Stoel Rives Deeply Rooted Podcast Season 3 Episode 2: Forest Management, Endangered Species, and Regulatory Frameworks with Galen Schuler, General Counsel for Green Diamond Resources
Earlier this week, my colleagues Adam Kahn and Kevin Chen posted about the proposed rule issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that would rescind the definition of “harm” under the...more
On April 17, 2025, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking to rescind the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act...more
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, Services) published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to rescind the Services’ respective...more
On Monday, January 13, 2025, California withdrew requests for Clean Air Act waivers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needed to support four recently adopted vehicle emissions regulations: 1) the Advanced...more
EPA Proposes Removing Affirmative Defense Provisions from Eighteen Clean Air Act Emission Standards - In a proposed rule published on June 24, 2024, EPA has proposed to remove eighteen affirmative defense provisions for...more
Over three years ago, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Clean Water Act 404 permitting powers to the State of Florida. A few days ago, a judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre-Federal Register publication final rule removing the snail darter from the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) List of Endangered and Threatened...more
On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (the Service) finalized a rule rescinding the regulatory definition of “habitat,” as the term was used in the Endangered Species Act (the Act) and the various...more
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“Service”) issued a pre Federal Register publication proposing to remove the Snail Darter from the Federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) list of endangered and threatened...more
On May 14, 2021, the Department of Justice filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the Court should not hear the case of Kansas Natural Resource Coalition v. Department of Interior (“KNRC”). KNRC is a challenge to a...more
The regulation of protected wildlife is likely to undergo a seismic shift as a result of the change in administrations. Whereas the Trump Administration took several actions to narrow the reach of wildlife protection...more
The federal courts have issued some significant environmental law rulings in the past few days. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc. On March 4, 2021, the court held that the...more
On March 4, 2021, the US Supreme Court held that draft biological opinions prepared by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were subject to the deliberative process privilege...more
On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (the Service) finalized for the first time a regulatory definition for the term “habitat,” as the term is used in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the...more
Comment period on FWS/NMFS proposal will close soon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have proposed that a definition of “habitat” be added to the Endangered Species Act. The...more
On November 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling vacating and remanding the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Weyerhaeuser Company v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ...more
The Supreme Court has handed down one of the most anticipated Endangered Species Act (ESA) rulings in recent years. In Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv., the Supreme Court unanimously overruled the Fifth...more
In a victory for landowners and other regulated entities, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously limited the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s discretion when designating critical habitat under the federal Endangered Species Act....more
You don’t see a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court very often, especially in an environmental case, but that’s what happened this week when the Court held that for an area to be “critical habitat” of an...more
In a unanimous decision with immediate repercussions for the administration of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Supreme Court held that an area is eligible for designation as critical habitat under the ESA only if...more
An area designated as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act must first qualify as “habitat” for listed species, the Supreme Court held this week in the closely watched Weyerhaeuser case. The Court’s November 27,...more
The Business Standard reported on a new method to purify water using sunlight. Reuters reported on a Supreme Court decision on the Endangered Species Act. The Minneapolis Star Tribune discussed soybean storage issues as...more
On June 29, 2018 and October 8, 2018, we blogged about the dusky gopher frog, an endangered species currently confined to a small area of Mississippi. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service designated land in Louisiana as part of...more
In a unanimous decision (with Justice Kavanaugh not participating), the Supreme Court on November 27, 2018, remanded a controversial Endangered Species Act (ESA) decision for further consideration by the Fifth Circuit Court...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued the following decision today: Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish and Wildlife Serv., No. 17-71: The Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the Endangered Species Act...more