WildEarth Guardians seeks the documents at issue to determine why FWS abruptly reversed its prior decision to protect the Mounta

While the Service did release several thousand documents to the group three days after the July suit was filed, it is still withholding key information.

WildEarth Guardians filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Wednesday challenging the agency’s refusal to release important documents regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule to list the mountain plover under the Endangered Species Act. WildEarth Guardians suspects the withheld documents will help explain why the Fish and Wildlife Service made a sudden, radical shift in its mountain plover policy direction. The plover was on track to be listed as a threatened species in 2003. Then on September 8, 2003 the Service unexpectedly announced that the bird would not receive federal protection after all.

Read the Complaint(PDF)


 

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