Southwest Center for Biological Diversity v. Babbitt, Civ. No. 98-0934 (D.D.C.)
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity v. Babbitt, 939 F. Supp. 49 (D.D.C. 1996)

Case Summary:

On behalf of the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, we won rulings from the US District Court for the District of Columbia, overturning the Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to protect, under the Endangered Species Act, two imperiled Alaskan species, the Queen Charlotte Goshawk and the Alexander Archipelago Wolf, both of which are present in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. See Biodiversity Legal Foundation v. Babbitt, 943 F. Supp. 23 (D.D.C. 1996); Southwest Center for Biological Diversity v. Babbitt, 939 F. Supp. 49 (D.D.C. 1996). We then filed another case representing a coalition of national and Alaskan environmental groups in a challenge to the US Fish and Wildlife Service's refusal to list the Queen Charlotte Goshawk – a subspecies of the northern goshawk that lives only in the Tongass National Forest of Alaska and in British Columbia - as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act, due largely to massive clearcutting of the goshawk's old-growth habitat. Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, et al., v. Babbitt, Civ. No. 98-00934 (D.D.C.). On July 29, 2002, a Magistrate Judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Memorandum Opinion recommending that the District Court Judge issue a ruling that the agency's "not warranted" finding is not supported by the record because of the goshawk's precarious status on Vancouver Island – which the Magistrate held is a "significant portion" of the goshawk's range. The District Court issued a final ruling remanding the issue to the Fish and Wildlife Service. On November 8, 2007, the FWS announced that it had decided that listing the goshawk on Vancouver Island was "warranted". 72 Fed. Reg. 63113.

Plaintiffs: Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, Save the West, Save America's Forests, Native Forest Network, Native Forest Council, and individuals.

Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia