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Document December 9, 2023

Snake River Litigation: Judge Simon 2017 Injunction Requiring Increased Spill

Judge Simon issues an injunction requiring increased levels of increased spill in the spring and extended summer spill.

Document December 9, 2023

Snake River Litigation: 2016 Ruling by Judge Simon

Judge Simon declares the 2014 BiOp illegal in a lengthy and sharply worded opinion. This marks the sixth time a Columbia River System BiOp is declared illegal by a federal judge. Once again the Court sends the case back to the federal agencies to try to develop a new plan that complies with the law.

Document December 9, 2023

Snake River Litigation: 2011 Judge Redden Order

U.S. District Court Judge James Redden declares the combined 2008 and 2010 BiOps illegal for again failing to provide a legal and scientifically adequate plan to protect imperiled Columbia-Snake River salmon from extinction. These are the fourth and fifth BiOps the court has rejected.

Document December 9, 2023

Snake River Litigation: Judge Redden’s 2003 Opinion

U.S. U.S. District Court Judge James Redden in Oregon rejects the Columbia River Basin 2000 BiOp, calling its mitigation measure too uncertain and inadequate to protect salmon. This marks the second time a BiOp is declared illegal in the long-standing litigation to project Snake River salmon.

Document December 9, 2023

Snake River Litigation: Idaho Department of Fish and Game v. National Marine Fisheries Service

In Earthjustice’s first victory in the long-standing Snake River litigation, U.S. District Judge Malcolm Marsh overturns NOAA’s first BiOp on dam operations in a sharply worded opinion. The judge says the status quote is not working and the “situation literally cries out for a major overhaul.”

Snake River's blue waters stand out against green landscape with Teton Mountain Range ascending in the background. Grand Tetons National Park, Teton County, Wyoming. (Edwin Remsberg / Getty Images)
Update December 7, 2023

Snake River Salmon Are in Crisis — But a Turning Point May Be Near

As time runs out for Pacific Northwest salmon, the Biden administration is signaling important steps to restore native fish populations and honor treaty obligations.

Wolverines, says journalist and wildlife biologist Douglas H. Chadwick, are "not afraid of anything. They climb peaks that human climbers turn back from. So they're just fearless, and they're tireless, and they got no end of attitude."
(Photo Courtesy of Dale Pedersen)
Article December 6, 2023

Keeping the Wolverine Wild in a Climate Crisis

New federal protections secured through Earthjustice litigation will help ensure that wolverines, a snow-dependent species, can survive a warming world.

Members of Mālama Mākua photographed after the ceremony of the opening of the Makahiki in Mākua in 2016. (Courtesy of Mālama Mākua)
Press Release: Victory December 1, 2023

Hawai‘i’s Mākua Valley Forever Protected from Explosive Military Training

After 25 years of community advocacy, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army declare Mākua safe from future use of mortars, artillery, and other live-fire training

Mākua beach and valley on the west coast of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. (Backyard Production / Getty Images)
Article: Victory December 1, 2023

Hawaiʻi’s Valleys Get Permanent Protection from Damaging Military Training

After decades of advocacy, the Secretary of Defense announced that live-fire training will never happen at the Mākua Military Reservation again.

Document December 1, 2023

Stop Salmon Extinction: Snake River Restoration

Learn about upholding commitments to Northwest Tribes, salmon and orcas, climate resilience, and more.

Document November 29, 2023

Tonawanda Seneca Nation v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation filed a lawsuit in the Western District Court of New York challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to grant a right-of-way permit for an industrial wastewater pipeline through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. The pipeline permit approval and subsequent drilling, which violates the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, has caused multiple spills of hundreds of gallons of drilling fluids onto federally protected land and wetlands, prompting several pipeline construction stop orders.

A wolverine caught on a camera trap while working with researchers on a rare carnivore survey in Western Montana. Made under a special use permit with the Flathead and Lolo National Forests.
Article: Victory November 29, 2023

Wolverines Gain Legal Protections to Ward off Extinction

The announcement comes after decades of litigation and public calls to save wolverines from development and climate change.

A wild wolverine kit playing on the snow outside of a rendezvous site in the Northern Rockies (Steven Gnam)
Press Release: Victory November 29, 2023

Wolverine Receives Much-Needed Endangered Species Act Protections

Fish and Wildlife Service to list species as threatened following decades of litigation

Rice's whale — a new species of whale recognized in 2021, previously known as a subpopulation of Bryde's whale, endemic to the Gulf of Mexico.
(NOAA Fisheries)
Article November 17, 2023

Fossil Fuel-Friendly Ruling Endangers the Last Gulf of Mexico Whales

As scientists gathered at the Smithsonian to discuss the significance of the new-to-science whale, a court decision has further jeopardized the already critically endangered whale.

An endangered female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle. The orca is from the J pod, one of three groups of southern resident killer whales that frequent the inland waters of Washington state.  (Elaine Thompson / AP)
Article November 17, 2023

Northwest Tribes Demand Action for Salmon and Orca Restoration

Tribes call for dam removal and restoration of healthy salmon and orca populations during emotional two-day summit.

Sockeye salmon make their way back up a river in the Pacific Northwest to spawn. (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Photo)
Update November 8, 2023

We’re Going to Court to Protect Salmon from a Highly Toxic Chemical

U.S. fishing groups are suing tire manufactures over 6PPD, a chemical in tires, which interacts with ground-level ozone to create the highly toxic 6PPD-q.

During September, sockeye and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka and kisuch) intermingle during their spawning migration in an Alaskan stream. (Thomas Kline / Design Pics)
Press Release November 8, 2023

U.S. Fishing Groups Sue Tire Manufacturers Over 6PPD Impacts on Salmon, Steelhead

6PPD interacts with ozone to create the highly toxic 6PPD-q

Document November 8, 2023

6PPD ESA Complaint

The Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) filed suit against U.S. tire manufacturers over the use of the chemical 6PPD in rubber tires because of its devastating impacts on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-protected salmon and steelhead.