SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO—Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a proposed rule to list a rare subspecies of silverspot butterfly (Speyeria nokomis nokomis) as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). WildEarth Guardians petitioned to list the butterfly in 2013 due to threats from habitat loss, insecticides, and climate change.
Silverspots live in scattered populations in the desert Southwest and rely on the bog violet (Viola nephrophylla), a flower that provides the exclusive food source for silverspot larvae. The habitats for both the butterfly and the flower—seeps, springs, wet meadows, and other riparian oases—have been decimated by water diversions, housing developments, mining, livestock grazing, drought, and climate change.
“Listing offers silverspots a much-needed lifeline,” said Joe Bushyhead, endangered species attorney with WildEarth Guardians. “We’re hopeful the ESA can provide a path to both recover the butterfly and safeguard its vanishing habitat.”
Recent research has shown the range of silverspots to be more limited than previously thought. Genetic analysis now indicates that the butterfly, previously known as the Great Basin silverspot, lives only in east-central Utah, western and south-central Colorado, and north-central New Mexico–well east of the Great Basin region.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting comments on its proposed rule from tomorrow until July 5, after which the agency will finalize its listing decision.
WildEarth Guardians and our allies scored a major legal victory for gray wolves on February 10, 2022 when a federal court restored Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the gray wolf across the lower 48 states after they were eliminated by Trump in 2020.
Unfortunately, the ruling does not apply to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains because a 2011 Congressional rider stripped this wolf population of ESA protections and even stipulated the rider “shall not be subject to judicial review.”
Guardians and wolf advocates have filed an emergency petition to relist Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves under the ESA, but the Biden administration has refused to take action. Please write the Biden administration today, then share this action alert with your friends, family, and networks to have the biggest impact for wolves.
Photo Credit: Gray wolf photo by Jacob W. Frank/NPS; graphic element added by Gus O’Keefe
Lack of action puts the Sonoran desert tortoise on a collision course with extinction
TUCSON, ARIZONA—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that the iconic Sonoran desert tortoise does not warrant the protection of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Conservation groups remain concerned that the habitat of Sonoran desert tortoise is degraded by invasive species, livestock grazing, increase fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, habitat fragmentation, and increased predation facilitated by human activities. Residential development has created artificial barriers to the tortoise’s movement and its natural genetic mixing. Continuous overgrazing in the desert has depleted the vegetation on which the species depends. Cattle are also known to trample and crush tortoises in their burrows.
“A decision to forego ESA listing must be based on the best available science, and we will make sure the Service complied with that duty here,” said Joe Bushyhead, Endangered Species Policy Advocate for WildEarth Guardians.
“It’s hopeful news that the Service thinks the future is rosy for the Sonoran desert tortoise based on the agency’s modeling scenarios, and we certainly hope they are right,” said Cyndi Tuell, the Arizona and New Mexico director for Western Watersheds Project. Tuell expressed her concerns about the 12-month finding that the tortoise is not warranted for protection. “For those of us who have visited Arizona’s public lands, we can clearly see that the species’ habitat is still gravely threatened by livestock grazing, off-road vehicles, abandoned mines, invasive species, and fires.”
The Service’s announcement asserts that 29 percent of the species’ range in Arizona is on publicly-owned lands managed specifically “for the benefit of wildlife.” This includes the Sonoran Desert National Monument where the Bureau resisted conducting a thorough or adequate analysis of the impacts of livestock grazing on natural values, including the tortoise, and simply forged ahead to authorize expanded livestock use in 2020. The Service failed to acknowledge the many uses of most public lands that will continue to affect the species habitat. The Service also relied on predictive modeling and other information not yet available to the public.
More than 8,500 square miles (over 5 million acres) of tortoise habitat is managed by the Bureau of Land Management for livestock grazing and over 77 percent of those grazing allotments have 10 year permits that have been renewed at least once without any analysis of the impacts to species like the tortoise. “We worry that the Service has put the tortoise on a collision course with extinction by minimizing the threats from livestock grazing throughout the tortoise’s habitat,” said Tuell.
