Two environmentalist groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona alleging that the US Forest and Fish and Wildlife Services skirted environmental impact laws in order to grant permission to Regal Resources’ ability to explore for copper mining in the Patagonia Mountains located near the Coronado National Forest. The Santa Cruz County-based newspaper The Weekly Bulletin points out:

[I]n May 2014, the U.S. Forest Service prepared a biological assessment for the Sunnyside Project which determined the project may affect, but was not likely to adversely affect, critical habitat for the jaguar, ocelot, lesser long-nosed bat, Mexican spotted owl and yellow-billed cuckoo.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service extended threatened status to the yellow-billed cuckoo in October – more than a month after the Forest Service had given Regal Resources the green light on the Sunnyside project, Cronkite News reported.

The duo green groups further allege in their lawsuit that both federal wildlife agencies did not permit enough time for local residents to express their concerns about the mining project as required by law. Consequently, copper mining exploration for the Sunnyside Project is now on hold until and unless the controversies in the lawsuit can be hashed out.

Groups like Defenders of Wildlife are generously financed via private contributions and have more than enough money to buy a segment of land in question in order to establish a preserve for the species allegedly threatened by Regal Resources’ efforts. Instead, the group and a green ally resort to litigation. The name Defenders of Wildlife is very symbolic of environmentalist groups overall since the people that make the group up undertake efforts to protect wildlife over progress, the group’s name and their activities are symbolic of a group who prefer the primitive savagery of nature over the civilization of mankind.