Center for Biological Diversity

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Endangered Earth

No. 1,238, March 28, 2024



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Court Win Defends Polar Bear Cubs From Big Oil
Following a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the U.S. Court of Appeals found legal errors in a rule letting oil and gas companies harm polar bears.
Pressured by the oil industry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had released the rule in 2021, allowing harassment of polar bears — even potentially deadly activities while they’re raising cubs — for five years on Alaska’s North Slope. Now the court has ordered the Service to fix the rule so it doesn’t violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which forbids such harassment except in rare circumstances when it won’t hurt animals’ populations.
Thanks to the Center’s groundbreaking 2005 petition, polar bears are also protected under the Endangered Species Act. But during the Trump administration, Fish and Wildlife fabricated other harmful rules that would prioritize industry over endangered species — and a judge didn’t find them illegal.
We need you to fight with us: Tell the Service to revoke the rules immediately.


Suits Launched to Save Manatees, Hippos, Martens
This week the Center notified the Fish and Wildlife Service of our intent to sue it over its failure to respond to an urgent request for stronger Endangered Species Act protection for manatees in Florida and Puerto Rico. These gentle seagrass grazers are dying off in large numbers, many from starvation.
Along with allies, we also notified the agency we’ll sue over a delay on protecting common hippos, disappearing from the African wild partly due to a demand for hippo trophies driven by U.S. consumers.
And in Oregon we warned both Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service of an impending suit to make them better protect coastal martens from destructive off-road vehicles.
Help the Center save manatees and other species with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund .


Federal Report: Half of U.S. Wetlands Lost
A new federal report to Congress shows the dire status of U.S. wetlands: Half of those in the lower 48 states have been lost since the 1780s. And the rate of that loss has accelerated by 50% since 2009.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to go all out to save the millions of acres of wetlands that shelter imperiled species, from Dixie Valley toads to diamondback terrapins,” said the Center’s Meg Townsend.
And this week the Center petitioned to save three freshwater species — two snails and a clam in California and Oregon — under the Endangered Species Act: the Great Basin ramshorn snail, cinnamon juga snail, and montane peaclam. Though not wetlands species, all three help to keep our waterways clean and aquatic ecosystems alive.


Tiny Texas Flower Proposed for Protection
Following a 2004 petition and 2020 Center lawsuit, this month the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Endangered Species Act protection for a plant called the bushy whitlow-wort (and 42 acres of habitat). Found in just two places barely a mile apart, the whitlow-wort grows on the rocky outcroppings of South Texas shrublands — also a prime place for the energy development that threatens it.
Related to carnations, the plant has tiny yellow flowers and is so rare that scientists know almost nothing about it.
Protection shouldn’t take more than 20 years — it’s supposed to take two, tops. Help us reform the process before this plant goes extinct.


Hopeful News for Migratory Birds — Take Action
In a single night last October, about 1,500 migratory songbirds died after flying into Chicago’s McCormick Place, attracted to the building’s bright lights. This tragedy could’ve been prevented with the flick of a light switch — or the pulling of shades.
Now McCormick Place is moving forward with measures to install a better shade system to block light at night, along with bird-protection treatments for the glass facades.
But birds still need to be protected from countless other hazardous buildings. The Fish and Wildlife Service promised to create its own rules to enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which would decrease careless bird-killings, but after two years hasn't done anything.
Tell the Service it's long past time to enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.


Suit Seeks Habitat Expansion for Arizona Squirrels
This month the Center and allies sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect habitat essential to the survival and recovery of Mount Graham red squirrels in southeast Arizona.
We petitioned to update the squirrels’ critical habitat in 2017 to include the lower-elevation, mixed-conifer forests they now live in — but even after two subsequent lawsuits the Service hasn’t acted. That failure violates the Endangered Species Act.
Mount Graham red squirrels are the most endangered land animals in the United States. The last count found just 144.


Revelator: A Shocking Threat to Sloths
Sloths are the embodiment of chill, with the slowest metabolism of any nonhibernating mammal.
But with their forest habitat disappearing, these lovable critters are climbing on dangerous power lines and getting electrocuted. Veterinarians and rescue centers are developing new ways to help.
Read more in The Revelator . And subscribe to the free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.


That’s Wild: Rare Loon Visits Sin City
A juvenile yellow-billed loon interrupted a show when he was spotted in the Bellagio’s fountain on the Las Vegas Strip this month — and luckily, rescued from the casino’s fountain by wildlife officials before he could catch the gambling bug.
The youngster was far from home. Yellow-billed loons, for whom the Center has long advocated, nest in the Arctic and winter in places like Norway and Siberia. This one risked going hungry (at least) if he kept looking for fish among the fountain’s 1,200 high-velocity water nozzles and almost 5,000 lights.
Watch his liberation on video.

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Center for Biological Diversity
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