News & Updates
Conference of Western Attorneys General
November 1, 2023
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Rare Juvenile White Abalone Spotted Off California Raises Hope for Endangered Shellfish
During a recent research cruise off the southern coast of California, NOAA Fisheries divers and partners found a juvenile white abalone. It’s one of only three live juveniles observed in natural subtidal reefs along the California coast during the past 20 years. They once numbered in the millions but are now endangered. The discovery demonstrates that the highly endangered species is reproducing in the wild.
Abalone are an ecologically, economically, and culturally important species. The abalone’s diet of kelp clears patches of rocky surface so that multiple kelp species can flourish. This increases the diversity of fish and other animals that depend on kelp forest habitat. At one time, the species supported commercial fisheries as well as tribal harvest. White abalone can live to up to 40 years and may reproduce successfully only four to five times over the course of their lives. They also have the broadest depth range of any abalone species in the world, occurring at depths of 15 to 200 feet.
NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to conserving and restoring white abalone. Our scientists use innovative techniques to study, protect, and restore their populations. We also work with our partners to ensure that regulations and management plans are in place to reduce poaching and increase the wild abalone population.
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Focus on Tribal Communities Intensifies
The Department of Justice is redoubling its efforts to protect tribal communities from violations of environmental law, according to a top agency official. The endeavor brings together DOJ’s environmental section, its Indian Resources Section, and its Office of Tribal Justice to reach out to tribal communities and learn what’s affecting them, including a series of recent tribal summits in states like New Mexico, Washington, and Minnesota. Other priorities include drought, wildfire, the loss of key cultural species, land loss, and the sustainability of tribal homelands. Another part of the effort focuses on murdered and missing Indigenous people.
The Justice Department and Interior Department reached a settlement in August to provide the Hualapai Tribe with water to sustain its permanent homeland on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, protect its groundwater from interference by neighboring users, and make available $315 million for the tribe to develop water-related infrastructure.
DOJ and the Environmental Protection Agency also reached a settlement in July with fertilizer manufacturer J.R. Simplot Co. to improve hazardous waste management and cut emissions around the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho.
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Supreme Court Allows Mobile Sports Bets at Florida Indian Casinos
Brick-and-mortar gambling venues in the state of Florida objected to a deal that deemed remote wagers handled by Indian casinos to have been made “on tribal lands.” The Supreme Court allowed a Native American tribe in Florida to offer online sports betting on mobile devices throughout the state.
The court’s brief order did not give reasons for its ruling, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. A separate challenge is pending before the Florida Supreme Court. A 2018 Supreme Court decision transformed sports betting in the United States by striking down a federal law that had effectively banned such wagering in most states. Florida’s voters promptly passed a referendum that said expansions of legal gambling would require a further referendum — one that has not materialized.
But that 2018 measure made an exception for “the conduct of casino gambling on tribal lands” when approved under a federal law. Taking a broad view of that phrase, the state entered into a compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 2021, saying that anyone physically present in Florida could place mobile bets at its casinos so long as the computer servers handling the transactions were on tribal land.
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Delaware Attorney General Sues Companies for Contaminating Delaware Water
Attorney General Kathleen Jennings announced that her office has filed a lawsuit against companies that have polluted Delaware rivers, streams, and soil. The lawsuit states that the Company and other manufacturers of a forever chemical used in firefighting foam have damaged Delaware’s environment and jeopardized public health by releasing the chemical into waterways and soil. PFAS compounds are toxic and do not occur naturally. PFAS compounds accumulate in living tissue, leading to chronic exposures, and several have been linked to cancer, thyroid disruption, ulcerative colitis, and developmental and systemic disorders.
The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Delaware and seeks monetary damages, including natural resource damages and costs to test, monitor, assess, and respond to contamination. It also seeks the costs necessary to restore impacted natural resources and funding for state-run public health programs.
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State of Alaska Seeks to Resolve Long-Running Campbell Lake Public Access Dispute
The State of Alaska filed a lawsuit asking a State Superior Court judge to confirm the existence of a public right-of-way to Campbell Lake and to declare that Campbell Lake is a public lake. The answer would resolve a decades-old dispute and allow continued public use of the lake while respecting the rights of lakeshore landowners. Last spring, two lake shore landowners filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a declaration that the Section Line Easement that runs north south through Campbell Lake does not exist and that their property is unencumbered. The State filed a Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit, which is currently pending before the federal court.
Public access is central to the use and enjoyment of state-managed lands and waters throughout Alaska. Over the years, the lack of an agreed-upon route to Campbell Lake has contributed to disagreements between the public and nearby landowners. The State believes a court order based on the facts and laws at issue will provide much-needed clarity for both the property owners adjacent to the lake and the public who seeks to use it.
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USDA: Forest and farm carbon markets slow to gain traction.
Agricultural carbon markets remain hindered by low participation among farmers and forest owners. Agriculture's contributions to climate-related emissions, and its potential to ease climate change, are well established across federal agencies and among researchers.
Advocates for one of the biggest initiatives, the Conservation Stewardship Program, say it's well-suited to that mission because it encourages enrollment by farmers with conservation plans already in place, which can be expanded across the farm. But the CSP has critics in Congress and with some environmental organizations, in part because of the way it's structured, and it's been cut sharply in recent years.
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After the issuance of the court decision in the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians v. the State of California, 42 F. 4th 1024 (9th Circuit 2022), the Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians and the State entered into a stipulation that the State had failed to negotiate in good faith by insisting on provisions concerning broad tort claims coverage, employment spousal and child support orders, and environmental review and mitigation, and jointly requested that the court order the parties to proceed pursuant to the remedial process set forth in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 25 U.S.C. § 2710 (d) (7) (B) (iii) - (vii), under the court's continued supervision. (continued)
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Plaintiff, whose mineral tribal lands lease was terminated and awarded to new lessees, was required to first exhaust all administrative appeals prior to bringing action in federal court, notwithstanding allegations of unreasonable and unwarranted delay deciding pending appeals and allegations that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) failed to recognize Plaintiffs’ lease and legal interests as valid and in full force and effect pending a final decision.
In dispute with former attorneys regarding return of funds in trust account, Tribe was not entitled to (continued)
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accounting under Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct or under equitable principles, and the Tribe failed to show the verdict would have been more favorable to the Tribe if certain racially charged evidence and argument had not been admitted.
The federal mandate at 42 U.S.C.A. § 666(f)), requiring States to adopt the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, which defines the term "State" to include Indian tribes and nations, does not abrogate the tribal sovereign immunity, so that court lacked jurisdiction to hear tribal employee's challenge to directive from Band and its Dept of Child Support Services that employee's required gaming license would be conditioned upon satisfaction of any unpaid child support.
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All summaries are posted in CWAG's Google Docs account, accessible through the link below. Should you have any issues with the links, contact Patricia Salazar at [email protected] with questions.
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Conference of Western Attorneys General
5050 Laguna Blvd | Suite 112-323 | Elk Grove, California 95758
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