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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.
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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.
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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
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Twin Pines Withdraws Applications for Mining Project Next to Okefenokee—For Now
Twin Pines Minerals, LLC has withdrawn its application to operate on roughly 2,400 acres of land along the border of the Okefenokee Swamp, announcing they will reduce the size of the permit area before resubmitting their application. The news is a temporary reprieve for the swamp, which contains the nation’s largest national wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River and attracts over 600,000 visitors annually.
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Endangered Gray Wolf Found Dead in Northern California
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Service announced a female gray wolf was found dead on February 5 in Shasta County.
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U.S. More Vulnerable Than Ever to Invasive Plants and Wildlife, Say Scientists
While national security has been a stated priority of the Trump administration, there is another growing threat in the U.S. that they are largely ignoring. The federal programs that coordinate to defend against invasive species of plants, animals and their far-reaching consequences are rapidly shrinking.
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Trump Administration Abandons Two National Monuments in Utah to Development
The U.S. Department of the Interior today released final Monument Management Plans and Records of Decision for lands within the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
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Federal Court to Hear Arguments on Prince of Wales Timber Sale
The fate of old-growth trees in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest will be up for debate in federal court on Friday, as the judge hears oral argument in a lawsuit challenging a massive timber sale on Prince of Wales Island.
jcovey@defenders.org
