No. 1261, September 5, 2024 |
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Feds Asked to Act to Reduce Bird Strike Deaths |
U.S. buildings kill more than 1 billion birds each year — and that chilling death toll has contributed to a 30% decline in North American birds since 1970.
So on Wednesday, along with allies, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that asks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to set up a permitting process for commercial buildings likely to risk killing birds. It would require building owners to reduce collisions using films, curtains, and other means of making glass visible to birds.
“We can’t keep letting commercial buildings kill vast numbers of birds every year when there are known solutions to this tragic problem,” said the Center’s Tara Zuardo. “Migrating birds are crashing into walls of glass that leave them broken and dying. As bird populations dwindle, this threat affects all of us.” Help the Center fight for migratory birds with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund. |
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Hellbenders are giant aquatic salamanders who live in the eastern and central United States. The largest North American amphibians, they can grow more than 2 feet long and breathe through their slimy, ruffly skin — which gives them unfortunate nicknames like “snot otter” and “ol’ lasagna sides.”
Hellbenders have recently declined by more than 80% and face ever-increasing threats, so we petitioned to protect them under the Endangered Species Act. After initially denying our petition, now the Fish and Wildlife Service is again considering protection (thanks to a lawsuit by the Center and allies).
Back our petition: Tell the Service to protect these enormous amphibians now.
And meet a hellbender up close and personal in our new video on Facebook and Instagram. |
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Help Sought for Rare Fish in Oregon and Nevada |
Freshwater fish who live only in the Alvord Basin of Oregon and Nevada, Alvord chubs were once widespread in the basin but are now being driven toward extinction by cow grazing, water withdrawals, introduced species, and climate change. So we just petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect them under the Endangered Species Act. “These little glittery, freckled fish mastered living in a harsh desert environment, but now they need our help,” said Chelsea Stewart-Fusek, an attorney at the Center. “They’re no match for the cows and irrigation pumps that are decimating their streams.” |
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Join the Movement to Close This Mine |
New science refutes federal-agency assumptions that the Pinyon Plain uranium mine doesn’t threaten the Grand Canyon’s aquifers and springs. But the risks are real — and the mine’s pollution could be impossible to clean up.
That’s why Tribes, Coconino County, the Center, and others are demanding the mine’s closure. Meanwhile Arizona’s attorney general is requesting a new environmental review, and hundreds of people have been protesting. So far we’ve submitted more than 17,000 signatures demanding the closure of this toxic mine.
If yours wasn’t one of them, add your voice now. |
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Plan Helps Protect 900-Plus Species From Herbicides |
Following years of Center work and public pressure — and a legal agreement we won in 2023 — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a strategy to better safeguard federally protected species from herbicides. The strategy requires measures to reduce herbicide spray drift and runoff into waterways to shield more than 900 plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, including fish like yellowfin madtom and pallid sturgeon.
“Reducing herbicide runoff into our nation’s streams and rivers will also give people cleaner water and a healthier environment,” said the Center’s J.W. Glass. |
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The Revelator: Criminalizing Protest |
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That's Wild: Fruit Bats’ Time Management |
Wild fruit bats in Egypt, new research shows, map time in the way people do: They rely on their “episodic memory” to recall how long ago they personally visited certain trees. Not only that, but bats in the colony appear to know how long individual trees bear fruit — avoiding those trees in advance when their fruiting is over — and to plan for the future by flying faster toward faraway, remembered trees. Read about it at Ecowatch. |
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
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