Center for Biological Diversity v. Moore

Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Arizona seeking to block the U.S. Forest Service’s authorization of livestock grazing in the Coronado National Forest. The plaintiffs alleged that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to ensure that their actions would not jeopardize the continued existence of the threatened Yellow-billed cuckoo and Sonora chub or adversely modify the species’ critical habitats. The plaintiffs’ arguments included that the federal agencies failed to rely on best available scientific evidence “demonstrating the severity of climate change as a baseline threat to the survival and recovery of these species.” They asked the court to declare that the agencies had violated the Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedure Act, to enjoin the Forest Service from authorizing grazing in occupied habitat for the cuckoo and chub, and to set aside active grazing authorizations in such areas, as well as the biological opinion upon which the authorizations relied.