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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. The rule required science-based decision-making, conservation considerations within multiple land uses and a focus on sustaining public lands for the long-term benefit of wildlife and the American people.
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Trump Administration Cancels Critical Offshore Wind Projects and Increases Costs for Taxpayers
The Department of Interior this week announced that two offshore wind companies, Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind, have abandoned their developments. According to reports, the companies received some $900 million to walk away from the projects.
Press Releases
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New Land Management Legislation Could Harm Imperiled Wildlife
New legislation, introduced today by Sen. Daines (R-Mont.), would allow the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to skip the important process of reinitiating consultation on the effect of their land management plans, even when new information indicating potential harms to listed species.
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104 Yellowstone Bison Relocated to Fort Peck Reservation
Today, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux leaders and Defenders of Wildlife transferred 11 more bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. After today, 104 bison will have been successfully transferred to the reservation. This is the fourth relocation since April 2019 under a new program that diverts disease-free Yellowstone bison from slaughter to tribal-led restoration efforts.
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New Study Shows Wildlife Trade is a Major Threat to Biodiversity in the Americas
More than 1,500 wildlife species are threatened or near threatened with extinction in Mesoamerica, according to a new study published today in Cambridge University Press.
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Infrastructure Package Includes Important Wins for Wildlife
The U.S House of Representatives released today its infrastructure bill, the Moving Forward Act. The plan advances The Invest in America Act, recently approved by the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
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Gov. DeSantis Signs Major Property Act into Law, Protecting Families and Endangered Species
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (UPHPA) into law, marking a major victory for Florida’s families. The bill, sponsored by state Senator Randolph Bracy (D-Orlando) and state Representative Loranne Ausley (D-Tallahassee), helps protect the transfer of wealth between generations of families who use a simple will or pass without a will. Because a majority of low-income and minority Floridians don’t have wills, this law will help transfer wealth among many people who need it the most.
jcovey@defenders.org
