Allen

Kern County Farm Bureau, et al. (“Kern”), appeal from the district court’s judgment denying their claim against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (“FWS”) for listing the Buena Vista Lake shrew (“the BVL shrew”) as an endangered species, contending that FWS violated the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) by failing to provide public review and comment on new studies that became available after the close of the comment period, not basing its listing decision on the best scientific data available, not summarizing the data underlying its decision, and not showing the relationship between the data and its decision. Because the post-comment information was only important, not critical, to FWS’s decision, and given the deference owed to agencies in making such scientifically-based decisions, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

I. Factual History

The BVL shrew is a subspecies of ornate shrews endemic to Kern County, California. 67 Fed.Reg. 10101 (Mar. 6, 2002) (codified at 5 C.F.R. pt. 17). Fewer than thirty are known to exist. Id. at 10110.

On June 1, 2000, FWS published a rule proposing to list the BVL shrew as an endangered subspecies…