Image
Defenders of Wildlife Applauds Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for Tightening Protections for Listed Species
Defenders of Wildlife welcomes today’s action by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to end open permitting for the capture of ESA-threatened marine species in Florida waters for public display and exhibition purposes.
Image
Legal Intervention Aims to Protect North Atlantic Right Whales From Deadly Ship Strikes
Conservation groups today filed a motion to intervene to help fight a lawsuit aimed at overturning a seasonal speed rule protecting North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes. The groups want to defend the rule against a lawsuit brought by a New York vessel owner fined for violating seasonal speed limits. The suit alleges that NOAA Fisheries lacked the statutory authority to issue the rule.
Image
Final Rescission of Public Lands Rule Reverses Modern Land Management, Threatens Wildlife Habitat
The Bureau of Land Management today announced a decision to roll back the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, commonly referred to as the Public Lands Rule. The policy modernized how BLM manages our national public lands and represented the critical incorporation of ecological resilience into management alongside traditional resource extraction.
Press Releases
Image
Court upholds prohibition of brown bear baiting in the Kenai Refuge
A coalition of groups hailed a federal court decision last week that upheld a 2016 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that enshrines the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s long-standing prohibition on brown bear baiting, along with its decades-long approach of managing the Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area for wildlife viewing and education.
Image
Conservation Groups Urge Appropriators to Oppose Sage-Grouse Rider
In a letter sent to key House and Senate appropriations negotiators, environmental groups recently urged that language used to prohibit the greater sage-grouse from being given Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections be omitted from this year’s final bill language.
Image
Environmental Attorney to Expand New Defenders of Wildlife Gulf Coast Program
Defenders of Wildlife has expanded its reach in the southeastern U.S., hiring Florida-based attorney Elizabeth Neville to become its first senior Gulf Coast representative. Neville's work will focus on vital biodiversity and conservation issues affecting the Gulf Coast regions of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Image
Groups Sue Trump administration to Stop Massive Arctic Oil and Gas Project
Six groups filed a lawsuit today in U.S. District Court charging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Interior Department with illegally and prematurely authorizing the massive Willow oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Image
Conservation Groups Sue USFWS to Save Wild Red Wolves
On behalf of Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, and Animal Welfare Institute, the Southern Environmental Law Center today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina for violations of the Endangered Species Act caused by new, illegal agency policies that bar the use of proven management measures to save wild Red Wolves.
jcovey@defenders.org
