Cattle growers swat at willow flycatcher in ESA challenge

By Michael Doyle | 02/03/2025 04:18 PM EST

Ranchers in New Mexico want the Fish and Wildlife Service to reexamine the federal protections for the bird.

Southwestern willow flycatcher sitting on a branch.

The endangered southwestern willow flycatcher can be found in the Southwest. Natural Resources Conservation Service Colorado/USDA/National Park Service

A three-judge appellate panel on Monday sorted through the Fish and Wildlife Service’s handling of the southwestern willow flycatcher, with potentially broader consequences for the Endangered Species Act writ large.

“We’re not asking the court to direct the delisting of this species,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Charles Yates, representing the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association. “We’re essentially asking the court to remand this to the Fish and Wildlife Service for them to do another rulemaking applying a nonarbitrary standard.”

But while the 58-minute back-and-forth lasted twice as long as originally scheduled and challenged both sides, some sporadic judicial skepticism shadowed the cattle growers’ case.

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“It seems that you’re trying to have us make a determination about the science and actually determining if the science supports the conclusions reached,” said Judge J. Michelle Childs, a Biden administration appointee to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “Generally, we would defer to the experts in that regard, and not have us determining if the science is actually correct.”

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