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Defenders Expands Legal Challenge to Trump Administration’s Assault on Endangered Species Act
Defenders of Wildlife today filed an amended complaint challenging the Trump administration’s escalating effort to dismantle longstanding protections for threatened and endangered wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.
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NPS Land Swaps and Visitor Plan Open the Door to Devastating Impacts at Cumberland Island
In advance of a public hearing on proposed land exchanges on Cumberland Island National Seashore, Defenders of Wildlife called on the National Park Service to remedy a host of management issues facing one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands on the East Coast.
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Memo Underscores Trump Administration’s All-Fronts War on Wildlife
Brian Nesvik, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, issued a memorandum explaining to FWS staff that the Endangered Species Act’s prohibition on unauthorized “take” applies only to affirmative acts intentionally and purposefully directed at a particular animal. This follows the Trump administration’s rescission of the regulatory definitions of “harm” under the ESA, which took effect this week.
Press Releases
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Defenders of Wildlife and Conservation Groups Sue Regulators, Pharmaceutical Company Over Crab Pens
South Carolina's natural resources agency and pharmaceutical giant Charles River Laboratories are facing a federal lawsuit for violating the Endangered Species Act by allowing harvesters to keep horseshoe crabs captive in manmade ponds, a practice only South Carolina permits.
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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.
jcovey@defenders.org
