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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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Collared Wolf Crosses Interstate-90 in Washington for First Time Ever
For the first time ever, a collaRed Wolf in Washington state successfully crossed interstate-90 into the South Cascades mountains according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
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New Study Outlines Ways to Conserve 30 Percent of Nation’s Lands and Waters by 2030
A new study by Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation, “Identifying key federal, state and private lands strategies for achieving 30X30 in the US” was published this week in the leading scientific journal Conservation Letters.
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Biden Administration to Reverse Oil Lease Expansion in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska
The Bureau of Land Management announced that it will reverse previous plans to expand oil leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and include new plans to protect threatened and endangered species instead.
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Well-known Mexican Gray Wolf Killed on National Forest Land in Northern Arizona
An endangered Mexican gray wolf in Arizona known as “Anubis” (m2520) was illegally shot and killed on Jan. 2. His death, on national forest land, is now under federal investigation.
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20 Yellowstone Wolves Killed by Hunters in 2021
In recent months, 20 gray wolves from Yellowstone National Park have been confirmed shot by hunters after leaving the park’s boundaries—15 wolves in Montana and five more in Idaho and Wyoming.
jcovey@defenders.org
