Advocates for the West and our partners will be demanding opportunity for public comment and detailed environmental review from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after learning that a controversial proposal to build a new 195-foot cell tower on state-owned lands on a ridge overlooking Idaho’s iconic Redfish Lake appears to be moving forward. The cell […]
Yesterday, a U.S. District Court judge approved a settlement agreement filed by Advocates for the West and Western Watersheds Project that will help protect Idaho’s native carnivores through a number of measures. The agreement between conservation groups and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management […]
Advocates for the West won a significant victory in our case for Friends of the Clearwater when a federal District Court issued a ruling halting the “End of the World” and “Hungry Ridge” logging projects on the Salmon-Clearwater Divide in Idaho. In its ruling, the Court faulted the U.S. Forest Service for failing to protect […]
Advocates for the West recently filed a petition for review under the Northwest Power Act, challenging Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for violating the requirement of “equitable treatment” for fish and wildlife. The petition filed in the Ninth Circuit urges the Court to review BPA’s 2021 rate decision which further threatens already declining salmon and steelhead populations and […]
By Nicola Myers Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray recently released their draft report on replacing services provided by the Lower Snake River Dams. The public is welcome to provide feedback on the report through July 11, 2022 at 5pm PST. A final report will be published later this summer. The report […]
Get the latest on the work we’re doing to protect the West’s public lands, waterways, fish, and wildlife! Read the latest edition of our Case Notes newsletter here.
Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states. APHIS, a highly secretive agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, oversees and funds the application of multiple pesticides on rangelands to prevent native […]
Advocates for the West recently joined birdwatchers and bird conservationists from across the country in advocating for the Bureau of Land Management to adopt large-scale protections for sage-grouse in the agency’s current sage-grouse land use planning process. The May 20 letter to Director Tracy Stone-Manning calls for using Areas of Critical Environmental Concern designations, as […]
We’re joined by Elizabeth Hightower Allen, Editor of the anthology “First & Wildest: The Gila Wilderness at 100,” Madeleine Carey, WildEarth Guardians’ Southwest Conservation Manager, and Advocates for the West Senior Attorney Todd Tucci to discuss America’s first—and the world’s first—designated wilderness, the Greater Gila bioregion, and large landscape protections elsewhere in the West. View the full presentation here.
Representing the Xerces Society and Center for Biological Diversity, Advocates for the West filed a notice of intent today to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s secretive Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for failing to properly consider harms to endangered species caused by insecticide spraying across millions of acres of western grasslands. APHIS oversees […]