Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

Center for Biological Diversity and Audubon Society of Portland filed a complaint in the federal district court for the District of Oregon challenging a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision to list the streaked horned lark as threatened rather than endangered and to issue a “special rule” under Section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act exempting agricultural activities from liability “despite known and serious impacts” on the lark. The complaint alleged that after the remand of a 2013 listing of the species as threatened, the FWS again determined the lark was currently not in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range, despite “the ongoing steep decline” in suitable habitat and other threats such as climate change, which causes sea level rise and increased severe weather events that threaten the lark’s Pacific Coast populations.