Launched: Lawsuit to Protect Wildlife in Their Refuges

Our national wildlife refuges — public lands and waters set aside to conserve wild animals and plants — have been turned into playgrounds for trophy hunters. An unprecedented expansion of such hunting across more than 2 million acres of national wildlife refuges risks harm to endangered wildlife and puts mountain lions and other important carnivores in the crosshairs.

So on Tuesday the Center for Biological Diversity launched a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service challenging the damaging hunting practices.

"We're going to court to ensure that our nation's wildlife refuges can actually provide refuge for wildlife," said Collette Adkins, the Center's carnivore conservation director. "Rare and beautiful animals like whooping cranes and ocelots now face increased risks of poaching, disturbance, ingestion of toxic lead shot and more. It's tragic, and I'm hoping the court will set things right."

Learn more and support our lawsuit with a donation to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Win Protects Vital Corridor for California Mountain Lions

In western Riverside County, the Center and allies won an agreement on Monday to protect a critical movement corridor for mountain lions and other wildlife. The agreement will also fund restoration efforts and launch a regional conservation plan.

Permanently protecting the 55-acre segment of a vital passage will let Santa Ana mountain lions move between coastal and inland mountains. That's key because this population suffers from rock-bottom levels of genetic diversity due to limited connectivity with others of its kind.

"Poorly planned highways and development have hemmed this population in, and these beautiful big cats are being driven toward extinction," said Center attorney J.P. Rose. "Now they have a better chance at survival."

Take Action — Nationwide Permit Plan Threatens Wildlife

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is poised to renew a permit program that will rush approvals of destructive projects through streams and wetlands nationwide for the next five years. In many cases the permits will let developers simply skip public notice and environmental review and allow projects — including oil and gas development, coal mining, and pipelines like Keystone XL — to devastate ecosystems. This will hurt endangered wildlife, from majestic whooping cranes to unique and colorful American burying beetles.

The Corps plans to renew this program without consulting wildlife agencies, as is legally required, to make sure its cumulative effects don't drive species extinct.

Tell the Corps this is unacceptable. The agency must analyze and make public all projects' harms, not hand out approvals as though consequences don't matter.

New Lawsuits for Wildlife and Wildlands

Three recent Center lawsuits aim to hold the feds accountable for potential harm to species and the places they call home.

We sued the Environmental Protection Agency for approving the toxic new fungicide inpyrfluxam without fully addressing its lethal effects on endangered wildlife.

We sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to assess the offshore oil industry's harm to endangered and threatened wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.

And because illegal agency directors make illegal decisions, we sued over the federal government's 1.7-million-acre resource-management plan to expand fossil fuel development in southwestern Colorado — approved during William Perry Pendley's unlawful tenure directing the Bureau of Land Management.

Learn about these lawsuits and our other recent work.

You Did It: Mining Ban Renewed for San Francisco Peaks

Sacred to numerous tribes, the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Arizona, are a "sky island" of biodiversity. This mountain range harbors endangered species like Mexican spotted owls and San Francisco Peaks groundsel. As a matter of fact, its natural history is so diverse it inspired some of North America's foundational studies of biogeography.

Earlier this fall we asked you to write to federal officials urging them to extend a ban on hard-rock mining in the Peaks. You answered the call, sending almost 1,000 letters to the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.

You made a difference: The mining ban has been renewed for another 20 years. Thank you.

Take Action: Protect Endangered Orcas From Boat Noise

The fight to save Southern Resident killer whales is at a new inflection point. We need to rein in the commercial whale-watching vessels that come too near these endangered orcas. In Washington's Salish Sea, the whale-watching industry has boomed without any rules to protect whales from its noise, which disrupts their communication, sleep and search for food.

In 2019 the Washington state legislature recognized the importance of this issue and required the Department of Fish and Wildlife to create a licensing program for commercial whale-watch boats. Two rules have been proposed — but neither goes nearly far enough.

Tell the Department it must strengthen its rules protecting orcas from boat noise.

South Carolina Is a Safer Place for Native Turtles

The Center has been working for years, state by state, to stop the dangerous and devastating harvest and selloff of freshwater turtles across the country. Hundreds of thousands of these vulnerable wild creatures are exported from the United States every year for the Asian food and medicinal markets and the pet trade.

This week we and our allies had great news out of South Carolina: Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill banning commercial trade of native turtles.

"We're thrilled South Carolina has taken this meaningful step," said the Center's Elise Bennett. "This law will raise the state out of a morass of turtle trafficking and make it a safe haven for wild turtles."

Wild & Weird: Painted Wolves Vote by Sneezing

When painted wolves — also called African wild dogs — need to decide as a group whether it's time to depart for a hunt, they vote ... by sneezing. Every wolf is eligible to vote, and the pack won't leave until a minimum number of sneeze-votes has been cast.

A critical election is happening in the United States right now. Be like a painted wolf and vote! (But use your ballot, not a sneeze.)

Watch our video about how African wild dogs do democracy on Facebook or YouTube.