WWP Wins Legal Victories in Oregon and Arizona

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Friends,

Western Watersheds Project's successful legal efforts are bringing much desired change to management of wildlife and public lands all over the west.

Recently, Western Watersheds Project won legal challenges on the Malheur National Forest in Oregon bringing protections to imperiled Steelhead trout as well as an important legal victory on the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona protecting wilderness values on the wildlife refuge.

WWP wins court decision protecting Steelhead trout from grazing on more than a quarter million acres of public land on the Decisions on Malheur National Forest in Oregon.

Western Watersheds Project was joined in this litigation by the Oregon Natural Desert Association and Center for Biological Diversity. The groups were exceptionally well represented in this litigation by ONDA attorneys Dave Becker and Mac Lacy.

News Release :

PORTLAND, Ore. - A federal judge today barred livestock grazing harmful to endangered steelhead on more than a quarter-million acres of public land on the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon. District Judge Ancer Haggerty ordered the U.S. Forest Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reconsider the effects of the federal agencies’ grazing plan on native steelhead streams before grazing can resume.

Read the Entire News Release
Download the Decision


View Malheur NF Grazing Enjoined in a larger map
                     
View Malheur NF Grazing Enjoined in a larger map

WWP wins a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to protect wilderness values on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona

Western Watersheds Project recently won an important decision at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals protecting wilderness values in Arizona.

The decision overturns a District Court decision that sustained a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to build water sources in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona within designated Wilderness.


View Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in a larger map

Western Watersheds Project was joined in this litigation by our co-plaintiffs Wilderness Watch, Sierra Club, and the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council and was ably represented by WWP's Arizona legal counsel Erik Ryberg and Pete Frost of the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC).

Read an article about this victory in the Arizona Daily Star:

Court: US wrongly put water tanks in refuge
Download the Kofa Decision
Listen to Oral Argument at the 9th Circuit