Issues

  • ICYMI, last week the Administration released its Spring 2018 Unified Agenda for upcoming regulatory actions. Check out the full list HERE.

Judge reverses decision not to list small population of sage grouse. A federal judge in California ruled this week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted illegally in a 2015 decision to not list a small population of sage grouse that lives along the California-Nevada border under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

In 2015, the Service conducted a review of the status of the bi-state sage grouse in light of a proposal calling to list the population. The agency concluded that the conservation efforts already in motion were “sufficiently certain” to aid in the species’ recovery and a listing decision was unwarranted. Less than a year later, a group of environmental organizations – Desert Survivors, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project – sued the U.S. Department of Interior, arguing the conservation efforts that had been underway since 2013 had not improved the bird’s population in the area.

On Wednesday, California Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero ruled in favor of the environmental groups saying the Service’s 2015 decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and that it “failed to adequately explain why it reversed course and denied protection” to the bi-state population. Denver-based natural resources attorney Kent Holsinger reacted in E&E News, noting “Unfortunately, the lawsuit and the ruling on listed status will only make it more cumbersome and difficult to do on-the-ground conservation work for the benefit of the grouse.”

Riders concerning endangered species included in impending legislation. The Senate Appropriations Committee is hoping to pass twelve spending bills currently up for debate by the end of June. A number of riders concern the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including two within the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA/H.R. 5515).

The first stipulates that neither the Greater sage-grouse nor the lesser prairie chicken be listed under the ESA for ten years after the passing of the defense bill. When it came up for debate in a mark up last week, House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) argued the passage of this rider was important so that efforts to conserve the aforementioned species wouldn’t impose undue burden on military efforts in “the 27 ranges and 19 training areas in the western United States.”

The second rider within the bill that authorizes $717 billion in defense spending is one that proposes the American burying beetle be removed from the ESA. Last year, IPAA entered into litigation over the species after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to make a determination about its current status in the ESA-designated time period. The full NDAA is expected to be debated on the House floor next week.

In the News

Court order could derail Atlantic Coast construction. E&E News (Sub req’d). The Atlantic Coast pipeline suffered a major legal blow last night as a federal court tossed a key Endangered Species Act assessment for the project. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday vacated the Fish and Wildlife Service’s review of Atlantic Coast’s impacts on threatened and endangered species along its route. The decision could derail construction on the 600-mile Dominion Energy Inc. natural gas project, which stretches from West Virginia to North Carolina. It’s the clearest environmental victory yet in a long-running opposition campaign against the project. But Dominion and environmentalists disagree about the ruling’s immediate impacts. In a short order, a three-judge panel found that the agency’s incidental take statement — an estimate of affected species — fell short of the ESA because it failed to set clear limits on how many animals could be affected.

Panel votes to shift salmon jurisdiction, ease water projects. E&E News (Sub req’d). The House Natural Resources Committee today approved a bill that would give the Interior Department more power to make decisions on managing salmon and other fish that move between fresh water and salt water. On a 22-14 vote, the panel advanced the “Federally Integrated Species Health Act,” sponsored by California Republican Rep. Ken Calvert. The bill, H.R. 3916, now goes to the full House for its consideration. The legislation aims to avoid duplication over federal decisions involving the 1973 Endangered Species Act, by shifting greater control to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Currently, fish in the ocean are regulated by NOAA Fisheries, which is part of the Commerce Department. And fish in rivers and streams are regulated by FWS, which is part of the Interior Department. It can get confusing when it comes to fish such as salmon that migrate between fresh water and salt water.

Gulf Power invests $5.8 million in wildlife conservation in Florida. Daily Energy Insider. Gulf Power, an energy company that serves customers in Florida, has made a sizable investment in environmental conservation efforts. Since 2003, the company has invested $5.8 million in close to 100 different conservation projects in Northwest Florida that have helped preserve thousands of acres of land and countless species. “Gulf Power’s support of environmental stewardship grants have kick-started or enhanced many community involved environmental education and restoration projects that otherwise might not have gotten off the ground,” Jeff Cole, Gulf Power Stewardship coordinator, said. “These local level and regional projects benefit the area we live in by enhancing recreational areas and improving air and water quality. It’s important to be a leader by being out investing and participating in the community in which we live, work and recreate.” Among the conservation projects is the shoreline stabilization on Bayou Grande in Pensacola along with the native longleaf pine forest restoration from Perdido River to Blackwater River State Forest.

Group says lake sturgeon should be protected as endangered species. Michigan Radio. The Center for Biological Diversity is petitioning the federal government to protect lake sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act. The Center’s Mark Finc says there used to be 15 million lake sturgeon in the U.S.  There’s now just a few thousand. While Michigan and some other states have taken steps to protect lake sturgeon, Finc says it’s not enough. “What we have found is it’s fairly haphazard,” says Finc, “and that it really needs to be more consistent across the board, instead of just a couple spots here and there.” Lake sturgeon can live up to 100 years, and grow to a massive size, up to eight feet long and 300 pounds.  The fish only reaches sexual maturity at about age 15, and doesn’t reproduce every year, one of the reasons it’s been so threatened by loss of habitat and severe over harvesting that began about 100 years ago.

Conservation groups file suit in Missoula to stop Custer-Gallatin logging project. Missoula Current. Two conservation groups filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula District Court on Tuesday for authorizing logging on 11,000 acres in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest, including habitat for endangered species. In the lawsuit, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, based in Missoula, and Native Ecosystems Council, located in Three Forks, contend the Forest Service’s approval of the North Hebgen Project was arbitrary and capricious and represents an abuse of discretion. The project includes commercial and non-commercial logging, including up to 908 acres of potential old-growth forest. It also includes 15.6 miles of temporary road construction. According to the suit, areas identified in the project serve as the home range for a number of grizzly bears. Over a period of seven years, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team documented 31 locations from seven individual bears, including two females and five males.

Enviros Seek Protection Decision For Hummingbird-Like Fly. Law360 (Sub req’d). The Center for Biological Diversity launched a lawsuit in D.C. federal court Friday accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of dragging its feet on deciding whether to protect a rare, large, hummingbird-like fly under the Endangered Species Act. The conservation group’s lawsuit alleges that the FWS and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, have missed by nearly three years the deadline to make a final decision about whether to designate the San Joaquin Valley giant flower-loving fly as endangered or threatened under the statute. That’s particularly problematic given that the one remaining population of the insect, which is one of the largest flies in North America, is “threatened by sand mining, putting the fly in imminent danger of extinction from habitat loss and degradation,” according to the group’s complaint. “Defendants’ failure to comply with the ESA’s nondiscretionary deadline for a listing determination for the fly prevents the completion of the listing process and deprives the fly of statutory protections that are vitally necessary to the species’ survival and recovery,” the complaint said.