News
VICTORY! Court Rejects Federal Pesticide-Spraying Program on Millions of Acres of Western Rangelands
Advocates for the West and our partners at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity won a significant victory against the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states to kill native grasshoppers and crickets. U.S. District…
Defending BLM’s ability to manage for healthy landscapes, wildlife, clean water, cultural resources
Advocates for the West and our partners filed a motion to intervene in federal court to defend the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recently finalized Public Lands Rule. The motion comes in response to a case and motion for preliminary injunction filed by the States of Utah and Wyoming that seeks to prevent the BLM…
VICTORY! Supreme Court decision ends saga of dredge miner who polluted Idaho river
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the longstanding requirement that suction dredge miners must obtain a Clean Water Act permit before engaging in the destructive activity. The Supreme Court rejected a petition to review prior federal court rulings that found gold miner Shannon Poe, of California, violated the Clean Water Act when he dumped suction…
VICTORY! Court denies Simplot’s motion to dismiss lawsuit over illegal feedlot pollution
A lawsuit challenging decades of unlawful pollution discharges into the Snake River at a Grand View, Idaho Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) will move forward following a decision by a federal court judge. On June 24, 2024, Idaho Chief District Judge David C. Nye upheld the Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuit, filed in May 2023,…
Defending Colorado’s Pawnee National Grassland from Fossil Fuel Development
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for failing to protect shortgrass prairie in Colorado’s Pawnee National Grassland from continued oil and gas extraction. We’re representing the Center for Biological Diversity in the case. “Pawnee National Grassland is increasingly known not for its incredible bird watching, stargazing, and…
Protecting Port Westward Levee and Farmland from NEXT Refinery
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) for determining that a Rivers and Harbors Act Section 14 permit was not required for NEXT Renewable Fuels’ proposed refinery and rail yard at Port Westward near Clatskanie, Oregon. Construction for NEXT’s proposed refinery and rail yard would involve…
Defending Montana’s Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge from Grazing Mismanagement
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for failing to ensure cattle grazing on the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana’s Centennial Valley does not harm wildlife. We are representing WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project in the case. Despite long-standing recognition of grazing’s harmful…
Draft Environmental Review on Highway Right-of-Way Through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area Released
Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to reconsider 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 proposed Northern Corridor Highway route violates five…
Permit invalid for proposed Stibnite Gold Mine over arsenic air pollution concerns
The Idaho Board of Environmental Quality issued a decision invalidating Perpetua Resources’ air pollution permit for the proposed Stibnite Gold Mine in Valley County. Blasting and hauling operations at the proposed mine would emit massive amounts of arsenic-laden dust. The Board found that the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) failed to follow Idaho air pollution…
Biden Administration’s Preferred Sage Grouse Plan Fails to Protect Imperiled Birds’ Vital Habitat
The Biden administration released a draft amendment today for 77 land-use plans across the western United States intended to protect the imperiled greater sage-grouse, an umbrella species whose survival is intricately linked to the health of the vast Sagebrush Sea ecosystem. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) preferred alternative falls woefully short of what is needed to…
