Articles

Author: Reed Hopper In the midst of controversy and ongoing litigation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced recently that the delta smelt warrants listing as endangered rather than threatened, but the listing change would not take place anytime soon. According to the Service, "based on accumulated scientific data, the delta smelt warr ...

Author:Ted Hadzi-Antich Today PLF filed a lawsuit against the federal government for its illegal designation of critical habitat for the distinct southern population of the green sturgeon, a marine species located throughout the West Coast of the United States.  Over 11,000 square miles of critical habitat were designated, from the northe ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff One of the most litigated-over species in the Southwest has been the flat-tailed horned lizard.  First noted as a species at risk by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the early 1980s, the species was ultimately formally proposed for listing in 1993.  Fast forward nearly twenty years, and two appella ...

That is the title of an excellent 60 Minutes segment that aired on Sunday evening.  The story shows how the hunting of exotic game species in Texas has led to an increase of these species’ populations by incentivizing private landowners to ensure the viability and improvement of the game so that hunters will continue to … ...

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 … ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The manatee population continues to grow in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s newest survey results. Each winter, when weather conditions permit, the FWC conducts an aerial survey with a team of observers who fly around the state’s warmer waters where manatees typically congregate. Last year, the FWC count ...