Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Forest Service

Conservation organizations filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Western District of North Carolina asserting that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedure Act in the consultation process for the Forest Service’s 2023 revised land management plan for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. The forests provide habitat for four endangered bat species. The organizations alleged that the consultation process was flawed, including because the Forest Service failed to supply the FWS with the best available scientific data. The data provided by the Forest Service included information based on a model that “severely underestimated the effect of natural disturbances on forest age and bat habitat,” including by assuming natural disturbance would decrease during the life of the 2023 plan even though data showed that natural disturbance was “increasing due in large part to climate change.” The plaintiffs also asserted that the FWS’s biological opinion failed to analyze cumulative effects, including climate change. In addition, the organizations claimed, among other things, that the biological opinion did not adequately consider “the important role the Forests may play in a climate-stressed future,” such as by serving as “refugia for climate-stressed bats.”