Timeline of Sonoran desert tortoise protection efforts:
2008 Western Watersheds Project (WWP) and WildEarth Guardians (Guardians) file a petition to list the species under the Endangered Species Act
2009 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues a 90-day finding that the tortoise should be considered as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS)
2010 Service determines that listing is warranted as a DPS, but precluded by higher priority species
2011 Service reaffirms this finding
2012 Service reaffirms this finding and determines the Sonoran desert tortoise is a separate species, which moves it up the priority list for the Service
2013 Service reaffirms this finding
2014 Service reaffirms this finding and starts preparing the proposed listing rule (formal process for listing the species under the Endangered Species Act)
2015 Service enters into a voluntary “candidate conservation agreement” with state and federal agencies to theoretically protect the tortoise and reaffirms in this agreement that the tortoise warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act
2015 Service uses a “very coarse model” based on elevation, vegetation type, and slope to assess the status of the tortoise.
2015 Service reverses its previous findings and issued a “not warranted” determination on the petition to list the tortoise and concludes the tortoise does not qualify for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
2019 WWP and WildEarth Guardians file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the “not warranted” determination as arbitrary and capricious and for failing to use the best available science in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
2020 Service agrees to revisit the 2015 “not warranted” determination.
2022 Service issues a “not warranted” determination for Sonoran desert tortoise.
MISSOULA, MONTANA—Today, as the wolf hunting season begins in Montana—and Idaho continues its year-round slaughter of up to 90% of the states’ roughly 1,500 wolves—the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced positive initial findings on two petitions filed seeking Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for gray wolves in the western U.S.
According to a press release from the agency, USFWS determined that “the petitions present substantial, credible information indicating that a listing action may be warranted and will initiate a comprehensive status review of the gray wolf in the western U.S.” A copy of the two petitions are here and here.
“We are encouraged that the relentless pressure of the conservation community and the public has resulted in a response from USFWS on petitions to relist wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains and beyond,” said John Horning, Executive Director of WildEarth Guardians. “It’s tragic—and perhaps not coincidental—that this finding comes on the same day that the state of Montana has unleashed hunters to kill hundreds of wolves throughout the state, including on the edge of Yellowstone National Park.”
“We now need USFWS to not just issue this statement of intention, but to take swift action in moving forward with the relisting process in order to prevent wolves from being pushed back to the brink of extinction,” explained Horning.
Last month, Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission finalized rules to expand hunting season, eliminate a cap on the number of wolves that can be killed in hunting and trapping zones bordering Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park and allow individuals to kill up to 10 wolves per season. In July, Idaho’s Fish and Game Commission implemented new hunting regulations – in line with state legislation – to allow a new year-round wolf hunting season, which would enable 90% of the states’ population to be slaughtered through various cruel methods such as traps, snares and even with snowmobiles.
“On the day that Montana opened rifle hunting season on wolves, the USFWS has finally taken their head out of the sand and recognized the tremendous threats to wolves across the West,” said Sarah McMillan, Montana-based Conservation Director at WildEarth Guardians. “Unfortunately, it’s unconscionable that the USFWS thinks a commitment to make a decision in 12 months—when the agency is on full notice that up to 1,800 wolves will be killed in Montana and Idaho in the next few months alone—is an adequate response to what is clearly an emergency situation.”
WildEarth Guardians issued a separate press release earlier today regarding the start of the general wolf hunting season in Montana, which is available here.
Gray wolf in winter in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Sam Parks.
The Sonoran desert tortoise is found south and east of the Colorado River, in the central and western parts of Arizona, and into northwestern Mexico. The habitat of this rare reptile is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increased fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, and increased predation facilitated by human activities.
In 2015, WildEarth Guardians and allies challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ (USFWS) decision not to protect the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As a result of that lawsuit, in August 2020 USFWS agreed to reconsider the tortoise for ESA protection.
USFWS must now go back and take a new look at the imperiled animal’s status in Arizona and has 18 months to make a new determination about the status of the species. Sonoran desert tortoise are known for moving slowly, but without full federal ESA protections, they will continue racing toward extinction. Please raise your voice today!
Sea otters are one of the most beloved animals on earth. Unfortunately, over a hundred years ago, people hunted sea otters to near-extinction off of the Oregon coast. We, along with our ocean, are still paying the price.
Without otters around to keep them in check, purple sea urchin populations have exploded in recent years, mowing down critical kelp forests and creating a nearshore wasteland where few other species can survive. Without kelp, many fish and sea creatures are left without shelter, habitat, or their primary food source.
I support efforts to reintroduce sea otters off the Oregon coast to help bolster the endangered species and restore the health of the kelp forest ecosystems.
Sea otters are one of the most beloved animals on earth. Unfortunately, over a hundred years ago, people hunted sea otters to near-extinction off of the Oregon coast. We, along with our ocean, are still paying the price.
