That year, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit that halted progress on the project the next year, due to concerns about damage to the least tern and light-footed clapper rail bird populations caused by the construction of a nearby hotel and the roads to it would have. Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson stopped the work because the preserve had not been created. It was estimated that the shutdown resulted in the state losing $25,000 (about $ in dollars) a day, as well as over 185 layoffs.