The Year that Was: 2015

What a year it’s been! Your dedication and support make so much possible for the wildlife we all love. Take a look at just a handful of the many things you helped achieve for wildlife this year.

Victory on Capitol Hill

With your help, we led the conservation community’s collective response on the many threats to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other key wildlife issues coming out of Congress this year. We ran aggressive media outreach campaigns, put activists on the phones with their representatives, and spoke directly to senators, congressmen and their staff. It took months of work to keep up the drumbeat that American voters want their elected officials to protect endangered species – and it paid off. House and Senate negotiators ultimately rejected all of the new riders designed to undermine the ESA in the final omnibus funding bill that was introduced this month, scoring a major victory for endangered wildlife.

Wolves Returned to California

In August, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed the first resident wolf pack in Northern California! The Shasta Pack is the first documented wolf pack in the Golden State in nearly a century, and represents a huge milestone for wolf recovery. We’ve worked hard along the West Coast to protect and connect wolf habitat, ensure each state has a plan for wolves in place, and teach ranchers nonlethal methods for protecting their livestock from wolves. It is thrilling to see this hard work pay off in such a big way as California welcomes wolves home.

Threats to Wild Bison Thwarted

We launched an aggressive media campaign to raise awareness about damaging anti-bison bills being considered in the Montana state legislature. These bills represented serious threats to this iconic western species, including one that would have prevented any state agency from working to reintroduce wild bison anywhere in the state. Working with our conservation and tribal partners in Montana, we lobbied heavily against these threats – and we saw that the voice of the people could indeed make a difference. Our efforts saw the number of anti-bison bills slowly whittled down to only one. When that bill passed the legislature, Defenders and our allies persuaded the governor to veto it, ensuring there is still a future for bison restoration out west.

Sea Otters Keep their Space

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally decided to put an end to the relocation program that had been keeping California sea otters from expanding their population, the conservation community was thrilled – but fishermen were not. Several fishing industry groups sued to challenge the decision, and had they been successful, we could have seen the harmful program return. But Defenders, along with several other conservation partners, intervened in the case to defend the agency’s original decision. In September, the judge upheld that decision, putting an end to the “no otter zone” once and for all.

Mining Project Halted

This year, we and our conservation partners went to court to defend vital wildlife habitat in the southwest. The threat: A damaging exploratory drilling project that would have had destructive and lasting impacts on imperiled species like the jaguar, Mexican spotted owl, ocelot, lesser long-nosed bat and more. Thankfully, we were successful! The federal district court halted the Sunnyside Project, and some of the greatest biodiversity in the country remains protected.

Polar Bears Protected

This year in remote Alaska, we rolled out the next generation of polar bear-resistant food storage containers for testing. Warming temperatures are thawing permafrost, causing native communities to lose their traditional way of storing food, and storing it in the open could cause polar bears to come looking – a situation that isn’t safe for humans or the bears. Along with our conservation partners, we’re working with families in the town of Kaktovik to develop new alternatives that can keep their food stored safely and protect bears at the same time.

Alaska Habitat Off-limits to Logging

In a major victory for this incredible old growth rainforest, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with Defenders and our conservation allies and upheld the Roadless Rule in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This landmark conservation rule was adopted in 2001 to protect nearly 60 million acres of wild national forests from new road building and logging, but the Bush Administration had attempted to make the Tongass exempt, placing 9.3 million acres of forest habitat – home to species from wolves to salmon – at risk. The court’s decision protects these lands once again. Since this decision, the state of Alaska has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the verdict, but for now and for months to come, most of the Tongass will be spared from the devastating effects of road-building and unsustainable logging.

Bison Return to Soapstone Prairie

Working with the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado State University and others, we were proud to help bison return to Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, a city-owned property just north of Fort Collins, Colorado. This release is the beginning of a long-term effort to restore this native species to its home on the prairies of Colorado. In the meantime, these ten bison, descendants of wild Yellowstone National Park bison, are now roaming a landscape that has not seen the hoofprints of these iconic animals for nearly 150 years.

Scarlet Macaws Fly Free in Mexico

Driven toward extinction by habitat loss and exploitation for illegal trade, the scarlet macaw was wiped out from the Gulf of Mexico for decades. Last year, working with the Mexican National University’s Institute of Biology, we helped return these incredible birds to the wild in Veracruz, Mexico. This year we are very happy to say that the effort continued successfully, with releases of more birds in the spring and again in the summer. With additional releases to come, we hope to make Veracruz home to the largest wild population of scarlet macaws in Mexico.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been a part of making all of this important work possible. We wish you a very happy New Year, and look forward to accomplishing even more for wildlife and wild places with your help in 2016!