WildEarth Guardians v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service
4:13CV00151 (D AZ)
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
Steven Sugarman
350,000.00
Court
Null
1) FSW did not base 2012 BiOps on the best available scientific information 2) No substantial evidence for the FWS's no-jeopardy and no-adverse modification findings in the 2012 BiOPs 3) 2012 BiOps do not contain an adequate discussion of cumulative impacts 4)Decision to issue eleven separate BiOps for the Region 3 national forests. 1) The ITSs are associated with the USFs implementation of the 1996 S&Gs 2) The ITSs utilize an reasonable proxy measure of incidental take which only captures the amount of MSPO take expected to occur within PACs.
Order issued 9/12/19 that the Forest Service timber management actions in region 3 national forests must cease pending formal consultation and reinitiate a formal Section (7)(a)(2) consultation and formulate superseding BiOps that conform with terms of this Order.