This week, Advocates for the West reached a settlement requiring the Forest Service to develop an additional alternative with reduced road construction and commercial logging for the Sage Hen Restoration Project on Idaho’s Boise National Forest. The original project also included thinning and prescribed fire, along with some watershed restoration activities, on 68,000 acres of […]
Advocates for the West is celebrating another sound victory for the protection of Idaho’s South Fork of the Clearwater River. The South Fork of the Clearwater is a State Protected River and provides critical habitat for salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and other sensitive species. This week, federal Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco levied a $150,000 fine […]
This week, Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging the Converse County Oil & Gas Project in the southern Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The massive 5,000 oil well project, approved under the Trump Bureau of Land Management, is projected to have a major impact on air quality locally and regionally, including in treasured landscapes of […]
Today, Advocates for the West filed a Petition for Environmental Review with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect scenic and historic values from a proposed 195-foot commercial cell tower on a ridge overlooking Idaho’s iconic Red Fish Lake. We filed the petition on behalf of the Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association and the Idaho […]
This week, Advocates for the West filed a settlement agreement sending the Bureau of Land Management back to its planning desk to reconsider the impacts of livestock grazing on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (NCA)—a free-flowing river oasis in southeastern Arizona. The court-approved settlement compels the Bureau to reconsider the compatibility of grazing […]
Advocates for the West recently appealed an air quality permit issued by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to Perpetua Resources Idaho, Inc. for its proposed Stibnite Gold Project east of McCall, Idaho. Advocates for the West represents the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Conservation League in this appeal, which was filed together with Save the South Fork Salmon. […]
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 […]