Articles

PLF holds wildlife agency accountable

May 14, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Reed Hopper In 2005, Pacific Legal Foundation sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to conduct mandatory 5-year status reviews for approximately 100 California species listed as "threatened" or "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act. The purpose of these reviews is to determine if a species’ st ...

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FWS plans to downlist endangered status of wood stork

December 19, 2012 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced its intent to downlist the wood stork from endangered to threatened. This comes after years of arm-twisting by PLF and its client, the Florida Homebuilders Association (FHA), to get the Service to abide by its statutory duty to review species on the endangered and threatened lists, ...

Articles

FWS overdue on delivering wood stork from endangered list

April 08, 2014 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Last week, we sent the Fish and Wildlife Service another notice of intent to file suit.  This time, the matter involves the protected status of the wood stork, a bird that is increasingly common in South Florida. In 2007, PLF won a lawsuit representing the Florida Home Builders Association, which required the FWS to do … ...

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PLF files challenge to bureaucrats' decision to ignore the law

April 30, 2014 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Today, PLF filed a lawsuit on behalf of Save Crystal River, Inc., against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) for ignoring a petition to downlist the recovering West Indian manatee. The Service has already acknowledged that the species has recovered to the point that it isn’t endangered–a 2007 scientific review recommended the dow ...

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PLF Victory : Fish and Wildlife Service announces it will downlist wood stork

June 26, 2014 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally announced it is downlisting the wood stork from endangered to threatened status. This comes after years of arm-twisting by PLF and its client, the Florida Homebuilders Association, to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to abide by its statutory duty to review species on the endangered and … ...

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Manatee population strong

March 17, 2015 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission released its latest manatee count, revealing that at least 6,063 manatees were swimming the waters of Florida last month.  This is the most manatees ever counted since the Commission began the surveys in 1991. The state Commission counts manatees by conducting an aerial survey of areas where manatees typica ...

Articles

PLF sues feds for stalling, again, on manatee petition

September 25, 2015 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

It’s been three years since PLF filed a petition on behalf of Save Crystal River to downlist the manatee from “endangered” to “threatened.” Yet the government has continued to ignore the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, forcing us to again file a lawsuit to compel action. Our petition asked the government to ...

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PLF victory! Feds finally act on manatee petition

January 07, 2016 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

It’s taken eight years and two lawsuits to get the government to follow up on its own experts’ recommendation to reclassify the manatee from “endangered” to “threatened.” Today, in response to a PLF Atlantic Center lawsuit on behalf of Save Crystal River, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it is fo ...

Articles

Federal agency flouts Endangered Species Act again

January 09, 2017 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Today, PLF sent a warning to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that unless the agency adopts its proposed rule to reclassify the manatee within 60-days, PLF will sue on behalf of Save Crystal River, Inc., to compel downlisting the status of the species from endangered to threatened. It is disappointing, but not surprising that … ...