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US - Environmental - National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 |
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions. To meet this requirement, federal agencies prepare a detailed statement known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). EPA reviews and comments on EISs prepared by other federal agencies, maintains a national filing system for all EISs, and assures that its own actions comply with NEPA. |
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US - Endangered Species - Final Rule To Designate Critical Habitat for the Santa Ana Sucker (Catostomus santaanae) |
Under this final rule, the FWS has designated critical habitat for the Santa Ana Sucker, in 3 noncontiguous populations in
The lower and middle Santa Ana River in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties; the East, West, and North Forks of the San Gabriel River in Los Angeles County; and lower Big Tujunga Creek, a tributary of the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles County. We have identified 23,719 acres (ac) (9,599 hectares (ha)) of aquatic and riparian habitats essential to the conservation of the Santa Ana sucker.
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US - Endangered Species - 50 CFR Part 17. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus mariannus m |
This final rule downgrades the Mariana fruit bat from endangered to threatened throughout its range in the Mariana archipelago, which is subject to US jurisdiction.
The reason for the down grade is the FWS initially made a mistake in the taxonomy of the Mariana fruit bat.
When the FWS listed the bat as endangered on Guam in 1984, it believed that the bat was a species only endemic to Guam.
Since that time, the FWS has discovered that the bat is endemic to the entire Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the Territory of Guam, thus there is actually a larger number of bats with a wider distribution.
Yet, threats to the Mariana fruit bat still remain, so its listing as threatened is still warranted.
Additionally, it is more convenient for the FWS to update the listing of the Mariana fruit bat to threatened in the entire Mariana archipelago, than to keep the species in the Guam as endangered and hold the remainder of the archipelago as threatened.
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US - Critical Habitat - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Rule To Designate Critical Habitat for the Buena Vi |
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), designated critical habitat for the Buena Vista Lake shrew (Sorex ornatus relictus) (referred to here as the shrew) pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). In total, approximately 84 acres (ac) (34 hectares (ha)) occur within the boundaries of the critical habitat designation. The critical habitat is located in the Central Valley floor of Kern County, California.
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US - Critical Habitat - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Critical Habitat for the Riverside Fairy S |
FWS has designated critical habitat pursuant to section 3 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the federally endangered riverside fairy shrimp that encompasses 306 miles within Ventura, Orange, and San Diego Counties in California.
The riverside fairy shrimp is a freshwater crustacean that is found in vernal pools (a shallow depression that fills with rainwater and does not drain into the lower drainage section) in the coastal California area.
The shrimp is the second most primitive living crustacean and is the most recently discovered crustacean in California.
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US - Critical Habitat - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Critical Habitat for the Klamath River and |
This final rule is written to designate a critical habitat for the Klamath River and Columbia River populations of Bull Trout.
The critical habitat designation includes approximately 1,748 miles of streams and 61,235 acres of lakes and marshes.
The reason for this designation is that at the time of listing, there are only seven remaining non-migratory populations of bull trout, and the designation is mandatory pursuant to a court order.
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US - Critical Habitat - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Critical Habitat for the California tiger |
The FWS through this rule has designated a critical habitat in Santa Barbara County, California for the California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma califoniese) (CTS) pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This rule fulfills the final requirements of the settlement agreement reached in Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The reason for the designation of critical habitat for the CTS is the net loss in CTS grazing land over a 10 – 12 year period due to extensive farming, regardless of the efforts made to increase the amount of suitable grazing land.
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US - Critical Habitat - Critical Habitat Listing for the Topeka Shiner |
This rule is a correction to a previous final rule designating critical habitat for the Topeka Shiner (
Notropis Topeka
), published in the Federal Register on July, 24, 2004
(69 FR 44736).
In the previous final rule, the FWS
designated as
critical habitat
1,356 kilometers of stream in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
They excluded from designation all previously proposed
critical habitat
in Kansas, Missouri, and South Dakota, and excluded the Fort Riley Military Installation in Kansas from
critical
habitat designation
.
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US - Critical Habitat - Critical Habitat Listing for Five Endangered Mussels in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins |
The FWS has designated designate 13 river and stream segments in the Tennessee Cumberland River Basins, for a total of approximately 885 river as
critical habitat
for five endangered mussels: Cumberland elktoe (
Alasmidonta atropurpurea
), oyster mussel (
Epioblasma capsaeformis
), Cumberlandian combshell (
Epioblasma brevidens
), purple bean (
Villosa perpurpurea
), and rough rabbitsfoot (
Quadrula cylindrica strigillata
).
All five mussels belong to the Unionidae family.
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Turtle Island Restoration Project v. U.S. Department of Commerce |
Environmental Groups sued the National Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the United States Department of Commerce for making regulations which allowed swordfish longline fishing along the Hawaii coast, alleging violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Court found that because the regulations were made under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (Magnuson Act), and because that Act had a 30-day time limit for when challenges to regulations could be made, the environmental groups has not brought their challenge to the regulations in time.
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