Construction and operation of the proposed Stibnite Gold Project under the terms set forth in an air pollution permit issued by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) would not comply with the federal Clean Air Act. That message was made clear in an August 10 letter from Casey Sixkiller, Regional Administrator for the Environmental […]
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, […]
Advocates for the West won a lawsuit stopping livestock grazing authorizations in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. We represented Western Watersheds Project and the Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter in the case. This is the second time a judge has determined that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) relied on faulty information to justify livestock grazing […]
By Maggie Larson The Columbia River Basin is the crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest. It consists of about 250,000 square miles of rivers and tributaries, including the Snake River which feeds into the Columbia. The Columbia Basin was once home to one of the most abundant salmon runs in the U.S. but has been […]
Former Advocates for the West board Chair Lin Laughy delivered the speech below at our 20th anniversary celebration in Boise, ID on June 14, 2023. Lin graciously provided a manuscript of his speech to present as a blog post. Thank you, Lin! Let me tell you a story. Joseph Campbell studied myths from around the […]
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service challenging the agency’s unlawful decisions to improve and expand four locations in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness for aircraft landings and to permit hobby pilots to use these sites for motorized recreation. We’re representing Wilderness Watch, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Friends of […]
Advocates for the West filed a settlement agreement in federal court requiring the Forest Service to address the threat that domestic sheep grazing poses to nearly half of the wild bighorn sheep in Washington state from disease outbreaks. The settlement resolves litigation filed in November 2020 by Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians over the agency’s failure to […]
Get the latest on the work we’re doing to protect the West’s public lands, water, fish, and wildlife! Read the latest edition of our Case Notes newsletter here.
Advocates for the West and our partners won another major victory to protect sage-grouse in southeastern Idaho. On June 2, a federal judge fully vacated a set of approvals by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorizing development of the Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine. Phosphate from the mine was slated to be used by Bayer […]
The federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states threatens pollinators and other insects, which contribute services valued at more than $70 billion per year to the U.S. economy, according to a recent study. Greater sage-grouse, monarch butterflies, western bumblebees, and other species […]