Without otters around to keep them in check, purple sea urchin populations have exploded in recent years, mowing down critical kelp forests and creating a nearshore wasteland where few other species can survive. Without kelp, many fish and sea creatures are left without shelter, habitat, or their primary food source.
I support efforts to reintroduce sea otters off the Oregon coast to help bolster the endangered species and restore the health of the kelp forest ecosystems.
Target: Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Goal: Extend protections for old growth forests that benefit spotted owls.
Beautiful birds that once flourished in Canada’s wild have been reduced to three. The spotted owl, which inhabits Canada and parts of the United States, is in such dire straits that the species has become the focus of a Canadian captive breeding program. Even with this step, only one known breeding pair currently resides in any forest of Canada.
Populations have been decimated by an onslaught of logging. Much of this activity has wiped away the precious old growth forests the owls called home for centuries. Native tribes revere these animals, calling them “messengers” that represent the overall wellness of nature. If the plight of the spotted owl is any indication, Mother Nature herself is in grave danger. A temporary halt has been placed on logging of old-grown habitats these birds depend upon for survival. The owls’ population cannot possibly recover in such a short time, however, so this ban should remain in place indefinitely.
Sign the petition below to advocate for the longevity of old-growth forests and the renaissance of one of their most storied inhabitants.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Wilkinson,
Canada has pledged to protect at least a quarter of its splendid natural habitats. The old-growth forests that have dotted the Canadian landscape for thousands of years should be a top priority in this goal. These forests not only speak to the nation’s rich botanical legacy; they also house the majestic spotted owl: a species currently at urgent risk in the wild.
The breeding programs instituted can help build this population, but renewed numbers cannot be sustained in the absence of habitat. The vanishing of old growth forests perpetuated this crisis. The government has announced a one-year ban on logging of these forests, but the commitment must be greater.
Please consider a permanent, or at least indefinite, end to the destructive plundering of Canada’s true most precious natural resources.
The Sonoran desert tortoise is found south and east of the Colorado River, in the central and western parts of Arizona, and into northwestern Mexico. The habitat of this rare reptile is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increased fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, and increased predation facilitated by human activities.
In 2015, WildEarth Guardians and allies challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ (USFWS) decision not to protect the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As a result of that lawsuit, in August 2020 USFWS agreed to reconsider the tortoise for ESA protection.
USFWS must now go back and take a new look at the imperiled animal’s status in Arizona and has 18 months to make a new determination about the status of the species. Sonoran desert tortoise are known for moving slowly, but without full federal ESA protections, they will continue racing toward extinction. Please raise your voice today!
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the best tools America has to stem the current extinction crisis facing plants and wildlife. In fact, the ESA has prevented more than 99% of species protected by the Act from going extinct over the past four decades.
Unfortunately, the ESA has been chronically underfunded for decades. Hundreds of endangered animals and plants receive less than $1,000 a year for their recovery and many species receive no funding at all from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). This must change immediately.
WildEarth Guardians has joined more than 170 groups calling on Congress to significantly increase the USFWS’ budget for endangered species conservation and we could use your help. Please write your members of Congress today.
The Sonoran desert tortoise is found south and east of the Colorado River, in the central and western parts of Arizona, and into northwestern Mexico. The habitat of this rare reptile is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increase fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, habitat fragmentation, and increased predation facilitated by human activities.
In 2015, WildEarth Guardians and allies challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ (USFWS) decision not to protect the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As a result of that lawsuit, in August 2020 USFWS agreed to reconsider the tortoise for ESA protection.
USFWS must now go back and take a new look at the imperiled animal’s status in Arizona and has 18 months to make a new determination about the status of the species. Sonoran desert tortoise are known for moving slowly, but without full federal ESA protections, they will continue racing toward extinction. Please raise your voice today!
338,125 SUPPORTERS 340,000 GOAL Gray wolves will be thrust back onto the brink of extinction if the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposition is allowed to stand.
The Department intends to delist gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states from the Endangered Species Act, removing the crucial protections they currently have under the law.
This political move jeopardizes wolves nationwide and would pave the way for trophy hunting of wolves in states where the ESA currently protects them, such as Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Oregon. Further, it hinders the possibility of wolves returning to other states where there is suitable habitat.
The last time wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin lost federal ESA protections, nearly 1,500 of them were killed in just three seasons — many were pups. This proposed rule is scientifically unsound and politically motivated. Will you sit by while another species goes extinct?
We need your voice to oppose this misguided proposal. Without opposition, legislators will push this through and put the nation’s gray wolf population at critical risk.
