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swimming manta rays
Fort Myers, FL

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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NARW
WASHINGTON, D.C.

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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greater sage grouse
Washington, D.C.

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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Satellite imagery shows the growth in mountaintop removal mines in the study area between 1985-2015
Washington, DC

Mountaintop Removal Worse for Endangered Species Than Initially Thought

The researchers from Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation (CCI), and conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, combined water-quality data with satellite imagery of mountaintop removal mining activity to estimate the full extent of water-quality degradation attributable to the practice at the landscape level.
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Horseshoe Crabs
Charleston, SC

State-sanctioned Horseshoe Crab Confinement Threatens Shorebirds

Defenders of Wildlife and a group of conservation organizations are preparing to sue the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Charles River Laboratories for penning horseshoe crabs in manmade ponds during spawning season, a practice that imperils a threatened migratory shorebird, the red knot, which feeds on the eggs.
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Chinook Salmon make their way up ship creek to spawn.
SEATTLE, Wash.

WA Governor, Senator Announce Process to Assess Feasibility of Lower Snake River Dam Removal

In a joint statement, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) recently laid out a new plan to combine state and federal resources to assess the impacts and costs of breaching the four lower Snake River dams.
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Shortfin mako shark
Washington, DC

Countries Undermine the Shortfin Mako’s Chances of Survival at Recent ICCAT Meeting

In a disappointing development, Wednesday’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) panel meeting failed yet again to advance negotiations which would provide shortfin mako sharks with the protection they need.
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Capitol Building
Washington, DC

Build Back Better Contains Many Wins for Wildlife and Combatting Climate Change

After months of negotiations, today, the House leadership released a near-final version of the Build Back Better Act, a core piece of President Biden’s agenda.
Senior Vice President, External Affairs
lsheehan@defenders.org
(202) 772-3244
Communications Director
mdewane@defenders.org
(202) 772-0217
Communications Specialist
jcovey@defenders.org
Communications Specialist
kirby@defenders.org
(202) 772-3268