News

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…

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…

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…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that professional gold miner Shannon Poe violated the federal Clean Water Act when he dumped suction dredge mining waste into the South Fork of the Clearwater River without a required pollution permit.  The South Fork of the Clearwater is a State Protected River and provides…

The U.S. District Court issued an opinion and granted in part a motion by federal defendants, remanding the 2021 approval of the Northern Corridor Highway right-of-way through Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (NCA) in southwestern Utah. The court decision paves the way for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to reconsider their…

Advocates for the West and our partners won a strong victory to protect Oregon spotted frogs on Jack Creek within the Antelope Allotment of central Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) fell short of its obligations under the Endangered Species Act when…

Advocates for the West and our partners are speaking out against a mining exploration project proposal in the headwaters of the Boise River, posing major threats to water quality, fish, and wildlife. The groups succeeded in blocking variations of the project twice before. Idaho Copper is seeking approval from the U.S. Forest Service to construct…

Advocates for the West filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to compel Mountain Home Air Force Base to release public records as required by law. The records relate to the Air Force’s proposal to expand and intensify military aircraft trainings over the Owyhee Canyonlands of southwestern Idaho, southeastern Oregon, and northern Nevada….

Advocates for the West filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its failure to abide by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to determine the prioritization and timing of environmental analyses for livestock grazing allotments on public lands. This has resulted in…

Mining company Perpetua Resources will pay the Nez Perce Tribe $5 million as part of a settlement agreement reached over ongoing pollution discharges into the headwaters of the East Fork South Fork Salmon River. The settlement resolves a 2019 Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuit filed by Advocates for the West and the Tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel challenging the illegal discharge of arsenic,…