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Reuters
WASHINGTON
The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed hear a bid by timber company Weyerhaeuser Co seeking to limit the federal government's power to designate private land as critical habitat for endangered species in a case involving a warty amphibian called the dusky gopher frog.
Weyerhaeuser harvests timber on the Louisiana land in question and is backed in the case by business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce. Weyerhaeuser challenged a lower court ruling upholding a 2012 US Fish and Wildlife Service decision to include private land where the frog does not currently live as critical habitat, putting limits on future development opportunities.
The case pits property rights against federal conservation measures. The frog, found only in four locations in southern Mississippi, also previously inhabited Louisiana and Alabama.
The US government identified the Louisiana land partly owned by Weyerhaeuser as meeting the criteria for the frog's habitat under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The court did not act on a similar appeal brought by owners of other parcels of the land.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's critical habitat designation covered the tract of 1,544 acres (about 625 hectares) of private land in Louisiana as well as nearly 5,000 acres (about 2,025 hectares) in Mississippi. The owners of the Louisiana land filed a legal challenge to the designation, saying it would infringe on their rights to use the property as they see fit.
