Forest Service Litigation Weekly 2/17/15

Thanks again to FS employees who send this to me..would prefer the FS would would post it on a website, but hey ;)!

NOI ǀ Bull Trout
NOI Filed Alleging ESA Violations for Failure to Re-initiate Consultation on Bull Trout. On
January 27, 2015, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Western Watersheds Project,
Native Ecosystems Council, WildEarth Guardians, and Cascadia Wildlands, filed an NOI alleging that
the Forest Service is in violation of Section 7 of the ESA for failure to re-initiate consultation on the
INFISH and PACFISH management strategies, the amendments that adopted the strategies into Forest
Plans, and every Forest plan that adopted PACFISH and INFISH. The NOI also gave notice of
Cottonwood’s intent to challenge four site-specific projects that relied on either INFISH or PACFISH
to come to a no-adverse modification determination. Cottonwood claims that re-initiation of
consultation is necessary because new critical habitat for bull trout was designated in 2010.

Here’s something interesting…
Region 5..

NOI Filed Alleging ESA Violations Regarding Northern Spotted Owl and Grey Wolf. On February 3, 2015, an NOI was filed on behalf of Conservation Congress alleging that the Forest Service’s approval of the Harris Vegetation Management Project on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest
violates the ESA for failure to conduct adequate surveys to determine whether grey wolves may be present in the Project area, failure to analyze potential adverse effects of the project on the gray wolf, failure to provide for monitoring to determine the presence of and/or effects on the grey wolf during the project, and failure to utilize the best available scientific and commercial data in its analyses.

I didn’t know wolves were in California so looked around and found this..

He has now found a mate and it has been confirmed that he has at least 3 pups on the ground. OR7 and his pack are currently denning in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southern OR, in a stretch of habitat shared with California. Experts are now saying that California will be the next state to which wolves naturally disperse and repopulate.

here.

Anyone know a good source for current information?

Anyway, here is a link to the pdf version of the Weekly plus a couple of related court documents.

2015_02_17 NFS Litigation Weekly

20150120DistrictOrderInjPendAppealAWR_v_Ashe_YoungDodge

20150205CircuitOrderWildernessWatch_v_King_HelicopterFlightFredBurrDam

2 thoughts on “Forest Service Litigation Weekly 2/17/15”

  1. The bull trout litigation would follow in the footsteps of a similar lawsuit involving designation of critical habitat for lynx. Last I heard, that was pending in the 9th Circuit after a Forest Service loss in district court.

    Reply

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