Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management

ORDER RE: SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTIONS

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs are eleven environmental organizations who have sued the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”). The BLM manages a vast area of public land known as the California Desert Conservation Area (“CDCA”), home to a number of protected species, including the threatened desert tortoise and an endangered plant, the Lane Mountain milk-vetch. FWS consults with the BLM and is required to evaluate BLM actions that affect these protected species.

Plaintiffs’ claims arise out of the BLM’s approval of three land management plans that amend the California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980, the land use plan governing the CDCA: the West Mojave (“WEMO”) Plan; the Northern and Eastern Mojave (“NEMO”) Desert Management Plan, and the Northern and Eastern Colorado (“NECO”) Desert Coordinated Management Plan. With respect to the WEMO Plan, plaintiffs claim that the BLM’s designation of an extensive “Off-Highway Vehicle” (“OHV”) route network throughout the WEMO planning area violates the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (“FLPMA”), 43 U.S.C. §§ 1701-85 . Plaintiffs also claim that the…