Save the South Fork Salmon v. U.S. Forest Service

Environmental organizations challenged federal reviews and approvals for the Stibnite Gold Project on federal public lands in central Idaho. The complaint, filed in the federal district court for the District of Idaho, described the project as involving construction and operation of a “massive” gold mine for at least 20 to 25 years. The organizations made claims under the Forest Service Organic Administration Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the National Forest Management Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Materials Act of 1947, the Surface Resources Act of 1955, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The organizations’ Endangered Species Act claims were based in part on allegations that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to adequately consider the project’s effects together with the effects of climate change on protected species. The complaint alleged that the agencies failed to adequately consider or analyze (1) potential harms from wolverine habitat fragmentation caused by climate change during the project’s lifespan; (2) adverse effects on bull trout from the project’s temperature effects together with climate change impacts; (3) the combined effects of the project and climate change on whitebark pine in and around the project area; and (4) the adverse effects of the project in combination with climate change on Chinook salmon and steelhead.