Please join the fight using the form below, and tell the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service that you oppose their proposal to delist gray wolves from the ESA.read petition letter ▾Subject: Please keep gray wolves listed under the ESA
Dear U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
I oppose the proposed rule to delist gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states from the Endangered Species Act. Removing ESA protections now would jeopardize the fragile recovery that wolves have only just begun after having been hunted to near-extinction. It would also expose imperiled populations to the horrors of trophy hunting and trapping.
AnimalsWisconsin has approved 200 wolves to be killed in a February hunt. Michael Cummings / Getty Images
As the former and current administration’s endangered species policies battle for prominence, Wisconsin’s wolves are caught in the crosshairs, literally.
When the Trump administration delisted gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act, it triggered a Wisconsin law requiring the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to hold a wolf hunt from mid-October through February, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The DNR originally said it would wait until November 2021 to prepare a hunt, but hunting advocates sued to speed up the process, and last week a judge ordered the board to prepare a February hunt. This prompted the DNR to set a quota on Monday of 200 gray wolves that can be killed before the end of the month.
Wildlife advocates oppose the move, pointing out that the rushed hunt will take place during the wolves’ breeding season.
“You remove one, you’re essentially destabilizing and killing the entire pack,” Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife Executive Director Melissa Smith told Public News Service. “So, we expect this to be pretty detrimental to our wolf population.”
The federal delisting of wolves officially went into effect in January. In December, the DNR said it would wait until November to set a hunting quota, arguing that it needed more time to make a scientifically sound plan and consult with tribes and the public, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. In late January, the state’s Natural Resources Board rejected a push from Republican lawmakers to speed up the quota, Wisconsin Public Radio reported at the time.
However, Kansas-based group Hunter Nation sued the state to start the hunt this winter. It argued that delaying the hunt violated hunters’ constitutional rights, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Circuit Judge Bennett Brantmeier ruled in the group’s favor. While Wisconsin is appealing this decision, the Natural Resources Board still voted Monday to authorize a February hunt.
The hunt will allow the killing of 200 wolves that aren’t on tribal reservations, according to the DNR website. The hunt will last from Feb. 22 to Feb. 28, and hunters can apply for a permit between Feb. 16 and Feb. 20. The state will issue 4,000 permits, the Wisconsin State Journal reported, which is twice the number that staff recommended.
The department said it based the quota on the best available science, without intending to increase or decrease the state’s wolf population. However, DNR members said they would have made a more accurate decision given more time. They also did not have a chance to fully consult with tribes or gather public input.
“Was there more we would like to do? Yes,” Keith Warnke, administrator of fish, wildlife and parks for the DNR, told Wisconsin Public Radio. “Are we confident and comfortable with the quota recommendation we made? I think… we would have been more confident and more comfortable had we taken more time.”null
There are currently 1,195 wolves in Wisconsin, according to DNR. The last time the state managed the population, it set a quota of 350 wolves in 1999 and last updated it in 2007, wildlife advocates point out. Indigenous groups also argue that wolves are sacred to their communities, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. On the other side, those who support hunting argue that wolves are a threat to livestock and rural residents. But wildlife advocates counter that hunting is not the solution to human and wolf conflicts.
“Indiscriminate killing of wolves actually increases conflicts and spreads deer disease like CWD, so the special interests like the farm bureau and sportsmen’s groups are not only doing a disservice to themselves pushing an early wolf hunt but may cause the wolf to be relisted again,” Northern Wisconsin resident Britt Ricci said in a Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife statement.
Fear of new federal protections are partly behind the push for a hunt this winter, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The Biden administration has called for a review of the Trump administration’s agency rules, including the delisting of wolves.
“And so, they want to rush and try to kill as many as they can in a short time as possible during a sensitive breeding season,” Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf’s Smith told Public News Service.
Gray wolves lost federal Endangered Species Act protections on January 4, 2021. The reckless decision by the Trump administration applies to all gray wolves in the lower 48 states despite the lack of scientific evidence showing true recovery across gray wolves’ historic range.
WildEarth Guardians and our partners filed a legal challenge to reverse this heinous decision on January 14. For now, management of wolf populations has returned to individual state wildlife agencies, some of which are notoriously anti-wolf and are already planning hunting and trapping season on wolves.
We can’t abandon fragile wolf-recovery efforts and allow anti-wolf states, hunters, and trappers to push these iconic species back to the brink of extinction. Sign this petition urging the Biden administration to take action to halt the impending slaughter and begin the process of restoring Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves.
