Center for Biological Diversity
www.biologicaldiversity.org
Endangered Earth
No. 1192, May 11, 2023
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Suit Filed to Save Habitat From Toxic Pesticides

The Center for Biological Diversity just sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect endangered species from pesticides in critical habitat.
The federal government has repeatedly found that pesticides harm most plants and animals protected by the Endangered Species Act. These poisons are driving species like rusty patched bumblebees and California spotted owls — both recently protected after years of Center legal work — toward extinction.
Yet the Service hasn’t set up any on-the-ground measures to save species from any pesticides, even in habitat the agency itself set aside to protect them. Our lawsuit aims to fix that.
“The Service can’t keep ignoring its duty to protect habitat that’s crucial to our most endangered wildlife and plants,” said Center lawyer Stephanie Parent.
Like critical habitat, national wildlife refuges were created to protect imperiled species — but the Service allows pesticides in refuges, too. You can help: Speak up to protect these wildlife sanctuaries from chemical poisons.

Feds to Be Sued Over Manatees After 2,000 Die

The Center and allies just notified the Fish and Wildlife Service we’ll sue over its foot-dragging on our petition to save Florida manatees. That petition — urging the Service to upgrade the species from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act — required a response in three months; now it’s been five.
The Service downgraded manatees’ protection before they’d truly recovered in 2017, and since then they’ve drastically declined. Pollution-fueled algae blooms have killed nearly 2,000 of the gentle ocean mammals in the past two years alone — 20% of all Florida manatees.
Help us fight for manatees with a matched gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.
And check out our new manatee video on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Rare Plant Wins 78,000 Acres

Thanks to relentless legal action by the Center and allies, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally protected habitat for an imperiled Idaho plant called slickspot peppergrass.
This hairy-stemmed herb in the mustard family only blooms once before dying. It lives in southwest Idaho, where it’s threatened by agriculture, mining, sprawl and grazing. Thankfully, that’s also where the Service just protected more than 78,000 acres of critical habitat.
By law the agency is supposed to set aside critical habitat when it first protects a species; in practice it usually takes at least one lawsuit. For the slickspot, it took 20 years in court.
But we persisted, and it happened — thanks to the Endangered Species Act.
Take action to help us strengthen and enforce the Act as we celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Saving Species From Slaughterhouse Pollution

It’s official: For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must update rules curbing water pollution from slaughterhouses and rendering plants (that process animal byproducts). Following a lawsuit by the Center and allies, in March the EPA agreed to propose new rules by the end of 2023. Now a court has approved that agreement.
In killing and processing more than 9 billion animals every year, these plants spew millions of pounds of nitrogen, phosphorus and other pollutants into U.S. waterways — harming people and aquatic life, including endangered species like Neuse River waterdogs.

Bald Eagle Killings: Reward Offered for Info

In February four bald eagles were discovered fatally shot in northern Arkansas. We grieve the senseless and illegal killing of these majestic birds and want the perpetrator brought to justice. So on Monday the Center increased the reward for information leading to a conviction for their killing by $10,000. The reward is now $15,000.
Anyone with information about this crime should contact the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Conway Office of Law Enforcement at (501) 513-4470 or the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission at (833) 356-0824.

Center Op-Ed: Population Decline Is Good for Us

Contrary to what many economists tell us — to say nothing of tweeters like Elon Musk — a planet with fewer people will be a healthier one, writes the Center’s Stephanie Feldstein in Scientific American.
Infinite growth just isn’t tenable, and the sooner we shift toward degrowth and equity, along with lower fertility rates, the more successful we’ll be fighting climate change and mass extinction — as well as improving human wellbeing.

Revelator : What Nature’s Sounds Tell Us

It’s called “bioacoustics”: a field investigating how animals (including humans) make, receive and disperse sounds.
New technologies are supercharging bioacoustics, making it easier for researchers to listen to environmental changes and use the information to guide conservation efforts.
They’re learning a lot — and you can too.
Read more in The Revelator. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the e-newsletter bringing you every week’s best conservation news.

That’s Wild: The Silent Screaming of Plants

Humans can’t hear it — because the frequencies are too high for our ears — but plants make sounds when they’re thirsty or have their stems cut, according to a new study published in the journal Cell. The research subjects ranged from tomato and tobacco plants to corn, grapes and pincushion cacti.
Stressed plants make more sounds, and louder sounds, than unstressed plants, researchers found. Not only that, but the sounds differ depending on the stressors.
It’s possible that animals and other plants have evolved to hear these sounds, but that will require even more listening.

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Center for Biological Diversity
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