1. Identify the statutory language the court had to interpret to resolve this case.
2. How did the FWS select the areas included in its designation of 8.6 million acres as critical habitat for the owl?
3. What contrary arguments were made by Arizona Cattle?
4. What was the standard of review that the court applied to the agency’s decision?
5. How many years elapsed between the first lawsuit over the designation of the Mexican spotted owl and the decision in this case?
In 1993 the Mexican Spotted Owl was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The listing decision prompted a series of lawsuits alternately seeking to compel the FWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the owl and, following the FWS’s designation of habitat, attacking that designation.