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Tomorrow the Trump administration is slated to finalize a rule that further erodes the Endangered Species Act, the one of the nation’s most effective and most popular laws.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule today that defines habitat under the Endangered Species Act and allows the government to deny critical habitat protections for endangered plants and animals—a change that could open lands and waterways to more energy development and other activities.

Last Friday, Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT), Colorado State University (CSU) and Defenders of Wildlife successfully completed the week-long transfer of 10 bison, marking the beginning of a new conservation herd at SPLT’s Heartland Ranch Nature Preserve in southeastern Colorado. After an adjustment period, the bison will be released into their larger pasture.

A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to withhold Endangered Species Act protection from wolverines in the lower 48 states, where no more than 300 wolverines remain. Without the new conservation efforts that would be triggered by the Endangered Species Act listing, wolverines face localized extinction as a result of climate change, habitat fragmentation and low genetic diversity.

Today’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by the U.S. Senate is an important victory for Desert National Wildlife Refuge and the integrity