News

November 25, 2014

BLM Withdraws Permit for Idaho Predator Killing Derby!

Boise, ID:  In response to our lawsuit, the Bureau of Land Management backed down from its decision to allow the Idaho Predator Hunting Derby on 3.1 million acres of our public lands surrounding Salmon, Idaho. Advocates for the West’s Director of Litigation Laird Lucas and Staff Attorney Bryan Hurlbutt represent Defenders of Wildlife in this case, filed…

November 14, 2014

Advocates for the West Challenges Predator Derby

Advocates for the West filed a complaint on November 13, 2014 against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s action authorizing an “Idaho Predator Hunt Derby” on public lands surrounding the town of Salmon.  Event organizers were granted a 5-year permit for an annual 3-day event which would include up to 500 participants. Entrants would be encouraged…

September 8, 2014

Advocates for the West Issues Notice of Intent to Sue to Wildlife Services

On September 8, 2014, Advocates for the West filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program over its large-scale, often secretive killing of wild animals in Idaho, on behalf of four conservation organizations. The program kills millions of animals nationwide every year, and in 2013 killed more than 3,000…

August 19, 2014

Spring Valley Wind Finally Protecting Bats

A recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal details Nevada’s Spring Valley Wind energy facility’s belated steps to curtail wind turbine operations to reduce the deaths of bats at the facility, which have been far higher than the developer and BLM predicted. The initial number predicted and allowable death limit was 169 for 2013, but the…

Lochsa Highway Idaho Environmental Law conservation
June 25, 2014

Good News for the Clearwater-Lochsa!

By Advocates for the West Board Member Linwood Laughy: Two recent developments have dealt another blow to the Port of Lewiston, which has launched an aggressive promotional and legal campaign to open Highway 12 to megaloads and thus attract incoming traffic to its newly extended $2.8 million container dock. Normal traffic over this dock has…

April 9, 2014

Raven Killers

UPDATE – 5/29/14 We are elated to announce that the agencies have backed down, and no ravens will be poisoned or crushed this spring. Fish and Game representative Jeff Gould claims the agencies will execute this project next spring, once a supplemental environmental assessment has been completed, but Advocates for the West and our clients are here to…

Environmental law Bighorn sheep Advocates for the West
March 26, 2014

Victory for Bighorn Sheep!

On Monday, March 17th – 2014, Advocates for the West’s Senior Attorney Laurie Rule appeared in court as an intervenor on behalf of the US Forest Service. We backed the agency’s decision to restrict domestic sheep grazing on much of the Payette National Forest due to the likelihood of domestic and bighorn interaction. Such interactions lead to bighorn contracting a fatal…

Mega Load case environmental law Advocates for the West photographed by Dave King
February 11, 2014

The Tortoise Trail

An ongoing saga of the wandering mega-load By Linwood Laughy February 11: Day 70 on the Tortoise Trail… Today General Electric’s giant water evaporator evades the rigors of a Montana winter in a warehouse in Bonner, 11 miles east of Missoula, while being “reconfigured” to meet Canadian transport requirements. Omega Morgan transporter will likely depart…

December 30, 2013

“Wolf Haters” and a letter to the US Forest Service

As most of us are painfully aware, wolf hunting in Idaho is an increasingly worrisome concern to those of us who understand the intrinsic value of maintaining a healthy population of wolves in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. Idaho in particular has received some glaringly bad press for its treatment of this issue, as highlighted in…

December 10, 2013

ADVOCATES FOR THE WEST ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WENDY WILSON

Boise, ID – December 2, 2013: Advocates for the West, a Boise-based nonprofit public interest environmental law firm, announces the appointment of Wendy Wilson as the organization’s incoming Executive Director. Laird Lucas, founder of AW, will continue with the organization and assumes a new role as Litigation Supervisor for the growing legal staff on January…