Image
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.
Image
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.
Image
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
Image
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Under Threat Due to Continual Habitat Loss
Defenders of Wildlife recently released a white paper detailing habitat loss for the lesser prairie-chicken, a bird that was listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as threatened in 2014 but was stripped of this protection by a federal court in 2015. The
Image
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.
Image
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.
Image
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.
Image
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.
jcovey@defenders.org
