Ninth Circuit Review editor's note.

• Author: Coon, Nora
• Position: 2015 NINTH CIRCUIT ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW

It is my privilege to present the 2015-2016 Ninth Circuit Review. This review contains twenty-four summaries of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions on environmental and natural resources topics issued between May and December 2015. The review also includes two chapters authored by Ninth Circuit Review members. Both chapters closely examine issues raised by the summarized opinions.

In the first chapter, Dashiell Farewell explores the Ninth Circuit's approach to critical habitat designation under the Endangered Species Act through the lens of Bear Valley Mutual Water Co. v. Jewell and Building Industry Ass'n of the Bay Area v. U.S. Department of Commerce. He examines the court's refusal to impose unnecessary procedural barriers that would exceed those required by the text of the Endangered Species Act. Based on environmental policy considerations and the statutory language, he argues that the court should encourage efficient critical habitat designation. Ultimately, he concludes that courts have a meaningful role to play in promoting critical habitat designation.

In the second chapter, Ryan Ichinaga uses Chinatown Neighborhood Ass'n v. Harris to examine the tensions in state and federal efforts to conserve sharks. Walking through the history of state and federal...