No. 1200, July 6, 2023

California Law Permanently Protects Joshua Trees

California lawmakers just passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, permanently protecting the iconic, imperiled trees. It bans unpermitted tree killing and removal, requires a conservation plan, creates a fund to protect the species, and more. It’s the first California law specifically focused on defending a species from climate change. 

Thanks to a 2019 Center for Biological Diversity petition, western Joshua trees also have interim protection under the California Endangered Species Act. 

“It’s been a long journey to get here,” said the Center’s Brendan Cummings. “We can finally move on from the debate over whether Joshua trees should get protection to focusing on implementing measures to help ensure they get through the very difficult decades ahead.”

Add Your Voice for Climate Forests

Besides being cornerstones of biodiversity, old forests on U.S. federal lands play an essential role in fighting climate change. Thanks to pressure from Center supporters and our partners in the Climate Forests Coalition, the U.S. Forest Service has announced plans to create a rule to protect these important climate bastions across public lands.

Join the coalition’s virtual public hearing on Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT to add your own testimony about why it’s important to protect big trees for the sake of our climate. (Once you RSVP you’ll receive more information to help craft your comments and the details on how to join the hearing.)

Center Op-Ed: Bringing Sea Otters Back

Sea otters once frolicked along the Pacific Coast by the hundreds of thousands. Then commercial fur traders decimated their population, nearly driving them extinct in California.

As she shares in a new San Francisco Chronicle op-ed, Center attorney Emily Jeffers has loved these adorable, important little mammals since she was a kid. Now she works to save them — and that means bringing them back to California and Oregon.

Help us defend sea otters with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Victory for Lizards, Success for Fish

After more than 20 years of Center advocacy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just decided dunes sagebrush lizards deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. These little lizards only live in a small area of Texas and New Mexico, where they dig burrows to beat the heat under rare shinnery oak shrubs. Protection can’t come too soon: The lizards have already lost 95% of their habitat to fossil fuel development, mining and livestock grazing.

We’re also celebrating some Florida fish that just swam off the endangered species list. Okaloosa darters — tiny fish with brown spots — were first protected in 1973. With the Act’s protection, their population has grown from fewer than 10,000 to more than 600,000.

We need your help to maintain the momentum. For the Act's 50th anniversary, tell the Biden administration to lead by revoking all the Trump-era rollbacks gutting the protections of this landmark law.

Saving Plovers From SpaceX

The SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, is right next to protected habitat for piping plovers. Failed rocket launches cause debris to fall on surrounding habitat — including the home of these vulnerable shorebirds. The Center is suing to require a full examination of the facility’s impacts, but we need your help.

Check out our new video on YouTube and Instagram. Then take action to save plovers and other endangered species who live in and near Boca Chica.

New Art Exhibit Spotlights Species ‘Protectors’

The Center and the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative have launched a new traveling art exhibit about the people at the heart of the fight to save endangered species. “Protectors: Saving Biodiversity in the Age of Extinction” is a portfolio of fine-art silkscreen prints celebrating those taking extraordinary measures to stop endangered wildlife and plants from vanishing forever.

The 12 original artworks are now available for exhibit in public spaces like community centers, libraries, schools and universities, galleries and museums, cafes, senior and youth spaces, nonprofit offices, airports, and anywhere else fitting.

Learn more about Protectors and how you can request to host an exhibit.

Revelator: Meet These Cool Crocs

West African slender-snouted crocodiles can grow up to 13 feet long. They live in rivers and use their long, skinny snouts to eat fish and small mammals.

But with fewer than 500 left, they’re among the planet’s most endangered reptiles. They’re also one of the lesser-known crocodilians — but The Revelator’s new Species Spotlight will help change that.

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Revelator’s free weekly e-newsletter to stay in the know about rare species and the latest conservation news.

That’s Wild: Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin-Eater

If you thought cheating was mostly a human foible, think again — there are animal cheats all around, to say nothing of cheatin’ plants and fungi. The many guises of natural deception have served fascinating evolutionary purposes.

In a new book called The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars, scholar Lixing Sun illuminates cheating, lying and deceiving among other forms of life. And it’s a fascinating account — although, according to journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, Sun writes with more authority on nonhuman tricksters than the human kind.

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Photo credits: Joshua trees by John Hietter/Flickr; California spotted owl by Rick Kuyper/USFWS; sea otter by R.W. Shea/Flickr; Okaloosa darter and dunes sagebrush lizard courtesy USFWS; screenshot of illustrated SpaceX rocket and plovers from video by Dipika Kadaba/Center for Biological Diversity; ʻiʻiwi art by Fernando Martí; West African slender-snouted crocodile courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; crow by Iain Rattray/Flickr.

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