Dear President Biden, Personalize your message As you know, the Trump administration stripped Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from gray wolves across the entire lower 48 on January 4, 2021. If allowed to remain in place, states can expand wolf trophy hunting, trapping, and decimate this still unrecovered species as soon as January 2021. The most recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and its state partners show only an estimated 108 wolves in Washington state, 158 in Oregon, and a scant 15 in California. Nevada, Utah, and Colorado have had a few wolf sightings over the past three years, but wolves remain functionally extinct in these states. In delisting wolves, USFWS ignores the science showing they are not recovered in the West. Wolves only occupy a small portion of available, suitable habitat in Oregon and Washington, and remain absent across vast swaths of their historical habitat in the West, including in Colorado and the southern Rockies. The restoration of gray wolves could be a heroic success story, but it will be cut tragically short if wolves lose further protection under the ESA now. We can’t let fragile wolf-recovery efforts to be stalled and allow states, hunters, and trappers to push the species back to the brink of extinction. Please ensure gray wolves have a future by taking immediate action to halt the impending slaughter and begin the process of restoring ESA protections for gray wolves.
WildEarth Guardians protects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West.
ARIZONA 738 North 5th Ave., Ste 225 Tucson, AZ 85705 phone 520.869.4673
COLORADO 3798 Marshall St., Suite 8 Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 phone 303.437.7663
IDAHO PO Box 1032 Boise, ID 83701 phone 208.871.0596
MONTANA PO Box 7516 Missoula, MT 59807 phone 406.543.9551
NEW MEXICO 301 N. Guadalupe, Suite 201 Santa Fe, NM 87501 phone 505.988.9126
OREGON PO Box 13086 Portland, OR 97213 phone 503.278.0669
WASHINGTON 10015 Lake City Way NE #414 Seattle, WA 98125 phone 206.417.6363
By dragging a net across the ocean floor, fishers can easily catch many fish at a time. However, this practice comes with a price — it often results in larger marine creatures being unintentionally picked up by the nets as well. This unfortunate situation happened recently off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea when a fishing boat accidentally caught a pregnant female whale shark in a drag net.
Upon getting news from divers on a diving boat that the animal had been scooped up by the net, the fishing boat’s captain reportedly said that they would release the whale shark. But instead of doing so promptly, the crew left the whale shark hanging on the side of the boat for upwards of two hours, leaving the poor creature unresponsive and with severely dry skin.
By the time the fishing boat crew finally cut the ropes that the whale shark was caught in and released her back into the ocean, it was already too late — she had spent too much time out of the water, and she had died. What’s worse, the diving crew reportedly spotted an unborn baby whale shark coming out of the mother and floating away into the sea. This drag net operation took the lives of not one but two innocent whale sharks.
When he heard about this tragic incident, Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawata, a marine activist and an official counsellor for the Department of Marine and Coastal Resouces (DMCR), was understandably outraged. He reportedly posted on his personal Facebook page, “The whale shark is protected by the international Species Conservation Act. It is also classified as prohibited in the Fisheries Act. The female whale shark should not be caught or taken onto a fishing vessel. The sentence is a fine between 300,000 and 3 million baht.”
We certainly hope that the fishing crew receives a hefty fine for the murder of these two poor whale sharks.
To make sure justice is served for these whales and help more people learn about the harsh consequences of drag net fishing, a conservation group in Thailand called Go Eco Phuket is encouraging individuals to spread the word about this tragedy. Doing so is a great way to play your part in ending reckless fishing practices. Another easy thing you can do to help reduce the needless slaughter of marine life is decrease your seafood consumption. If we all work together, it’s very possible for us to enact change and preserve our planet’s precious marine animals!
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A newly discovered black iguana already faces extinction. Demand that immediate action be taken to protect this species from harvest, hunting, and habitat loss.
A rare bumblebee has seen its population decline by over 90 percent. Demand that the bee be afforded protections under the Endangered Species Act to save it from extinction.
The chambered nautilus is one of six species of nautilus, the only cephalopods that have external shells.These beautiful ocean creatures could be headed toward extinction. Add your name to save the Endangered Species Act and #StopExtinction: https://t.co/3P9JBThVbLpic.twitter.com/0aQOdeim7s
The driver of the car pictured in the image here has committed a Federal Crime ? a misdemeanor under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA) punishable by a fine of up to US$15,000 or imprisonment of not more than six months. His crime? He has violated the MBTA which makes it illegal to:
?pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, cause to be shipped, deliver for transportation, transport, cause to be transported, carry, or cause to be carried by any means whatever, receive for shipment, transportation or carriage, or export, at any time, or in any manner, any migratory bird, included in the terms of this Convention . . . for the protection of migratory birds . . . or any part…
Have the Koala declared an endangered species!
