Center for Biological Diversity

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Endangered Earth

No. 1252, July 5, 2024

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Forest Wins in the Northwest and Southeast
This week the Center for Biological Diversity celebrated two big wins for forest protection.
In Oregon the clearcutting of old growth by Scott Timber was nixed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision will protect marbled murrelets, threatened seabirds who nest in mossy, ancient trees and fly 35 miles in a day to bring fish from the ocean to their young.
In North Carolina, following a lawsuit by the Center and allies — and almost 14,000 actions by our supporters — the U.S. Forest Service decided against logging a biologically important area in the Nantahala National Forest. The area sits above stunning waterfalls, with towering trees and rare plants in a unique microclimate.
“This wild and beautiful forest was saved because people spoke up to defend it,” said Will Harlan, our Southeast director. “But the current plan for the Pisgah and Nantahala is a tragic failure, and unless it’s changed more legal fights are probably going to be the only way to ensure that the public’s voice is heard.”


Protecting Snapping Turtles, Snakes, and Ptarmigans
Thanks to the work of the Center and allies, Suwannee alligator snapping turtles were just protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (though they still need habitat protection). These large, prehistoric-looking turtles live in their namesake river basin in north Florida and southern Georgia.
Also this week Kirtland’s snakes — Midwesterners who spend much of their time in crayfish burrows — got a second chance at federal safeguards when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to reconsider their plight after denying protection in 2017.
In Washington state Mt. Rainier white-tailed ptarmigans were protected under the Act following a Center petition and litigation. These beautiful birds are threatened by warming temperatures and snow loss.
Help us win critical habitat for Suwannee alligator snapping turtles — and protection for other species worldwide — with a gift to the Center’s Saving Life on Earth Fund .


Mexican Wolves Should Be Released as Families
The Center and allies are urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to resume releasing captive-born Mexican gray wolf pairs together with their pups into Arizona and New Mexico.
Due to livestock industry pressure, the Service stopped releasing wolves almost entirely after 2006. When wolves’ genetic diversity collapsed, the agency resumed releases in 2016, but only of captive-born pups — alone — into wild wolves’ dens. Only 24 of the 99 pups released without parents from 2016 through 2023 were seen alive again.
“Keeping families intact as they transition to living in the wild is key to saving Mexican wolves from extinction,” said the Center’s Michael Robinson.
Watch a pup up close on Instagram and learn more on YouTube.


Suit Filed to Protect the San Pedro River
The Center and allies just sued Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke for failing to protect the imperiled San Pedro River from groundwater pumping. The Southwest’s last free-flowing desert river, the San Pedro is home to southwestern willow flycatchers, yellow-billed cuckoos, gila topminnows, northern Mexican garter snakes, Huachuca water umbels, Arizona eryngos, and other endangered species.
Both Hobbs and Buschatzke have ignored a September 2023 petition to designate an “active management area” in the Upper San Pedro Basin to preserve its groundwater and help save the San Pedro.
See the river’s beauty and wildlife for yourself on Facebook and YouTube.


West Virginia Mural Celebrates Endangered Crayfish
Guyandotte River crayfish are the world’s most endangered crayfish, threatened by coal mining and found only in a few creeks and the Guyandotte River in Wyoming County, West Virginia. These crayfish have blue legs and blue or blue-green pincers, and they help keep streams cleaner and play an important role in the food web.
To honor this species, Roger Peet designed and painted a new Endangered Species Mural in the center of the small town of Pineville, West Virginia. Youth volunteers from Friends of the Earth, Americorps, and the Wyoming County Energy Express Extension Service helped paint parts of the mural, and people from West Liberty University’s Crayfish Conservation Lab and Appalachian Voices attended a celebration this month to mark the mural’s unveiling.
Check out scores of others in the Center’s Endangered Species Mural Project, plus our cool interactive map — and watch a video on Instagram or Facebook.


Revelator: The Bluelining Problem
In an era of climate disasters, people in vulnerable regions will rely more than ever on their home insurance. But as floods, wildfires, and severe storms become more common, a troubling practice called “bluelining” could leave many U.S. communities unable to afford insurance — or get it at any price.
Read more in The Revelator . And if you don’t already, subscribe to the free weekly Revelator e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.


That's Wild: Tiger Beetles Mimic Toxic Moths
When some tiger beetles hear bats in the area, they make noise — a series of clicks that, as it turns out, are exactly like the sounds made by moths that are toxic to bats.
Night is a time of sonic warfare between predators and insect prey. Many insects have evolved to hear bat echolocation pitches, and some have other natural defenses (such as the toxin of the moths). But tiger beetles don’t have a chemical defense against bats, as researchers showed.
And so, using the action of their forewings and hindwings, they mimic the creatures who do.
Watch a video of a flying, tethered tiger beetle.

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