UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Civil No. 18-1547 (JDB) DAVID BERNHARDT, in his official capacity as Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION In 1992, the Fish and Wildlife Service (“the Service”) listed the Louisiana black bear (“LBB”) as a “threatened species” under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Service determined in 2016 that the bear had recovered and no longer qualified as threatened, and it was therefore delisted. Plaintiffs, a collection of non-profit organizations and individuals who assert an interest in the LBB and its habitat, dispute the Service’s determination and challenge the decision to delist the LBB. Now before the Court are plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and the government’s and intervenor-defendant Safari Club International’s cross-motions for summary judgment. Upon consideration of the parties’ submissions and the entire record, the Court concludes that plaintiffs have failed to satisfy the requirements of Article III standing. Accordingly, the Court will dismiss the case without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction. 1 Background A. The Louisiana Black Bear The LBB is a subspecies of the American black bear. See Removal of the Louisiana Black Bear From the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Removal of Similarity-of- Appearance Protections for the American Black Bear(“Delisting Rule”), 81 Fed. Reg. 13,124, 13,124 (March 11, 2016). LBBs are “huge, bulky mammal[s] with long black hair” and yellowish- brown muzzles; they sometimes present with a white patch on their lower throat and chest. Threatened Status for the Louisiana Black Bear and Related Rules (“Listing Rule”), 57 Fed. Reg. 588, 588 (Jan. 7, 1992). While LBBs “are not readily visually distinguishable from other black bear[s],” Delisting Rule at 13,125, they are morphologically characterized by their “relatively long, narrow, and flat” skulls and “proportionately large molar teeth,” Listing Rule at 588. Male LBBs usually weigh about 300 pounds, with females weighing in at around 150 pounds. Delisting Rule at 13,125. LBBs are habitat generalists—they can and do survive in a variety of habitats, including “marsh, upland forested areas, forested spoil areas along bayous, brackish and freshwater marsh, salt domes, and agricultural fields.” Delisting Rule at 13,126. The LBB historically lived in many of these sorts of habitats in Louisiana (as implied by the name “Louisiana black bear”). Id. The bear was also known to live in parts of southern Mississippi and eastern Texas. Id. at 13,126–27. Beginning in the 1700s and 1800s, however, hunting and deforestation narrowed the habitable land available to the LBB. Id. By 1992, agricultural land clearing had further reduced LBB habitat by more than 80 percent, and what habitat remained was “degraded by fragmentation.” Id. at 13,127. As a result of this habitat loss, in 1992, only 80 to 120 LBBs were estimated to remain in Louisiana, 25 in Mississippi, and none at all in Texas. Id. 2 B. The 1992 Listing and Subsequent Developments Under the ESA, the Secretary of the Interior—and through him, the Service—is ...
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