Endangered Species Act

Carstens, Black & Minteer is frequently is engaged in enforcing the state and federal Endangered Species Act.  On behalf of clients such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Audubon, the Center for Biological Diversity, and various land trusts, Carstens, Black & Minteer has helped ensure that the precious flora and fauna of California are protected, as required by state and federal law. In many cases, the firm has assisted in the creation of parks or conservation easements that have ensured protections for natural resources above and beyond those protections that would be provided by the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, or by other applicable laws, including CEQA.

Examples of our work in the area of natural resources includes:

• The Firm represented Center for Biological Diversity in challenging the California Fish and Game Commission’s failure to determine that the listing of the California Tiger Salamander as an endangered or threatened species may be warranted and therefore requires an in-depth evaluation.  Center for Biological Diversity had submitted a petition for listing the Tiger Salamander with overwhelming evidence that the species is in serious peril of becoming extinct.  In a published decision, the Court of Appeal’s Third District upheld the trial court’s issuance of a writ of mandate requiring the Commission to accept the Center’s petition to list the Tiger Salamander and advance the species to candidacy because there was no scientific evidence in the record that could support rejecting the petition. (Center for Biological Diversity v. California Fish and Game Com'n (2008) 166 Cal.App.4th 597.)