Land

Dynamis Garbage Gasifier

Dynamis Garbage Gasifier

Case: Idaho Conservation League v. Board of Ada County Commissioners

February 15, 2013 — Dynamis and Ada County Commissioners announced that they would be terminating their contract agreement and Dynamis would walk away from the lease agreement without pursuing legal action. Accordingly, we dismissed our petition for judicial review. November 19, 2012 — Advocates for the West filed a petition for judicial review challenging the […]

BLM Secret Permit Transfer

BLM Secret Permit Transfer

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Arnold L. Pike, Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of the Interior

Advocates for the West filed a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management challenging BLM secret grazing permit transfer to one of the largest livestock corporations in the U.S., J.R. Simplot Livestock Co (“Simplot”). In the midst of separate litigation over the BLM’s grazing permits on the Battle Creek allotment, BLM secretly transferred two of these […]

CuMo Mine

CuMo Mine

Case: Idaho Conservation League, Idaho Rivers Unites, and Golden Eagle Audubon Society v. U.S. National Forest

August 29, 2012 — US District Court Judge Edward Lodge ruled in our favor, finding that the Forest Service was arbitrary and capricious in approving the exploration without first considering the potential for water contamination caused by drilling numerous deep wells in an area littered with historic mining waste.  Judge Lodge vacated the Forest Service’s […]

Sawtooth North Sheep Allotments

Sawtooth North Sheep Allotments

Case: Western Watersheds Project and Randall Hermann, MD. v. U.S. Forest Service

In response to our victory in the SNRA wolves case, Forest Service prepared an EIS for new grazing management on North Sheep, Smiley Creek, and other allotments in the Sawtooth National Forest of central Idaho, which are home to wolves, bighorn sheep, and endangered salmon and other fish.  These allotments are grazed by domestic sheep, which […]

Sawtooth — North Sheep 2009

Sawtooth — North Sheep 2009

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. U.S. Forest Service

Opening summary judgment brief filed June 25, 2010 in the Sawtooth–North Sheep case alleges that the Forest Service failed to take a “hard look” at sheep grazing impacts on several Sawtooth National Forest allotments, particularly on sensitive wildlife including fish and sage grouse.  Even though we won a prior court order requiring analysis of grazing […]

Clearwater Old Growth

Clearwater Old Growth

Case: The Wilderness Society et al v. Bosworth

Representing a broad coalition of national, state and local conservation groups, we brought this case in 1997 to stop Forest Service plans to log old growth forests in the Clearwater region of central Idaho — including the headwaters of the Lochsa and North Fork Clearwater rivers.   The case focused on how logging and logging roads […]

Whiskey South timber sale

Whiskey South timber sale

Case: Idaho Conservation League and Friends of the Clearwater v. K. Lynn Bennett, Bureau of Land Management, Abigail Kimball, and United States Forest Service

BLM proposed to log over 12 million board feet of old growth forests in the South Fork Clearwater basin of central Idaho, asserting that risks of beetle infestation and wildfire required the logging.  After a week long trial where we called several expert witnesses to show those arguments were not accurate, the federal court enjoined the logging […]

Washington State Lands

Washington State Lands

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Jennifer Quan

The Thurston County Superior Court ruled that WDFW’s action in approving the latest Asotin grazing permit was arbitrary and capricious, noting that the agency had disregarded its own scientists’ concerns about wildlife. January of 2011 — We successfully settled our case challenging the Whiskey Dick EIS with an agreement that will close about 35,000 acres of […]

Jarbidge Sage-Grouse

Jarbidge Sage-Grouse

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Tom Dyer, Rick Vandervoet, Bureau of Land Management

April 14, 2011 — A federal judge has ordered BLM to close to livestock grazing 17 allotments in the Jarbidge Field Office in southwestern Idaho, and has given Simplot Livestock and other permittees about two weeks to remove all livestock from the closed areas.  Animating the court’s decision was the continuing collapse of sage-grouse populations […]

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 […]