Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, the Services) proposed rescinding the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harming a listed...more
On March 29, 2025, a Texas District Court ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) should have considered economic costs when crafting protections for the lesser-prairie chicken, a threatened species, under Section...more
Today the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued an interim final rule (IFR) that will soon remove all existing CEQ regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Other than the issuance of...more
On December 12, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing the monarch butterfly as a threatened species with a special section 4(d) rule under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The special 4(d) rule...more
On November 12, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—the entity under the Executive Office of the President that has long overseen National...more
As part of its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its final Herbicide Strategy to address potential impacts of conventional herbicides on...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (together, the Agencies) issued a straight-to-final-rule revised definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) on August 29, 2023. This...more
On June 22, 2023, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together “the Services”) issued three proposals largely aimed at undoing the Trump administration’s recent regulatory...more
Key Takeaways -
What Happened: EPA proposed mitigation measures for pesticide use to minimize impacts to listed species....more
On May 25, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Sackett v. EPA, No. 21-454, holding that Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction extends to wetlands only if they have a continuous surface connection to...more
In April 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a proposed rule that would apply new “land health” standards to all BLM-managed public lands and programs. This new policy will have broad implications for federal...more
This practice note provides an overview of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq., and discusses the obligations of real estate developers and property owners with respect to the ESA. Congress enacted the...more
Securing Endangered Species Act (ESA) incidental take and other voluntary permits often requires so much time and money that their many compliance, streamlining, and conservation benefits can go unrealized. The U.S. Fish and...more
On December 30, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced a final rule once again updating the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) and,...more
On April 20, 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a final rule rolling back minor regulatory changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process that it had promulgated in...more
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) recently published notice that it is initiating a formal review of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 a little over a year after its latest iteration took effect. NWP 12, which serves as a...more
Project development east of the Rocky Mountains may be about to become exponentially more difficult in light of a new proposal under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). On March 23, 2022, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS)...more
On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) granted review of Sackett v. EPA, apparently with the sole purpose of deciding once and for all “the proper test for determining whether wetlands are ‘waters of the United...more
On October 27, 2021, the Biden administration proposed two new rules to roll back its predecessor’s regulatory clarifications involving habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under the first proposal, the United...more
After a brief hiatus, incidental take of migratory birds will again be a federal crime beginning December 3, 2021. Less than 10 months after instituting a final rule declaring that incidental take of birds is not subject to...more
On September 29, 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published notice in the Federal Register that it has made an affirmative 90-Day Finding for the American bumble bee, along with four other species, based on an...more
In a recent decision, a federal judge in Arizona vacated the Trump Administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) and remanded the rulemaking back to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of...more
Over the past week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to undo the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule, and take the Biden administration’s next...more
On June 22, 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report titled “Performance Measures Needed to Assess Recent Changes to Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Regulations.” The Report recommends the...more