Description: Challenge to environmental impact statements for resource management plans in six states, including for failure to take into account climate change.
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Western Watersheds Project v. Salazar
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 11/07/2014 Memorandum Decision Download Memorandum decision and order issued denying motion for partial dismissal or stay. 11/20/2012 Memorandum Decision Download Memorandum decision and order issued requiring BLM to complete new resource management plans. 09/28/2011 Memorandum Decision Download Memorandum of decision and order issued granting motions for partial summary judgment filed by plaintiffs and denying motions for partial summary judgment filed by defendants and intervenors. 05/07/2009 Memorandum Decision Download Memorandum of decision and order issued denying in part and granting in part motion for partial dismissal. A federal district court in Idaho partially denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by an environmental group challenging 18 environmental impact statements prepared by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concerning resource management plans in six states for failing to consider the cumulative effects of, among other things, climate change. The court held that, in 16 of the statements, the plaintiffs were challenging a final agency action and thus they were ripe for review. In two of the statements, records of decisions had not been issued, thus no final agency action existed. The court also denied the government’s motion to transfer the challenges to other federal courts given that they governed land outside Idaho, holding that the action was properly filed in Idaho given that several of the statements concerned land located in Idaho and there was no evidence of forum shopping.