Center for Biological Diversity v. Jewell

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia seeking to require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to making required findings regarding the listing of nine species under the Endangered Species Act. The nine species include the San Bernardino flying squirrel, which the Center for Biological Diversity alleged was threatened by climate change’s adverse impacts to its mixed-conifer, black-oak forest habitat.

Three environmental organizations filed a complaint in the federal district court for the District of Columbia seeking to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue findings in response to their 2011 petition to list the Alexander Archipelago wolf as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The Alexander Archipelago wolf is a subspecies of gray wolf that inhabits the islands and coastal mainland of Southeast Alaska. Plaintiffs alleged that the species faces a number of threats, including threats from climate change. The climate change threats include more severe winter storm events and above-normal snowfalls that adversely affect the wolf’s primary prey species.