The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again withdrawn its proposal to list bi-state sage-grouse as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act despite the birds’ population shrinking in half over the past 150 years, according to a lawsuit filed in a California federal court.
The agency’s action violates the act and is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, environmental groups say in their lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Bi-state sage-grouse are a distinct subpopulation of the greater sage-grouse, and they live on the border between California and Nevada. The ...