Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Amy Luenders, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Interior
June 14, 2013 — In a case led by Senior Attorney Todd Tucci, Advocates for the West filed a complaint on behalf of Western Watersheds Project to protect 145,000 acres of public lands in the Ely district of Nevada, which contains key sage-grouse habitat. This is a follow-up case to our broader, ongoing lawsuit challenging 16 BLM Resource Management […]
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 […]
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 […]
Case: Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, and Ely Shoshone Tribe v. Bureau of Land Management
January 25, 2011 — Two conservation groups and three American Indian tribes filed suit to protect a mountain valley adjacent to Great Basin National Park in Nevada from a poorly-sited industrial wind energy project approved by BLM with minimal environmental review. The Spring Valley Wind Energy Project is a mere 4 miles from one of the […]
Case: Western Watersheds Project, Oregon Natural Desert Association and Ruby Pipeline Agree to Establish Conservation Funds
Ruby settlement established new conservation fund. Advocates for the West recently helped broker an innovative settlement between WWP and El Paso Pipeline Corp. to establish a $15 million Sagebrush Habitat Conservation Fund. The Fund will work to retire grazing permits on a willing seller basis to mitigate for impacts of the 650-mile Ruby natural gas […]
Case: In Defense of Animals & Craig Downer v. Bureau of Land Management
This case challenges a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to roundup and remove nearly all of the wild free-roaming horses within three horse areas in northeastern Nevada. BLM claims that it needs to remove these horses because they are overgrazing the public lands, although BLM’s own documents show that cows – and not wild […]
Case: Committee for the High Desert and Western Watersheds Project v. Robert V. Abbey Kathleen Clarke, and Bureau of Land Management
The 330,00-acre Soldier Meadows allotment lies adjacent to the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada; and includes parts of the recently-designated Black Rock wilderness and other new wilderness areas. Soldier Meadows also has numerous springs and streams occupied by endangered fish species, including the Lahontan cutthroat trout and desert dace. Yet BLM has allowed livestock grazing to […]
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management and Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc
This administrative appeal before the Office of Hearings and Appeals in the Department of Interior challenged BLM’s authorization of grazing on the Squaw Valley and Spanish Ranch allotments of northern Nevada, where Barrick Goldstrike — a major gold mining company — has purchased several ranches and is running livestock on them. Following an evidentiary hearing, the […]
Case: American Lands Alliance, Western Watersheds Project, et al v. Kolkman
This case challenged BLM’s proposal to clearcut and mulch some 50 square miles of old growth pinyon-juniper forest around the Mt. Wilson area of central Nevada. BLM claimed that the logging was needed to reduce wildfire risks in the “urban/wildland interface,” even though there is no urban area in this remote part of Nevada — and […]
Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Oke
BLM’s Elko field office approved three “multiple use decisions” (MUDs) authorizing grazing and fencing on 3 allotments in northern Nevada covering 1.5 million acres. Despite the fact that this area is key sage grouse habitat and home to other imperiled species, BLM collected virtually no data on current conditions of these sensitive species populations or their habitats. […]