WildEarth Guardians challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’s) 2023 determination not to list two species of Joshua tree under the Endangered Species Act. In WildEarth Guardians’ <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/wildearth-guardians-v-bernhardt-5/">previous challenge</a> to the FWS’s 2019 determination not to list the Joshua tree, the federal district court for the Central District of California held that the 2019 determination was arbitrary and capricious, including because the FWS gave inadequate consideration to climate change. In the new lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians alleged that the FWS “repeated many of the same mistakes” that it made in the 2019 decision. The complaint asserted that the FWS’s determination was arbitrary and capricious, including because it “improperly dismissed, misinterpreted and misapplied the best available science on threats from climate change, fire, habitat loss and degradation and cumulative threats” and “failed to sufficiently analyze the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms to address the primary threats to Joshua tree, particularly climate change.” In addition, WildEarth Guardians contended that the FWS arbitrarily and capriciously found that Joshua trees are not threatened throughout a significant portion of their range, failed to use best available science regarding climate change impacts to Joshua trees, and arbitrarily defined “foreseeable future” to extend only 17 to 47 years from the present when current and future threats, including climate change threats, could be predicted until at least 2099.

Challenge to the decision not to list two species of Joshua tree under the Endangered Species Act.

WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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Lawsuit Challenged Decision Not to List Joshua Tree Under Endangered Species Act

Filed

United States of America

California

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Lawsuit Challenged Decision Not to List Joshua Tree Under Endangered Species Act

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance