Supreme Court Validates Habitat Protection for Rare California Fish
Litigation - Article Series: from All-Creatures.org Articles Archive

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
January 2016

Twelve water districts and cities filed a lawsuit in 2011 challenging the 2010 designation that protected sucker habitat in San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties. The Center and allies intervened in the case on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assist defense of the agency's habitat decision. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the case, upholding a lower court's ruling that the habitat protection could stand.

We celebrated news this week that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the protection of 9,300 acres of critical habitat for Southern California's Santa Ana sucker, a small native fish that has vanished from nearly 95 percent of its historic range since the 1970s.

Twelve water districts and cities filed a lawsuit in 2011 challenging the 2010 designation that protected sucker habitat in San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties. The Center and allies intervened in the case on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assist defense of the agency's habitat decision. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the case, upholding a lower court's ruling that the habitat protection could stand.

The Center has worked for more than a decade to save this small, olive-gray fish.

"This is a big win for the Santa Ana sucker," said the Center's John Buse.

"These protections will help make sure this tiny fish has a future, but they'll also protect many other kinds of wildlife that depend on these rivers for their survival."

Return to: Litigation
Read more at Fishes