Viv Benjamin started this petition to Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley
Australian koalas are in danger of becoming extinct, and the Australian Government MUST do something about it.
I couldn’t look away from the horrific images of burnt and dying koalas coming from the recent bushfires all over the east coast of Australia.
As my home country, Australia, experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have shrunk along with their natural habitat. A third of koalas in Australia’s NSW region may have been killed in the deadly bushfires. Please join me and help save the Koala.
Deforestation has meant that the koalas were already under threat before the bushfires. Koalas only live in Australia, and rely on eucalyptus trees to survive. But the eucalyptus trees – the koalas’ only food source – are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
Koalas are in peril but are yet to be listed as an endangered species.
Koala populations in the states of New South Wales and Queensland fell 42% between 1990 and 2010, according to the Commonwealth Scientific Committee. Some experts say there will be no Koalas left by 2050!!
We are urging the Australian Government to declare the Koala an endangered species immediately.
Mexican gray wolf pup over the summer, the Trump administration unveiled its final changes to the rules that implement the Endangered Species Act (ESA) — a series of disastrous regulatory changes best characterized as an “Extinction Plan”. The rule rollbacks represent a fundamental attack on this cornerstone of conservation law, making it harder to protect wildlife from multiple threats, including habitat loss and those posed by climate change.
In an effort to fight this latest step to cripple the nation’s best tool for helping to prevent extinction, members of the House and Senate introduced “Protect America’s Wildlife and Fish in Need of Protection Act of 2019” or the “PAW and FIN Act of 2019” legislation aimed to repeal all three final rule changes to the ESA.
Given that science has concluded that we have entered an unprecedented period of human-caused Sixth Mass extinction, we need to make every effort to help imperiled species heal and flourish.
Ask your Congressional representatives to support the PAW and FIN Conservation Act of 2019 (H.B. 4348 and S. 2491) to protect the world’s “gold standard” for conservation and protection of imperiled species.
Use the message below as talking points to guide your comments, but please personalize your message. Nothing is as effective as speaking from the heart.
Recipients
Your Senators
Your Representative
Message
Please support the PAW and FIN Conservation Act of 2019 H.B. 4348 and S. 2491 to protect the ESA
Dear [Decision Maker],
As a lifelong supporter of the Endangered Species Act and someone who cares deeply for our nation’s wildlife, I am writing to request that you oppose legislation taking aim at the ESA – the world’s “gold standard” for conservation and protection of imperiled species.
* Personalize your message
While Congressional leaders and lobbyists have spoken for major corporations and special interests, my individual voice as a voting American counts just as much. I’m counting on you to protect and preserve one of our nation’s most effective environmental laws.
GENEVAGENEVA (Reuters) – Countries voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to regulate international trade in giraffes, an endangered species, and in their skins and other parts, overcoming objections by southern African states and drawing praise from conservationists.
The provisional decision, taken in a key committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), is expected to be endorsed at a plenary next week, officials said. The requirements would come into force 30 days later.
“The giraffe is in the wild much rarer than African elephants, much rarer,” Tom De Meulenaer, CITES’ scientific services chief, told a news briefing before the vote.
“We are talking about a few tens of thousands of giraffes, and we talk about a few hundreds of thousands of African elephants. So we need to be careful,” he said.
After heated debate, countries easily defeated a proposal by four southern African states – Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – to allow controlled sales of their ivory stocks.
But in recognition of conservation efforts, countries rejected a motion that would have transferred southern African elephants to appendix I banning trade. The European Union was among those saying the move did not meet ‘biological criteria’.
“The decisions today … mean it’s status quo for elephants: No international commercial ivory trade is permitted and that is what needs to happen,” said Susan Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Some 106 parties to the U.N.-backed treaty voted in favor of the giraffe motion, 21 voted against, with 7 abstentions.
Wildlife activists welcomed the move to list nine species of giraffes on CITES Appendix II that regulates trade. It came after the defeat of a motion by southern African countries to exclude their giraffe populations from any regulation.
Giraffes face “silent extinction”, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a conservation group, said in a statement.
“Thanks to today’s decision, the international trade in giraffe parts – which includes rugs and bone carvings – will be tracked in a manner that allows us to focus on problem trends in destructive trade, and fight for additional protections if necessary,” said Elly Pepper of the U.S.-based group.
