Articles

Late last year, PLF submitted a petition for rule-making to the Interior and Commerce Departments (and their delegate agencies the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service), requesting the promulgation of definitions for the terms "species" and "subspecies" as used in the Endangered Species Act.* Just what preci ...

Today, we filed our opening merits brief in our challenge to the federal Endangered Species Act listing of the coastal California gnatcatcher. Our lawsuit takes aim at the taxonomic foundation of the listing, namely, whether the gnatcatcher---a diminutive songbird that inhabits very prime real estate in parts of coastal and inland Southern Californ ...

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its denial of PLF's petition to delist the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the Endangered Species Act. The short finding makes two basic arguments, one procedural and one substantive. As to procedure, the petition denial observes that the genetic study PLF relied on in the petition---a 2013 ...

Today, PLF and several allied organizations submitted a petition for rule-making to the federal agencies that administer the Endangered Species Act. The petition asks the agencies to define "species" and "subspecies," terms which, although critical to the Act's operation, are left undefined by statute and regulation. Not surprisingly, this lacuna h ...

Earlier this year, we submitted, on behalf of a coalition of scientists and property rights advocates, a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the Endangered Species Act. Our petition argues that delisting is warranted because the mouse's "subspecies" designation—hotly contested for over a d ...

This week, PLF submitted a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over caption id="attachment_46239" align="alignright" width="300" California gnatcatcher (USFWS)/caption the agency's denial last year of our petition to delist the coastal California gnatcatcher from the Endangered Species Act. The petition sought the gnatc ...

Property rights and other groups that seek reform of the Endangered Species Act oftentimes note that only a tiny fraction of the species that have been listed under the Act have recovered. Environmentalists typically respond that a recovery metric is not a good way to measure the Act's performance. A good example of this defense, in adumbrated form ...

caption id="attachment_44459" align="alignright" width="300" Is this a subspecies? (photo USFWS)/caption Late last week, PLF gave notice to the pertinent Colorado and Wyoming wildlife agencies of our intent, on behalf of a broad coalition of property rights and sound science advocates, to petition the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to del ...

Today, the Fish & Wildlife Service announced a positive 90-day finding on our petition to delist the coastal California gnatcatcher.  The Service has determined that our petition presents substantial information indicating that the bird's delisting may be warranted.  Our petition argues that a 2013 taxonomic study by Dr. Robert Zink of the Univ ...