Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) did not sufficiently explain why it reversed a previous determination that the Pacific walrus qualified for listing as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Ninth Circuit therefore reversed a district court judgment upholding the FWS’s reversal and directed the district court to remand to the FWS “to provide a sufficient explanation of its new position.” After concluding in 2011 that listing of the Pacific walrus was warranted due to threats that included sea-ice loss through 2100, the FWS issued a final decision in October 2017 that the Pacific walrus no longer qualified as a threatened species. The 2017 decision found that although there would be a reduction in sea ice, there was not “reliable information showing that the magnitude of this change could be sufficient to put the subspecies in danger of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.” The FWS also recharacterized the scope of “foreseeable future,” finding that “beyond 2060 the conclusions concerning the impacts of the effects of climate change and other stressors on the Pacific walrus population are based on speculation, rather than reliable prediction.” The Ninth Circuit said the “essential flaw” in the 2017 decision—which it characterized as a “spartan document” in contrast to the 2011 decision, which was “45 pages in length, contained specific findings, replete with citations to scientific studies and data”—was the “failure offer more than a cursory explanation of why the findings underlying its 2011 Decision no longer apply.” Although the 2017 decision incorporated a final species status assessment that contained new information, the Ninth Circuit found that the “actual decision document does not explain why this new information resulted in an about-face” on whether the Pacific walrus met statutory listing criteria. The Ninth Circuit also found that the 2017 decision did not provide an explanation for decision to recharacterize the “foreseeable future.”