Adam Peyman of Humane Society International said that it was a “huge win” for giraffes whose herds have shrunk.
“They have declined about 40 percent over the last 30 years and there are only about 68,000 mature individuals remaining in the world and they are really in trouble,” he told Reuters Television at the triennial talks.
Cassandra Koenen of World Animal Protection said: “This message is loud and clear: people care about wild animals and believe they should belong in the wild, not as a trophy in your office.”
CENTER for BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Emergency: Take Action to Save Our Wolves
This is it. Trump has declared a nationwide war on wolves. His administration has rolled out plans to strip Endangered Species Act protection from nearly every wolf in the lower 48.
We know what will happen next: It will be a return to the days when wolves were shot on sight, killed in traps and relentlessly persecuted to the brink of extinction. Worse yet, it will end 40 years’ of wolf recovery in the United States.
The big lie pushed by the Trump administration is that wolves have recovered. But the truth is that wolves occupy less than 10 percent of their historic habitat and face persecution from coast to coast.
Trump’s plan takes us in exactly the wrong direction.
Wolves and other wildlife are crucial to America’s natural heritage. Over the past 40 years, wolves have been returning and recovering in places like the Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes states and the West Coast. It’s an important conservation success — but this work is not complete.
Sign the petition right now and tell Trump to call off his war on wolves.
SIGN THE PETITION
President Trump,
I’m urging you to drop your plans to end wolf protection across the country.
Wolves and other wildlife are important to me and crucial to America’s natural heritage. Over the past 40 years, wolves have been returning and recovering in places like the Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes states and the West Coast. It’s an important conservation success — but this work is not complete.
The plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end protection for nearly every wolf in the lower 48 states will be a devastating blow to wolf recovery. It will be a return to the days when wolves were shot on sight, killed in traps and relentlessly persecuted to the brink of extinction.
Wolves deserve better, and I urge you to halt these plans right away.
The beloved kākāpō parrot faces possible extinction as several die from a fungal disease, leaving only 142 adults left. Help prevent future deaths by ensuring the protection of these parrots from the disease.
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Keep vital protections for gray wolves
Gray wolves in the United States stand at a pivotal point in their history. After hunting them to near extinction in the first half of the 20th century, the American people had a change of heart and gray wolves have begun a modest recovery under varying degrees of protection under the Endangered Species Act. Now, just as they’re starting to return to their former homes in places like northern California, the Trump administration is proposing to strip wolves of these crucial federal protections.
Earthjustice has been instrumental in protecting gray wolves for more than two decades, and we will continue that fight — but we need your help. Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to abandon its plan to remove much-needed protections for wolves across the lower 48 states.
Today, wolves are still functionally extinct across the vast majority of their former range. These cherished keystone predators cannot be considered fully recovered until they are found in wild forests across the country. And yet in states where wolves have already lost federal protections, they’ve been shot and trapped in staggering numbers — nearly 3,500 killed in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming since 2011.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, under newly confirmed Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist, is finalizing plans to significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act itself — part of a series of efforts by the Trump administration to slash protections for our most vulnerable wildlife and which amounts to a virtual extinction plan.
Interior Secretary Bernhardt wants to stop wolf recovery before it’s complete. Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep federal protections in place so wolves can return to the wild places where they used to roam.
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Urge Congress to Federally Ban Driftnets in Commercial Fishing – Let’s Ban “Death Nets” Once and For All!
The drift gillnet fishery catches myriad ocean animals in mile-long nets as incidental “bycatch,” killing and injuring dolphins, whales, sea turtles and sea lions in shocking numbers. Last fall, California passed a bill into law that will phase out the use of large-scale mesh driftnets in state waters over the next four years and transition to less harmful fishing gear.
Long overdue, the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act legislation, including Federal Senate bill (S. 906) and its companion bill in House (H.R. 1979), were reintroduced in March 2019.
Please email your members of Congress today and urge them to vigorously support the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act. Once passed, this legislation will phase out the use of harmful large mesh driftnets off the coast of California, the only place the nets continue to be used in the United States. Tell Congress: Let’s ban “death nets” once and for all!
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With only 10 to 15 left in the ocean, the vaquita is the most endangered marine species on Earth. Demand that action be taken to protect the species before it becomes nothing more than a memory.
Lying crumpled on the dusty ground, long legs tangled underneath them and graceful necks wilting into the dirt as trophy hunters raise their arms in victory.
