Friends of the Wild Swan v. Hammond

The federal district court for the District of Montana granted a motion by the National Park Service (NPS) and other federal defendants for voluntary remand without vacatur of NPS’s Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Westslope Cutthroat and Bull Trout Preservation in Gunsight Lake Project in Glacier National Park. The plaintiffs alleged that the project was intended to create a “refugia” to protect bull trout from the threats of hybridization and climate change but that the federal defendants had violated NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act when they approved the project. The court found that voluntary remand without vacatur was appropriate because the federal defendants “demonstrated substantial and legitimate concerns” regarding the underlying environmental analysis, had voluntarily ceased all activities pending the conclusion of new analyses, and had determined withdrawal of the FONSI was necessary.

Friends of the Wild Swan and Council on Wildlife and Fish filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Montana challenging the National Park Service’s Westslope Cutthroat and Bull Trout Preservation in Gunsight Lake Project, which the Park Service intended to be a “refugia” in Glacier National Park to create a habitat for bull trout “secure from the threats of hybridization and climate change.” The plaintiffs alleged that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedure Act by issuing a letter of concurrence approving the project, which they alleged would result in taking of threatened bull trout. The plaintiffs also alleged that the Park Service failed to take a hard look at the project’s environmental impacts in violation of NEPA. The plaintiffs alleged that the Bureau of Reclamation was already addressing the main obstacle to the bull trout’s recovery with a separate dam project, which the plaintiffs contended meant that the Park Service’s project might not even aid recovery.