No. 1193, May 18, 2023

Take Action for a Strong Global Plastics Treaty

Plastic pollution is a global problem that needs a global solution, hurting people and wildlife at every phase of plastics production and existence. From the climate-killing emissions of extracting and refining fossil fuels — which plastic is made of — to the water pollution of single-use bags that choke seals and sea turtles, plastics are a far-reaching threat. And we can't recycle or burn our way out of this dilemma.

International leaders are working toward a treaty to fully address the plastics problem. At the end of this month, negotiators will gather in Paris, France. Now the really hard work begins: making sure their initial commitments turn into a strong, binding treaty.

Add your voice: Urge the U.S. delegation to help make that happen. Center for Biological Diversity attorney Julie Teel Simmonds will be in Paris to hand-deliver your signatures.

A Mountain Lion Memorial

The famous Los Angeles mountain lion P-22 — euthanized in 2022 after a car strike — may get a memorial in his home territory of Griffith Park. His image already adorns multiple murals.

Likely born in the Santa Monica Mountains, P-22 crossed two freeways and gained the devotion of city residents as an isolated bachelor in the urban wild. He inspired the creation of the world’s largest wildlife crossing as well as California’s Safe Roads and Wildlife Protection Act, which the Center cosponsored.

To help all animals at the human-wildlife interface, we’re pushing the state to better fund such crossings.

You can help our fight with a matched donation to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.

In Maine, a New Endangered Species Act Success

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just announced that a rare flower in Maine, Furbish’s lousewort, is recovering under the Endangered Species Act and warrants what the agency calls “downlisting” — changing the plant’s status from “endangered” to the less-dire “threatened.”

The plant is named after artist and botanist Catherine Furbish, who described it in 1880. Furbish’s louseworts take three years to blossom and have only one pollinator: half-black bumblebees, who use their tongues to get nectar from the plants’ tubular yellow flowers.

The Act has saved 99% percent of the plants and animals under its care, from grizzlies and whales to obscure plants with unfortunate names (ahem).

Take action to help us defend and strengthen the Act as we celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Roughhead Shiners May Get Help

A tiny Virginia fish the Center petitioned for in 2022 may get federal protection, pending a one-year status review. As the Center’s Tierra Curry told the Chesapeake area Bay Journal, efforts to save the species would probably involve captive breeding: In the stretch of the St. James River where the roughhead shiner lives, it’s being displaced by an invasive fish called the telescope shiner.

The little, bumpy-headed shiner is on the verge of extinction. “As are a lot of little species nobody is paying attention to,” said Tierra. “It’s a story that’s happening everywhere and largely being ignored.”

Lawsuit Launched to Save Railroad Valley Toads

This week the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect Railroad Valley toads, found at just one spring-fed wetland area in arid Railroad Valley, Nevada. Unfortunately oil and gas extraction and a proposed lithium mining project threaten the springs the toads depend on.

Only first described as a distinct species in 2020, these warty, earth-colored amphibians are among the smallest members of their species group. We petitioned to protect them under the Endangered Species Act last year, and the Service was supposed to decide whether to grant safeguards by April.

Fighting Fossil Fuels in New Mexico 

The Center just joined youth, frontline and Indigenous allies in suing New Mexico for failing to control oil and gas pollution. This landmark lawsuit hinges on a state constitutional amendment requiring the state to protect its environment.

Did you know New Mexico is the second-largest oil-producing U.S. state? There are almost 40,000 wells within the Greater Chaco Landscape alone — a place held sacred by our Pueblo and Diné (Navajo) allies. While Big Oil rakes in profits, the rest of us pay in the form of toxic spills, hazardous air pollution, and climate damage.

To shed light on the dangers of fossil fuel extraction in the Land of Enchantment, we also rallied last week in Santa Fe to launch our historic lawsuit.

Revelator: Tree Kangaroos in the Spotlight

Tree kangaroos are perfectly adapted for the high life. Sharp claws and strong arms help them climb trees, while their long tail helps them balance when they leap from limb to limb.

And that balance is important: Most of their time is spent 100 feet (or more) above the ground.

Learn more about these amazing, elusive marsupials 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: Amphibians Who Pollinate?

Biologists have observed — possibly for the first time — a frog pollinating a flower. Tropical amphibians called Izecksohn's Brazilian tree frogs dunk their bodies into flowers for the nectar and then hop around dispersing the pollen, according to a study just published in Food Webs.

“We observed individuals entering large flowers and leaving covered in pollen without destroying the flower structures,” said the study’s lead author. “The species meets some of the requirements to be a pollinator, but we still need further study to actually prove this.”

Watch footage of a flower-pollinating frog on Facebook or YouTube.

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Photo credits: Hawaiian monk seal by Matthew Chauvin/NOAA; P-22 by Jeff Sikich/NPS; half-black bumblebee on Furbish's lousewort courtesy USFWS; roughhead shiner by Derek Wheaton; Railroad Valley toad © Gary Nafis; New Mexico rally by Liz VanDenzen/Center for Biological Diversity; Matschie’s tree kangaroo courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; Izecksohn's Brazilian tree frog screenshot from video courtesy Carlos Henrique de-Oliveira-Nogueira.

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Center for Biological Diversity
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