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On June 2, 2000, Judge Susan Oki Mollway of Hawai'i's federal district court ordered Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("Service") Jamie Clark to designate "critical habitat" for four rare invertebrate species found only in Hawai'i.

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, on behalf of six conservation groups, has asked the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to issue emergency regulations protecting grizzly bears in the Cabinet Mountains and around the Yaak River in northern Idaho and Montana. In a petition sent to FWS today, the groups request additional legal protection for bears in the Cabinet-Yaak, including reclassification of the population from its current status as "threatened" to "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act, and suspension of permits allowing for the destruction of the bears' habitat.

The nation's leading conservation groups warned today that damaging congressional attacks on the environment are expected to proliferate this summer as Congress rushes to adjourn before the November elections.

The groups expect that most anti-environmental riders will be added to "must pass" appropriations bills that Congress has to enact in order to avoid a government shutdown.

In a major victory for rare native fish, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reassess its plan for groundwater cleanup and endangered species protection at the Atlas uranium tailings dump in Moab.