filed to protect resources, public involvement in massive Wyoming drilling project
Advocates for the West and our conservation partners are challenging an attempt by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sidestep a 2024 court order halting the Converse County Oil & Gas Project in the southern Powder River Basin of Wyoming and unlawfully expedite development of new wells. Powder River Basin Resource Council and Western…
BLM Again Considering Four-lane Highway through Utah’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
On Friday, October 3, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it is reassessing a right-of-way application from the Utah Department of Transportation for the four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area near St. George, Utah. The proposal has been rejected seven times, mostly recently in December 2024 by the BLM…
Proposed Sage-Grouse Management Undermines Current Protections and Sweeps Away Critical Conservation Measures
Conservation groups submitted comments today on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed changes to the greater sage-grouse management plans, lamenting the potential roll-backs from protections the 2024 plans would have afforded the imperiled bird. The new management schemes would significantly weaken the existing plans, which have already proven inadequate to slow the decline of the…
Court Orders Less Reliance on Pesticide Spraying on Millions of Acres of Western Rangelands
A federal judge in Oregon confirmed the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) legal duty to consider preventative measures—rather than a “spray first, ask questions later” approach—in its program allowing insecticide spraying to kill native grasshoppers and crickets on millions of acres in 17 western states. The Court’s rulings also require APHIS to be…
