United States Tenth Circuit

Denial of environmental groups' petition for review of the United States Forest Service's authorization of livestock grazing in a particular national forest is affirmed over claims that: 1) the Forest Service violated section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act in two ways; and 2) it violated section 313(a) of the Clean Water Act because it has not complied with Wyoming water-quality requirements "in the same manner, and to the same extent as any nongovernmental entity."

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/17/2007
• Published 12/18/2007

Judges

• HARTZ, Circuit Judge., Before BRISCOE, EBEL, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• McCrystie Adams (Neil Levine with her on brief), of Earthjustice, Denver, CO, for Plaintiffs-Appellants., Thomas R. Lundquist, J. Michael Klise, Crowell & Moring, LLP, Washington, D.C., and Duane J. Desiderio, Staff Vice President, Legal Affairs, National Association of Home Builders, Washington, D.C., filed an amicus curiae brief for the National Association of Home Builders and American Forest & Paper Association., Patrick J. Crank, Attorney General, and Thomas W. Rumpke, Cheyenne, WY, filed an amicus curiae brief for the State of Wyoming., M. Reed Hopper and Scott Sommerdorf, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, CA, filed an amicus curiae brief for Pacific Legal Foundation.


• For Appellees:
  
• Mark R. Haag, Environment & Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., (Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Assistant Attorney General, and David Shilton, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.;   Diane M. Conolly, Deputy Regional Attorney, and Kenneth P. Pitt, General Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, Department of Agriculture, Golden, CO, with him on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees., Karen Budd-Falen and Marc R. Stimpert, Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC, Cheyenne, WY, for Defendant-Intervenor-Appellees Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts., Daniel B. Frank, Frank Law Office, P.C., Cheyenne, WY, for Defendant-Intervenor-Appellees Pole Mountain Cattlemen's Association, Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, and Laramie County Farmers Union.