News

This week, Advocates for the West filed a settlement agreement sending the Bureau of Land Management back to its planning desk to reconsider the impacts of livestock grazing on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (NCA)—a free-flowing river oasis in southeastern Arizona. The court-approved settlement compels the Bureau to reconsider the compatibility of grazing…

Advocates for the West recently appealed an air quality permit issued by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to Perpetua Resources Idaho, Inc. for its proposed Stibnite Gold Project east of McCall, Idaho. Advocates for the West represents the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Conservation League in this appeal, which was filed together with Save the South Fork Salmon….

Advocates for the West and our partners will be demanding opportunity for public comment and detailed environmental review from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after learning that a controversial proposal to build a new 195-foot cell tower on state-owned lands on a ridge overlooking Idaho’s iconic Redfish Lake appears to be moving forward. The cell…

Yesterday, a U.S. District Court judge approved a settlement agreement filed by Advocates for the West and Western Watersheds Project that will help protect Idaho’s native carnivores through a number of measures. The agreement between conservation groups and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management…

Advocates for the West won a significant victory in our case for Friends of the Clearwater when a federal District Court issued a ruling halting the “End of the World” and “Hungry Ridge” logging projects on the Salmon-Clearwater Divide in Idaho. In its ruling, the Court faulted the U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect…

Advocates for the West recently filed a petition for review under the Northwest Power Act, challenging Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for violating the requirement of “equitable treatment” for fish and wildlife. The petition filed in the Ninth Circuit urges the Court to review BPA’s 2021 rate decision which further threatens already declining salmon and steelhead populations and…

Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states. APHIS, a highly secretive agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, oversees and funds the application of multiple pesticides on rangelands to prevent native…

Representing the Xerces Society and Center for Biological Diversity, Advocates for the West filed a notice of intent today to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s secretive Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for failing to properly consider harms to endangered species caused by insecticide spraying across millions of acres of western grasslands. APHIS oversees…

Canadian mining company K2 Gold recently announced that it is suspending its controversial gold drilling project on California’s Conglomerate Mesa. For years, Advocates for the West has worked with our partners at Friends of the Inyo, Conservation Lands Foundation, and other groups to protect these biodiverse and culturally significant public lands — located on the doorstep of…

Advocates for the West recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of Idaho Conservation League (ICL) and Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s latest approval of a five-year gold exploration project in the Centennial Mountains near the agricultural community of Kilgore in eastern Idaho. The project, about 80 miles north of Idaho Falls on the Caribou-Targhee National…