News

Advocates for the West recently filed our opening brief in a case to protect four herds of bighorn sheep that occupy habitat in close proximity to the Wishbone allotment in Colorado’s Rio Grande National Forest. The Forest Service knew that grazing domestic sheep within the allotment threatened to infect these bighorn herds with deadly pathogens, yet still authorized grazing in the area. Domestic sheep carry a pathogen that causes pneumonia…

Get the latest on what Advocates for the West is doing to protect and defend the West’s public lands, water and wildlife. Read here.

EPA Finally Releases Plan to Protect Wild Salmon in Columbia and Snake Rivers In response to our recent Ninth Circuit Court win, this week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally released its much-anticipated plan (called a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL) to control heat pollution in the Columbia and Snake rivers. EPA’s plan is further evidence that removing the…

On Monday, the U.S. District Court in Idaho revoked the Forest Service’s approval of the Kilgore Project and stopped Canadian mining company Otis Gold Corp. (now Excellon Resources Inc.) from moving forward with gold exploration near the Centennial Mountains by the town of Kilgore, Idaho. The area contains a critical wildlife corridor on the Idaho-Montana…

In a position that is unusual for us, Advocates for the West is helping defend a winter travel plan issued by the U.S. Forest Service that regulates snowmobile use in Central Idaho.  The Fairfield Ranger District on the Sawtooth National Forest completed a winter travel plan that allowed for significantly increased public snowmobile use in the north…

Advocates for the West sued Bureau of Land Management (BLM) this week for failing to protect the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA) from destructive livestock grazing practices. The SPRNCA starts at the U.S.-Mexico border and continues north approximately 47 miles along the San Pedro River. In 1988, Congress created the SPRNCA – the nation’s first riparian National Conservation Area –…

CONFLUENCE – where art and conservation meet. Advocates for the West is honored to collaborate with contemporary landscape painter Rachel Teannalach on an exciting new series titled Confluence. In this project, we are working in tandem to advocate for the Pacific Salmon and the elaborate river and ocean ecosystems this imperiled species calls home. Teannalach has created a series of paintings…

Dear Advocates for the West friends and colleagues, During these unprecedented times, our thoughts and prayers are with you and our global community. Advocates for the West is well prepared to weather the storm. But we are only as strong as our staff, supporters, and clients. Thus, we will continue doing everything we can to support and protect each other and our communities. As our…

In a key victory for Idaho wildlife, Advocates for the West and our clients filed a settlement agreement in Idaho federal court yesterday that sets strict limits preventing federal agency USDA Wildlife Services from killing wolves in Idaho wilderness areas and other special places, bans the use of snares targeting wolves, and halts the use of M-44…

Advocates for the West won a significant victory yesterday when a federal judge overturned a Trump administration policy which curtailed public participation in oil and gas leasing decisions. The court also granted Advocates for the West‘s request to void lease sales covering nearly 1 million acres of public lands — roughly a quarter of all acres leased by the…