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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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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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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. The rule required science-based decision-making, conservation considerations within multiple land uses and a focus on sustaining public lands for the long-term benefit of wildlife and the American people.
Press Releases
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Governor Signs Crucial Bill Prohibiting Wildlife Trafficking
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham officially signed the Wildlife Trafficking Act (SB 75) that prohibits wildlife trafficking and allows New Mexico to prosecute offenders.
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New Study Shows Federally Protected Lands Reduce Habitat Loss and Protect Endangered Species
Scientists at Defenders of Wildlife and Tufts University have discovered that habitat loss in the U.S. was double on private lands compared to federally protected lands.
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Federal Agencies Outline Management Options for the Lower Snake River
Today three federal agencies released a proposed management plan for federally-controlled dams in the Columbia River Basin.
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NOAA: Independent Review Shows Tool Used to Prevent Right Whale Entanglements Is “Appropriate, Valuable”
Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that an independent peer review of its “decision support tool”—developed to evaluate the effectiveness of various management measures in reducing entanglement-related mortalities of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales in the American lobster fishery—confirmed that it is an “appropriate and valuable tool to assess various mitigation measures in a common risk-reduction metric, and has proven useful in determining possible management actions with stakeholders.”
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Jaguars, Sharks Win Protections at International Migratory Wildlife Meeting
Every three years, delegates meet to review proposals for listing imperiled migratory wildlife and to provide international or regional collaboration for species’ conservation.
jcovey@defenders.org
