News

February 18, 2025

Lawsuit Challenges Massive Idaho Gold Mine Threatening Wildlife, Public Health

Advocates for the West and a coalition of local and national conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service today for its approval of the Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains that would jeopardize public health and clean water, harm threatened species, and permanently scar thousands of acres…

January 17, 2025

Victory! Court Lays Down the Law for Incoming Trump Administration

Advocates for the West won a significant victory in our sweeping case challenging thousands of oil and gas leases in sage-grouse habitats. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the first Trump administration illegally approved hundreds of oil and gas leases on public lands and prohibited any further development of those…

January 8, 2025

Landmark Agreement Reached to Protect Point Reyes National Seashore

Today, the National Park Service, Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, Point Reyes Seashore Ranching Association, other Point Reyes National Seashore ranchers, and The Nature Conservancy reached a landmark agreement to settle a decades-long land-use conflict over the future of dairying, cattle ranching, and wildlife management at northern California’s Point Reyes…

December 20, 2024

VICTORY! Federal agencies reject destructive highway through Utah’s Red Cliffs NCA

Advocates for the West and our partners won a major victory to protect Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (NCA) in southwest Utah from a destructive highway proposal. Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) signed a Record of Decision to deny a right-of-way for the four-lane Northern Corridor…

November 8, 2024

Proposed Greater Sage-grouse Plan Amendments Will Continue Bird’s Extinction Spiral

Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its final Environmental Impact Statement and proposed plan amendments for Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide Planning, laying out the blueprint of the agency’s intentions for 65 million acres of the bird’s public lands habitat but falling far short of what science says the birds need to avoid extinction. Conservation groups…

November 7, 2024

Advocates for the West, Partners Applaud Plan Signaling Denial of Northern Corridor Highway Right-of-Way

Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) indicating BLM’s intent to deny a right-of-way for the proposed four-lane Northern Corridor Highway through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (NCA) in southwestern Utah near Zion National Park. The Utah Department of Transportation’s proposed Northern Corridor Highway…

October 20, 2024

Objections Filed Against Stibnite Gold Mine, CuMo Exploration Project Environmental Reviews, Draft Approvals 

In recent weeks, Advocates for the West and our partners compiled and submitted formal objections against two separate—and significantly flawed—environmental reviews and draft approvals of mining activity in Idaho. Stibnite Gold Mine On October 18, a coalition of Advocates for the West’s conservation partners submitted objections to the final Environmental Impact Statement and draft Record…

September 30, 2024

Advocates for the West, Partners move to intervene again to defend Public Lands Rule

After taking similar legal action in two other cases in recent months, Advocates for the West and our partners at the Conservation Lands Foundation and The Wilderness Society filed a motion to intervene to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule against a lawsuit brought this past summer by the State of…

September 23, 2024

Forest Service fails to address threats to Boise River watershed in draft approval of CuMo Mine Exploration

Advocates for the West and our conservation partners are speaking out against the U.S. Forest Service’s draft approval of the CuMo Mine Exploration Project in the headwaters of the Boise River. Idaho Copper Corporation is seeking approval from the Forest Service to construct up to eight miles of new roads, clear 122 drill pads, and…

September 19, 2024

Conservation Groups Seek to Defend Public Lands Rule from Misguided Legal Attack

Advocates for the West and our partners filed a motion to intervene to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Public Lands Rule against a lawsuit brought this past summer by the States of North Dakota, Idaho, and Montana in North Dakota federal district court.  The conservation groups—including Conservation Lands Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and…