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Defenders Joins Over 100 Conservation Groups Opposing Wilderness Rollbacks
The public was forced to navigate five separate comment processes across three federal agencies as the Department of the Interior launched a sweeping review of longstanding policies protecting millions of acres of America’s wildest public lands.
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Defenders-Sponsored Bill to Help Fund Sea Otter Conservation Heads to Governor for Signature
The California state legislature today voted to re-establish the California Sea Otter Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund, providing residents with the opportunity to directly support this iconic animal.
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Bipartisan Bill Promotes Nonlethal Solutions to Decrease Human-Wildlife Conflicts
Defenders of Wildlife commends the leadership of Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Steven Daines (R-MT) for introducing S.5234, the Human-Wildlife Conflict Reduction Act, which would promote the use of nonlethal solutions to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, including those between predators and livestock and harm caused by wildlife to human infrastructure.
Press Releases
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Ocklawaha River named among America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2020
American Rivers today named the Ocklawaha River among America’s Most Endangered Rivers®, citing the Rodman Dam as a threat to clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreation.
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Court: Feds Failing to Protect North Atlantic Right Whales From Lobster Gear Entanglements
A federal judge ruled yesterday that the National Marine Fisheries Service’s authorization and management of the American lobster fishery violates the federal Endangered Species Act. The court held that the agency failed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and that its biological opinion on the fishery violated “straightforward” requirements of the Act, putting the whales at greater risk of entanglement.
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FWS Orders Four Lobos Killed During Lobo Week
Following on the heels of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) recent news of a record annual increase in the wild population of endangered Mexican gray wolves, the agency issued kill orders which created a deadly month in lobo management.
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Freeing the Ocklawaha River
Between November 2019 and the end of February 2020, those looking over the edge of the Rodman Dam could glimpse a ghostly forest of long-dead cypress trees normally deep beneath the water of the Rodman Reservoir. This haunting sight is a rarity, coming once every few years as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection draws down the reservoir, exposing the historic path of the once-mighty Ocklawaha River.
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Final State Budget Funds Wildlife Projects, Delays Studies for Dam Management
Last week Gov. Jay Inslee finalized the state’s fiscal year 2020 operating budget, allocating urgent funds for the COVID-19 pandemic response.
jcovey@defenders.org
