Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Forest Service

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s rejection of an environmental group’s challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’s) 2021 Biological Opinion that concluded a revised Land Management Plan for the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado would not likely jeopardize the Canada lynx’s continued existence in the contiguous United States. The Tenth Circuit held that the FWS did not violate the Endangered Species Act or the Administrative Procedure Act. Among the arguments rejected by the Tenth Circuit were contentions that the FWS did not sufficiently consider the importance of the Colorado subpopulation of the lynx in light of climate change. The Tenth Circuit said these arguments failed to account for an underlying assessment’s recognition of “projected climate-driven losses in habitat quality and quantity” across the lynx’s habitat in the contiguous U.S.