Image
Trump Administration Opens Door to Bear Baiting, Den Hunting in Alaska Preserves
The National Park Service finalized a regulation that abdicates the agency's responsibility to manage wildlife in Alaska's national preserves, deferring instead to state regulations. Defenders of Wildlife condemns the rule, which mirrors a 2020 regulation promulgated by the first Trump administration that was later withdrawn and replaced in 2024.
Image
BLM Prepares Illegal Move to Open Ouray National Wildlife Refuge to Oil & Gas, a Dangerous Precedent for Wildlife
Defenders of Wildlife is calling on BLM to withdrawal an unprecedented proposal to open Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in Utah to new oil and gas leasing.
Image
A Much-Needed Win for Wildlife: Senate Introduces Bill to Improve Endangered Species Act Implementation
Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Pete Rickets (R-NE) today introduced the Improving Species Recovery Act, an important bipartisan bill that would improve implementation of the Endangered Species Act.
Press Releases
Image
Environmental Attorney to Expand New Defenders of Wildlife Gulf Coast Program
Defenders of Wildlife has expanded its reach in the southeastern U.S., hiring Florida-based attorney Elizabeth Neville to become its first senior Gulf Coast representative. Neville's work will focus on vital biodiversity and conservation issues affecting the Gulf Coast regions of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Image
Groups Sue Trump administration to Stop Massive Arctic Oil and Gas Project
Six groups filed a lawsuit today in U.S. District Court charging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Interior Department with illegally and prematurely authorizing the massive Willow oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Image
Conservation Groups Sue USFWS to Save Wild Red Wolves
On behalf of Red Wolf Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife, and Animal Welfare Institute, the Southern Environmental Law Center today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina for violations of the Endangered Species Act caused by new, illegal agency policies that bar the use of proven management measures to save wild Red Wolves.
Image
Oregon Rejects Petition to Increase Protections for Beavers
Today, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to reject a petition that would have initiated a rulemaking to increase protections for beavers throughout the state. Defenders of Wildlife, along with nine other conservation groups and private citizens, submitted this petition in September, calling for a permanent ban on all commercial and recreational beaver hunting and trapping on federally-owned lands in the state.
Image
Bureau of Land Management Moves to Approve Utah Highway Through Critical Tortoise Habitat
Today, the Trump administration moved one step closer to approving a highway project that would cut through critical habitat for the Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) as well as the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and Desert Reserve, which was designated for the conservation of the federally threatened desert tortoise.
jcovey@defenders.org
