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Gov. Newsom Signs Legislation to Help Fund Sea Otter Conservation
Gov. Newsom signed into law the California Sea Otter Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund. Defenders of Wildlife was the sole sponsor of the bill.
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California Legislature Sends Landmark Wildlife Coexistence Bill to Governor
The California state legislature today passed with bipartisan support a landmark bill to re-establish the statewide Wildlife Coexistence Program within the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will better manage and reduce human-wildlife conflict through non-lethal and proactive strategies.
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Defenders Joins Recreation, Conservation Groups to Unite Against Forest Service Travel Rule Rollback
The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a process to significantly revise its Travel Management Rule, which guides where motorized vehicles are and are not allowed on almost 200 million acres of national forests and grasslands
Press Releases
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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.
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Lawsuit Challenging Diversion of Military Funds for Border Construction Moves Forward
In some good news in the fight against the building of the border wall, which would be devastating for wildlife, a District Court Judge ruled Thursday that a key challenge in our lawsuit can move forward: whether President Trump can legally divert $3.6 billion in military funds to build a wall.
jcovey@defenders.org
