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: Western Watersheds Project v. David Rosenkrance and Bureau of Land Management

The Court ordered BLM to develop a new Environmental Assessment (EA) and new grazing decisions within one year or grazing cannot continue. January 5, 2011 — Judge Lodge ruled in our favor on all three of our claims under the National Environmental Policy Act: that BLM failed to take a “hard look” at impacts to […]

Case: Idaho Conservation League and Western Watersheds Projects v. Steele

The Pleasantview allotment covers 70,000 acres of mostly public lands near Malad City, in southeast Idaho.  It offers habitat for greater sage-grouse, Columbia sharp-tail grouse, and other imperiled species; yet BLM has allowed excessive livestock grazing to badly damage the uplands and stream bottoms.  Weeds and alien species are spreading, aided by livestock overgrazing of native […]

Case: Western Watersheds Project v. Bureau of Land Management, J.R. Broadbent Grazing Assoc., LLC

August 15, 2008 — An Administrative Law Judge with the Dept. of Interior’s Office of Hearings and Appeals agreed with us that BLM thus violated NEPA in approving the grazing permits; and ordered them reversed and remanded with instructions for BLM to prepare a full environmental analysis. The Granger and Carter Lease allotments encompass 720,000 […]

Case: Western Watersheds Project and Oregon Natural Desert Association v. Massington

Over several years we have brought various administrative appeals and court cases seeking to force BLM to protect sage-grouse, redband trout and other sensitive resources from livestock grazing damage in the Bully Creek area of eastern Oregon. BLM adopted and promised to follow an improved grazing regime after our initial 2001 lawsuit; but monitoring showed that objectives […]

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 […]

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 […]

Case: Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity, and WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

June 28, 2010 — WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity joined Western Watershed Project as our clients challenging the decision. June 28, 2010 — Representing our client Western Watersheds Project, we filed a complaint in Idaho federal court on Monday, March 8, 2010 to challenge the decision by US Fish and Wildlife Service that […]