The state of Texas and a flock of whooping cranes faced off at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the state won.

The Fifth Circuit overturned a trial court injunction that had barred the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from issuing new permits to allow withdrawal of water from rivers that feed an estuary where the 5-feet-tall, spindly legged white birds make their winter home.