No. 1206, August 17, 2023

Win: Court Supports Pursuit of Better Wolf Plans 

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan. That suit will go on; meanwhile, this ruling says, wolf plans in the northern Rocky Mountains and the Midwest, plus a plan for the Mexican wolf subspecies, don’t meet the Endangered Species Act’s requirements — just as the Center has argued. 

“This signals safer trails ahead for the vulnerable wolves of western Oregon and Washington, Colorado and the Northeast,” said Center lawyer Sophia Ressler. “We need a comprehensive plan that addresses gray wolf recovery across the United States. But I’m heartened that the court recognized the importance of the Service’s duty to protect endangered wolves.” 

You can help us win for wolves with a gift to our Endangered Species Act Protection Fund.

New Mexico Butterflies to Get Habitat Protection  

Twenty-four years after the Center’s first petition to save Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterflies, this month the Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed to protect their habitat. With most of their New Mexico home degraded or destroyed by cows, construction and motorized recreation, very few now survive — 23, at last count. Thankfully, after our third petition, in January the Service protected them under the Endangered Species Act. Now it’s proposing 1,637 acres of critical habitat.  

“I’m so glad these beautiful butterflies are finally getting habitat protection,” said the Center’s Michael Robinson. “I hope it’s not too late.” 

To help mark the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, call on Biden to take bold action to save butterflies and other imperiled creatures.

Center Op-Ed: A Border River Turned Deadly 

“Imagine a beautiful, flowing river, teeming with birds and wildlife,” writes the Center’s Laiken Jordahl on Medium. Then imagine it split by a “lethal obstacle with buoys joined by circular saw blades, underwater netting and weights intended to snag and drown border crossers.”

That’s what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has put into the Rio Grande — and where bodies were found floating at the beginning of August. For the sake of racist politics, like former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey before him, Abbott has turned the U.S.-Mexico border into a war zone. 

“Abbott,” writes Laiken, “is transforming south Texas’s lifeblood and cherished natural heritage into a death trap for people and other animals alike. All this for a photo op.” 

Check out our video of what’s happening on YouTube and Facebook. 

Suit Filed Over Alaska Methane Exports 

The Center and allies just sued the federal government for approving exports for a project that would move liquified natural gas, or methane, from Alaska’s North Slope to Asia. We want the Department of Energy to do a new environmental impact study that fully considers how the project could hurt the climate and the environment, including wildlife like endangered beluga whales. 

“The Biden administration made a mockery of the climate emergency when it approved the Alaska LNG carbon bomb,” said the Center’s Jason Rylander.  

Take action: Tell President Biden to declare a climate emergency and direct his agencies to stop approving dangerous fossil fuel projects.

Court Throws Out Trump Refusal to Save Bumblebees

Following a lawsuit by the Center, NRDC and allies, on Friday a judge rejected the Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to protect critical habitat for rusty patched bumblebees.  

Even though the agency listed the bees as endangered in 2017 — partly because they’ve lost 99% of their native habitat — three years later, under Trump, the Service decided it wouldn’t be “prudent” to give them habitat protection. Now the Service has to rethink that call, and we’ll be watching. 

The Trump administration, of course, did far more than that to hurt wildlife — including weakening the Endangered Species Act. Tell Biden to restore the Act to its full strength. 

Import-Export Ban Could Help Imperiled Reef Fish 

Responding to a petition by the Center and allies, this week NOAA Fisheries proposed to ban the import and export of Banggai cardinalfish, Indonesian coral reef fish with bold black bands and white-speckled fins. Due to decades of exploitation by the aquarium trade, Banggai cardinalfish have declined by 90% since the ’90s.  

Male Banggai cardinalfish are mouthbrooders, incubating fertilized eggs in their mouths while the females defend them. 

“Far too many of these gorgeous little fish have been netted from Indonesia’s wild reefs for U.S. tanks,” said Center scientist Dianne DuBois.  

Revelator: Dancing the Salmon Home 

A creative partnership among the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and state and federal agencies is helping to bring Chinook salmon back to their ancestral waters in Northern California. 

Read all about it in The Revelator. And make sure you subscribe to The Revelator’s weekly e-newsletter for more species and other conservation news. 

That’s Wild: Do Octopuses Dream of Electric Sheep? 

A Brazilian reef octopus named Costello lost two arms in a fight off the Florida Keys, and the trauma may have given him nightmares. After his rescue he was sleeping peacefully in his tank when he began writhing frantically as his skin changed color. Then — still asleep — he released a cloud of ink, as though threatened. Luckily a video camera caught the whole thing. 

One explanation? In a new paper, scientists suggest it was a bad dream.  

It’s not the first time researchers have documented “active” sleep in octopuses. In 2021 they noticed the animals’ skin changing colors during sleep and compared it to humans’ rapid eye movement (REM) phase, when we’re most likely to have vivid dreams.  

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Photo credits: Gray wolf by Steve/Pexels; Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterflies courtesy USFWS; buoys and saw screenshot from video by Rep. Sylvia Garcia; Cook Inlet beluga whale by Paul Olsen/NOAA; rusty patched bumblebee by Jill Utrup/USFWS; Banggai cardinalfish by Jim Greenfield; winter Chinook salmon by Laura Mahoney/USFWS; common octopus by vojce/Freepik.

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