Center for Biological Diversity
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Endangered Earth
No. 1228, January 18, 2024
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Stop Killer Guac From Devastating Monarchs

It’s almost Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest time of year for U.S. avocado sales — and for gobbling guacamole. But to meet exploding demand, the avocado industry is gobbling, too — scarfing up vast swaths of Mexican forest, where millions of monarch butterflies migrate 2,000 miles to spend the winter. Every day the industry clears more than 10 football fields of those forests to expand avocado production, bringing land grabs, pollution, and violence to Indigenous and other local communities.
By adopting zero-deforestation policies in avocado sourcing, U.S. grocery companies can help protect monarchs and people alike — but they won’t do a thing unless customers demand it.
As the avocado industry gears up for the big game, think of the monarchs in Mexico and join us in urging top chains to do the right thing.

Poison-Pill Bills for Wildlife at All-Time High

Led by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, 2024’s spending bills contain more anti-wildlife provisions than ever before in the 50-year history of the Endangered Species Act.
A new Center for Biological Diversity report found at least 27 stealth attacks on endangered species lurking in the bills, with 26 introduced by Republicans. Two of the world’s most endangered whales — Rice’s whales and North Atlantic right whales — are targeted six times. And 17 of the riders are aimed at species that have been waiting decades for protection, like lesser prairie chickens and dunes sagebrush lizards.
“These heartless attacks would put multiple species on a direct path to extinction,” said the Center’s Stephanie Kurose.
Keep an eye on your inbox for action you can take to oppose anti-wildlife riders.
And help us fight them now with a gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Protection Sought for Nevada Monkeyflower

Carson Valley monkeyflowers face more threats than any other rare Nevada plant — including urban sprawl, both wildfire and wildfire prevention, invasive species, utility corridor development, and climate change. So the Center just petitioned for their Endangered Species Act protection.
“The Carson Valley monkeyflower may be small, but this beautiful yellow wildflower is a unique northern Nevada native,” said the Center’s Great Basin director, Patrick Donnelly. “As Carson City keeps booming, we need to make sure the plants and animals that make this place so remarkable aren’t lost in the shuffle.”
Sadly it takes the Service 12 years on average to protect a species — much too long for these flowers (or any imperiled species) to wait. Tell the Service to do its job and fix the listing program now.

Win: Ocean Habitat Protected for Nassau Groupers

In response to a lawsuit by the Center and allies, NOAA Fisheries just protected more than 900 square miles of habitat for Nassau groupers near Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Threatened by pollution, coastal development, and climate change-related harms like ocean warming and acidification, these stripey, crustacean-eating fish were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2016. But they didn’t get federally protected critical habitat, which doubles a species’ chance of recovering — so in 2020 we sued.
You can help them, and other protected wildlife, by taking action to make the Endangered Species Act even stronger.

Stay In the Know With Texts From the Center

Life on Earth is threatened by an extinction crisis and climate emergency — but it’s not too late. In 30 years the Center has protected more than 750 species and half a billion acres of habitat.
We need your help to keep the success going, and we want to make it easy for you. Sign up to get texts on the most urgent Center issues (four to six messages per month), and you’ll be the first to know about breaking news and actions you can take to make a difference. You can unsubscribe anytime, and we won’t share your number.
Change is a text away.

Suit Seeks to Protect Swimming Rainbows From Coal

The Cherry River watershed in West Virginia is one of the last strongholds of candy darters, fish so vibrant they’re known locally as “underwater rainbows.” But their home in the Monongahela National Forest is under attack by the fossil fuel industry.
In blatant disregard for these endangered fish, the U.S. Forest Service OK’d a private coal company’s plan to haul oversized coal loads, supplies and equipment (like dangerous explosives) through their protected critical habitat. This has polluted their streams — so the Center and allies just sued the Forest Service to get that coal-hauling permit revoked.

Revelator : Saving Sky Islands in India

India’s Shola Sky Islands are the home to beautiful, unique species, including an entire genus in a family of birds known as laughingthrushes. But this unique ecosystem is also under threat from invasive species, development and pollution.
Read more in The Revelator.
And make sure you subscribe to the free weekly e-newsletter for more species and other conservation news.

That’s Wild: Tiny Helper Tidies Shed

Welsh wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook was mystified when things in his shed kept getting moved around overnight. To discover the cause, he set up a night-vision camera — and captured footage of a mouse “tidying” objects left out on his workbench.
Now named Welsh Tidy Mouse by Holbrook, the busy rodent moves all manner of small objects — clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts, and more — into a tray on the workbench.
What’s the purpose of this “mousekeeping”? We don’t exactly know, but there are several possible explanations.
Watch a video of Welsh Tidy Mouse caught in the act.

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