The federal district court for the Northern District of California approved a settlement agreement between environmental groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to resolve a lawsuit challenging the 2019 determination that the California spotted owl did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The settlement provided that the FWS will prepare a new finding by February 15, 2023 regarding whether listing the species is warranted, not warranted, or warranted but precluded. In their complaint, the plaintiffs had alleged that “the Service’s own scientific experts … predicted there will be increasing threats from climate change and associated increases in drought, tree mortality, and high-severity fire,” among other serious threats.

Challenge to the determination that the California spotted owl did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Sierra Forest Legacy v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Fish and Wildlife Service Agreed to Make New Determination on Listing California Spotted Owl as Threatened or Endangered

Filed

United States of America

California

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives