California

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes National Seashore

Case: Resource Renewal Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds Project v. National Park Service & Cicely Muldoon

July 12, 2017 — Advocates for the West reached a settlement agreement with the National Park Service. Under the agreement, the NPS will prepare a General Management Plan Amendment and an Environmental Impact Statement “that, at a minimum, addresses the lands currently leased for ranching in Point Reyes and in the north district of Golden Gate […]

Pygmy Rabbit Not Warranted for ESA Listing

Pygmy Rabbit Not Warranted for ESA Listing

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Daniel Ashe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Advocates for the West sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its refusal to protect the pygmy rabbit as an threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The pygmy rabbit is a native rabbit once found throughout the Great Basin, in recent years rabbit populations and habitat have been eliminated or destroyed by […]

US Forest Service Travel Management Plans Exclude Snowmobiles

US Forest Service Travel Management Plans Exclude Snowmobiles

Case: Winter Wildlands Alliance v. U.S. Forest Service

March 29, 2013 — Senior Attorney Laurie Rule received word that U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush had ruled in our favor. In his Court Decision, Judge Bush specifically calls out Executive Order 11644, stating that the Order – “requires an agency to promulgate regulations that provide for designation of areas of use and non-use […]

Snowmobile Use in California National Forests

Snowmobile Use in California National Forests

Case: Snowlands Network, Winter Wildlands Alliance, and Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Forest Service

August 26th, 2013 — This case was successfully settled with the US Forest Service agreeing to conduct a new NEPA no later than May 30, 2015. Advocates for the West is representing Snowlands Network, Winter Wildlands Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity  in a case regarding better management of snowmobile use on National Forest land in […]

Mono Basin Sage-Grouse

Mono Basin Sage-Grouse

Case: Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians v. Bureau of Land Management

Advocates for the West, and our clients Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians, are one step closer to improving protections for the Mono-Basin Sage-Grouse, a genetically unique population of the imperiled greater sage-grouse. December 7, 2011 — We filed our opening brief in a lawsuit that challenges BLM’s decision to reauthorize livestock grazing during the summer nesting and brood-rearing season in some […]

Sonoran National Monument grazing

Sonoran National Monument grazing

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management

President Clinton designated the 500,000-acre Sonoran Desert National Monument in 2001 to protect its outstanding wildlife, plant and other natural resources.  The Monument proclamation ordered BLM to halt livestock grazing on part of the Monument, and to study whether grazing would be compatible with the Monument purposes on the remainder.   Yet eight years later, BLM still has not made that compatability […]

Forest Service grazing categorical exclusions

Forest Service grazing categorical exclusions

Case: Western Watersheds Project, et al. v. U.S. Forest Service

November 11, 2010 — After the parties partially settled this case, the Forest Service still tried to move the remainder of Plaintiffs’ case from the Northern District of California to the Eastern District of California.  In a short but sweet Order, the Court denied this motion and retained the case. May 30, 2008 — We […]