Species Protection Docket
Defenders seeks the most effective legal strategies to protect and conserve America's imperiled wildlife. This includes vigorously enforcing the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
Delta Smelt/Endangered Species Act Constitutional Challenge
Agricultural groups involved in litigation over the protection of the highly-endangered Delta smelt challenged the constitutionality of the federal protections. Specifically, they alleged that the Fish & Wildlife Service's biological opinion for the Delta smelt, and the Endangered Species Act's prohibition on the take of the species, violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Defenders, joined by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources, filed an amicus brief defending the constitutionality of the Endangered Species Act and its application to the Delta Smelt.
Gulf Oil Disaster
On May 17, 2010, Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit challenging the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) complicity in the Gulf oil disaster and continued lax oversight of oil drilling operations, including its failure to require a thorough examination of spill risks from exploratory drilling operations like the Deepwater Horizon. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, and seeks to prohibit the MMS from continuing to exempt from environmental review new exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rozol Prairie Dog Bait Registration Challenge
This case challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s illegal registration of Rozol Prairie Dog Bait, containing chlorophacinone. EPA registered the rodenticide for use in 10 states without providing notice and an opportunity for comment as required by the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. EPA also violated the federal Endangered Species Act by failing to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to ensure that expanded use of the poison would not impact threatened and endangered species.
Northern Rockies Gray Wolf Delisting Challenge 2009
Challenge against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's 2009 decision to delist the northern Rockies wolf population, thus removing their protections under the Endangered Species Act and relinquishing management to the states of Idaho and Montana.
Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse Listing Challenge
Seeking to increase federal protections for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, Defenders and a coalition of conservation groups are challenging a policy adopted by the Bush administration that allows the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to limit protection under the Endangered Species Act to portions of a species’ range, rather than protecting species as a whole. The suit challenges a Bush administration decision in August 2008 to remove the mouse's endangered species protection in Wyoming, while maintaining protections in Colorado.
Critical Habitat for the Piping Plover
Defenders of Wildlife successfully defended in court the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to designate critical habitat for wintering piping plover in portions of Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.
Sea Turtle Bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico Bottom Longline Fishery
This case challenges the failure of the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) to comply with the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) in its authorization of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery. Despite a recent history of high levels of capture, injury, and death to threatened and endangered sea turtles, and especially loggerhead sea turtles, the agency’s environmental analysis failed to account for the full extent of these impacts, failed to rely on the best available science, and failed to rationally explain NMFS’s conclusion allowing the Fishery to proceed. In addition, this case challenges NMFS’s refusal to reinitiate ESA consultation or supplement its NEPA analysis following the unprecedented 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which also significantly affected Gulf sea turtle populations.
Woodland Caribou Critical Habitat
Litigation against the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their failure to respond to a petition submitted in December 2002 by Defenders and a coalition of conservation organizations to designate critical habitat for the endangered woodland caribou under the ESA.
Section 7 Regulations
Litigation against final regulations issued on November 11, 2008 that eliminate the requirement that federal agencies consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service on potentially thousands of federal actions that may adversely affect listed species or their critical habitat.
El Lobo: Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery
Defenders challenges the US Fish and Wildlife Service's 2003 decision to cede responsibility of Mexican Wolf recovery to an Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, and challenges Standard Operating Procedure 13.
Failure to List the Wolverine
Challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to list the wolverine as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act despite fragmentation of the population, and threats to the species including trapping, snowmobiles, and loss of habitat due to climate change.
Navy Sonar Amicus
Amicus brief filed in Winter v. NRDC, the "Navy sonar" case brought before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Right Whale Entanglement
Challenge to the National Marine Fisheries Service's decision to delay the effective date of regulations requiring the use of fishing gear designed to protect highly endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Right Whale Ship Strikes 2008
Litigation arguing that the National Marine Fisheries Service has abrogated its duties under the ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect and recover the North Atlantic right whale by delaying the promulgation of regulations to establish speed restrictions and reduce the threat of ship strikes to the critically endangered species.
Jaguar Recovery Plan
Challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's decision not to prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar in the face of imminent threats posed to their habitat and key migratory passages along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Northern Rockies Gray Wolf- Delisting Challenge 2008
Challenge against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's 2008 decision to delist the northern Rockies wolf population, thus removing their protections under the Endangered Species Act and relinquishing management to the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Exxon Valdez Amicus
Amicus brief filed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation. The brief emphasizes the enormity and seriousness of the spill, the inadequacy of Exxon's clean-up effort, and the ongoing impacts to the environment.
Northern Rockies Gray Wolf - Management Challenge
Challenge to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's updated regulation for the management of gray wolves in the northern Rockies that significantly reduces the protections for gray wolves in the region.
Mexican Gray Wolf FOIA Redactions
A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services to force the agency to turn over documents relating to removals of Mexican gray wolves due to alleged depredation on livestock.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Lawsuit to compel the National Park Service to manage beach driving responsibly at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to protect the threatened piping plover, threatened and endangered sea turtles, other species of waterbirds and shorebirds, and their habitat.
Canada Lynx
Defenders has been working for more than 15 years to persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Canada Lynx as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act and to designate an appropriate critical habitat for the species. Defenders litigation efforts led to a listing in 2000 and a designation of 29 million acres of critical habitat in 2009.
Woodland Caribou
Snowmobile use in the Selkirk Mountains, particularly the caribou Recovery Area, has increased rapidly over the past several years, and is expected to continue. As more (and more powerful) snowmobiles press further into caribou habitat, the potential increases for caribou to be directly harmed and displaced from key areas.
Alaska Wolf
Lawsuit challenging Alaska's predator control plans which permit the aerial hunting of wolves in areas across the state
Red Knot Emergency Listing
Lawsuit challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to emergency list the red knot, a shorebird that has suffered a 90% decline in total population over the last ten years.
Florida Black Bear
Challenge to FWS decision to deny a threatened listing of the Florida black bear.
Right Whale Ship Strikes 2006
Lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries and the Coast Guard for failure to protect North Atlantic right whales from collisions with ships.
African Antelope
Challenge to a Fish and Wildlife Service rule that creates a legal market through which three species of highly endangered African antelope, trophy hunted on American ranches, may be traded.
Flat Tailed Horned Lizard
Over a decade of litigation challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to list the flat-tailed horned lizard under the Endangered Species Act.
Wolf Downlisting Challenge
Challenge to FWS's plan in 2003 to lessen federal protections for wolves throughout the lower 48 States despite the species need for additional protections.
Protecting the Pygmy Owl
Litigation since 1992 to list the Arizona population of the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl as an endangered species.
Yellowstone Gray Wolf Reintroduction
10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns lower court's ruling that Yellowstone and Idaho wolf reintroductions were illegal.
