Kettle Range Conservation Group v. Smolden

A local environmental organization filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Eastern District of Washington challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s authorization of a logging project on public lands in the Colville National Forest’s Kettle Range, which the organization alleged was “one of the few and last-remaining areas still occupied by [the Canada] lynx in the lower 48 states.” The organization asserted that the defendants failed to comply with the Endangered Species Act, the National Forest Management Act, and NEPA, including by failing to consider “synergistic or combined effects to lynx” from threats including climate change. The complaint’s allegations included that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had recognized climate change as “the most serious threat to lynx conservation and recovery in the lower 48 states” and that the 2019 plan for the Colville National Forest identified the Kettle Range as a “core area” that was important for the lynx’s recovery.