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Caribou migrating through Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Defenders Slams Lease Sale in Arctic Refuge

The Bureau of Land Management today opened nine bids on five tracts regarding an oil and gas lease sale on the Coastal Plain of the
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Snowy Plover
Washington, D.C.

President Trump Rescinds Long Standing Executive Orders Designed to Conserve Wildlife and Federal Lands from Unmanaged Motorized Recreation

President Trump last Friday issued an Executive Order rescinding EOs 11644 and 11989 which guide the management of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, jet skis and other off-road motorized vehicles on federal lands. President Trump also ordered federal agencies to rescind or revise regulations that implement the prior EOs.
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wolverine
Washington, D.C.

House Interior Bill Attacks Crucial Protections for Imperiled Wildlife and Public Lands

Defenders of Wildlife today slammed the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed Interior and Environment spending bill for Fiscal Year 2027, which includes numerous damaging policy riders intended to weaken the Endangered Species Act and undermine protections for individual species.

Press Releases

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Solar arrays in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Washington, DC

Chesapeake Bay Restoration, Conservation to Benefit from New Approach to Data Mapping

Defenders of Wildlife and Chesapeake Conservancy have made a dataset available for the first time that will benefit the restoration and conservation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and will have implications far beyond.
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Horseshoe Crabs - Charles River Bleeding
Cape Romain, SC

Conservation Organizations File Motion to Suspend Horseshoe Crab Harvest

Today, conservation groups asked a federal district court judge to halt a planned blood harvest of thousands of horseshoe crabs in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the annual harvest violates multiple landmark conservation laws.
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New Mexico landscape
Washington, DC

Pattern Energy Makes Significant Contribution to Protect New Mexico’s Imperiled Bird Species

Pattern Energy, an independent renewable energy company, entered into an agreement to fund extensive new research by Bird Conservancy of the Rockies to study birds associated with piñon-juniper woodlands in New Mexico. Pattern Energy’s $80,000 contribution will support scientific monitoring of the potential impacts from management activities on the pinyon jay and other declining birds associated with piñon-juniper woodlands.
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Ocelot kitten walking in bushes
Los Fresnos, Tex.

New Wild Ocelot Kitten Photographed in Texas

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced a new ocelot kitten in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. This news, announced on the refuge’s Facebook page, is encouraging news for a species on the brink of extinction in the U.S. But the population remains at risk without sustained efforts to protect this wild cat and its habitat.
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Northern Long-eared Bat
Washington, DC

Court Orders U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Determine Whether Northern Long-eared Bat Warrants Listing as Endangered Species

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the northern long-eared bat warrants listing as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act by December 2022 after remanding the Service’s flawed threatened listing last year.
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
Communications Specialist
estern@defenders.org
202-772-0243