Photo after photo highlights the tragic slaughter of these magnificent giraffes, hunted by the thousands only to be turned into trinkets in America.
With numbers estimated to have fallen by 30 percent since the 1980s, this incredible species is disappearing right before our eyes. Between 2006 and 2015, 40,000 giraffe parts were legally imported into the US.
Thanks to pressure from conservation groups, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is now finally considering listing giraffes as endangered.
Doing so would ensure that restrictions are placed on their import into the country, and conservation efforts could be supported with federal funding.
Only around 110,000 giraffes are left in the wild. Already struggling under the assault of habitat loss and poaching, these beautiful animals deserve to be protected from trophy hunters.
Sign the petition urging the USFWS to add giraffes to the Endangered Species List, so trophy hunters no longer get a free pass to gun down one of the planet’s most unique animals.
The Trump Administration has proposed a series of drastic changes to the way they carry out the Act, and there have been dozens of legislative attempts to weaken this crucial law. The Endangered Species Act is one of the most effective and successful tools to protect plants, fish, and wildlife. A recent study found that the Act has saved 99 percent of listed species from vanishing into extinction.
Please email your senators and tell them that you support the Endangered Species Act and ask them to protect this vital conservation law from legislative and regulatory attacks.
By WAN –
April 25, 2019
After a push from a lawsuit filed by conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that giraffes may qualify for protection under America’s Endangered Species Act.
The 2018 lawsuit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society International, Humane Society of the United States, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, seeks a response to their April 2017 legal petition for Endangered Species Act protection for giraffes. The species is gravely imperiled by habitat loss and fragmentation, civil unrest and over hunting, as well as the international trade of bone carvings, skins, and trophies.
As per the lawsuit, the United States provides a large market for giraffe parts with more than 21,400 bone carvings, 3,000 skin pieces, and 3,700 hunting trophies having been imported over the past decade. Limiting U.S. import and trade would give giraffes important protections, and an ESA listing would also help provide critical funding for conservation work in Africa.
A full giraffe hide for sale at The African Market Trophy Room Collection, Myakka FL, March 2018.
“The U.S. on average imports more than one giraffe trophy a day, and thousands of giraffe parts are sold domestically each year,” said Anna Frostic, attorney for the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International. “The federal government must now expeditiously take stock of the role we are playing in giraffe decline and how we can work to instead save these unique animals.”
Africa’s giraffe population has plunged nearly 40% in the past 30 years. It now stands at just over 97,000 individuals.
“This is a big step toward protecting giraffes from the growing use of their bones by U.S. gun and knife makers,” Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in statement. “It’s disgusting that it took a lawsuit to prompt the Trump administration to act. Saving everyone’s favorite long-necked animal from extinction should have been the easiest call in the world.”
With fewer giraffes than elephants left in Africa, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature elevated the threat level to giraffes from “least concern” to “vulnerable” on its “Red List of Threatened Species” in 2016. That finding was confirmed in 2018 along with a critically endangered assessment of two giraffe subspecies and an endangered assessment for another.
“The United States has long been complicit in the trade of giraffe parts, so it’s time for the federal government to stick its neck out for this species,” said Elly Pepper with NRDC. “The United States has taken action to help limit the trade of numerous species in trouble. Sadly, now it is time to take action to ensure giraffes remain on the planet. They need Endangered Species Act protections and they need them now.”
Known for their six-foot-long necks, distinctive patterning and long eyelashes, giraffes have captured the human imagination for centuries. New research recently revealed that they live in complex societies, much like elephants, and have unique physiological traits, including the highest blood pressure of any land mammal.
The IUCN currently recognizes one species of giraffes and nine subspecies: West African, Kordofan, Nubian, reticulated, Masai, Thornicroft’s, Rothchild’s, Angolan and South African. The legal petition seeks an endangered listing for the whole species.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has 12 months to decide whether Endangered Species Act listing is warranted.
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "...truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity--it is simply true and that is the end of it" - Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” - Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Following in the spirit of Britain's Queen Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. A boudica.us site. I am an opinionator, do your own research, verification. Reposts, reblogs do not neccessarily reflect our views.
By WAN –
As per the lawsuit, the United States provides a large market for giraffe parts with more than 21,400 bone carvings, 3,000 skin pieces, and 3,700 hunting trophies having been imported over the past decade. Limiting U.S. import and trade would give giraffes important protections, and an ESA listing would also help provide critical funding for conservation work in Africa.
"OUR WORLD" 