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Florida has quickly launched an appeal after a U.S. district judge rejected a 2020 decision by the federal government to shift permitting authority to the state for projects that affect wetlands.Attorneys for the state filed a notice Monday that is a first step in challenging the decision by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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In a case closely watched by business and environmental groups, a U.S. district judge Friday finalized his rejection of a 2020 move by the federal government to shift permitting authority to Florida for projects that affect wetlands.Judge Randolph Moss issued a 27-page opinion that, as he acknowledged, likely will set the stage for the case to go to an appeals court. The opinion came after a Feb. 15 ruling in which Moss vacated the transfer of permitting authority because he said federal officials had not followed required steps before making the 2020 decision.
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Amid battles in two courts about a 2020 decision by the federal government to shift wetlands-permitting authority to the state, a judge Monday put on hold a lawsuit filed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore approved a request from U.S. Department of Justice attorneys for a stay of the Miccosukee Tribe lawsuit after another federal judge last month ruled that the permitting authority had been improperly transferred to the state and should be vacated.
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A four-million-plus-acre conservation area proposed for Southwest Florida has become a reality.The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced the establishment of the Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area as the 571st and newest unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The new 4,045,268 area will provide crucial protected wildlife corridors, enhance outdoor recreation access to the public and bolster climate resilience in southwest Florida.
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A U.S. district judge ruled that by putting Florida in charge of approving permits for projects that affect wetlands in the state, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act.Washington, D.C.-based Judge Randolph Moss, in a 97-page decision, found that actions by federal officials did not follow the required steps in 2020 before shifting permitting authority to Florida.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has nearly halved the acreage involved in its plan to establish a large conservation area in Southwest Florida
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The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act is helping create new opportunities to help the endangered Florida panther, but the species is facing some new and emerging threats including a neurological disorder called feline leukomyelopathy and a number of proposed new developments in Lee and Collier counties. We take a closer look in a conversation with Amber Crooks from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
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environmental groups have put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on notice for not adequately protecting the West Indian Manatee
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The proposed new conservation area, if approved, would be woven together in the same public and private fashion that created the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area established a decade ago.
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The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service wants to delist the wood stork from endangered to threatened, which has Florida conservation groups at odds