No. 1270, November 7, 2024 |
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We’re Ready to Fight Through the Next Four Years |
The election of Donald Trump is a crushing blow. His second term will be even worse than the first for people and the planet.
But we know how to resist. During Trump’s first four years, the Center for Biological Diversity filed 266 lawsuits against his destructive administration, and 9 out of 10 times we won — for gray wolves, grizzlies, migratory birds, the climate, and much more. We'll push forward again, and we’ll win again.
“It’s going to take a few more rounds in the ring, but we’re confident Trump’s bigotry, misogyny, anti-climate and anti-wildlife zealotry — all will be defeated,” said the Center’s Executive Director Kierán Suckling. “We won’t rest until people across this country have agency over their own bodies, marginalized communities are free from attack, and every imperiled animal is free to flourish.” Are you with us?
Give to our Saving Life on Earth Fund today, and your donation will be doubled. |
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Expand the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge |
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, in Georgia, is home to one of the world's largest pristine freshwater swamps. More than 700,000 people visit every year to see the swamp’s tea-colored waters, towering cypress trees, longleaf pine forests, and abundant wildlife.
The Center and allies have long worked to stop titanium mining from destroying nearly 8,000 acres right next to the Okefenokee. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed adding 22,000 acres to the refuge as they become available from willing sellers — a lifeline that could help safeguard this precious place from titanium mining, reduce wildfire risk, preserve regional wildlife corridors, and conserve habitat for imperiled species like red-cockaded woodpeckers, eastern indigo snakes, and gopher tortoises.
This is a once-in-a-generation chance to save the Okefenokee.
Tell the Service you support its decision to expand this wild treasure. |
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New Southwest Species Suits — and a Southeast Win |
The Center and partners just sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for delaying critically needed Endangered Species Act protection to a southwestern succulent and fish — the Clover’s cactus and Rio Grande shiner. Clover’s cactuses live only in northwest New Mexico, where they bloom in vibrant purple and are threatened by energy extraction, off-roaders, and grazing. Palm-sized Rio Grande shiners have lost most of their New Mexico and Texas range to water mismanagement, pollution, and sprawl.
Also in the Southwest, with environmental and Tribal allies, we sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over its devastating authorization of the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada — a decision that, if allowed to stand, will drive the rare wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat to extinction.
And in the Southeast a rare flower received federal protection thanks to our petition and lawsuit: Ocmulgee skullcaps were listed as endangered and got 6,661 acres of critical habitat in Georgia and South Carolina. |
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Relief for Whales in California |
Thanks in part to the Center’s advocacy, state officials in California have postponed the Dungeness crab fishing season in the Bay Area to protect migrating humpback whales from entanglement.
“I’m glad state officials are taking precautions to avoid entangling whales,” the Center’s Ben Grundy told The Mercury News. But if the state had authorized the use of ropeless — aka pop-up — fishing gear, he said, “crab fishers could be prepping to put their traps in the water right now.”
We’re advocating for ropeless gear at the state and federal levels. Tell NOAA Fisheries to support its widespread adoption for the sake of whales, sea turtles, and other marine life. |
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Water Win in Southeastern Arizona |
Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center and a local ally group, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs was forced to agree to review a decision guaranteeing a 100-year water supply for a 7,000-home development near the San Pedro River.
The Southwest’s last free-flowing river, the San Pedro is a vital lifeline for plants and animals across southeastern Arizona — from bats and cougars to endangered species like southwestern willow flycatchers, Huachuca water umbels, and desert pupfish.
Watch (and share) our video footage of San Pedro wildlife on Facebook and YouTube. |
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Revelator: Deep Sea Conservation |
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That’s Wild: Do Bats Use Glowing Toes as Signals? |
Many animals glow in the dark, but a newly published study of wild Mexican free-tailed bats suggests the blue-green bioluminescence of their outer toes, visible under UV light, may help communicate their location to others as they make their feeding forays at dusk. The study marks the first report of photoluminescent structures in live bats.
Biologist Fernando Gual-Suárez said he’ll always remember the moment he heard a colleague utter, “Is that normal? Do the feet usually look like that?” |
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States 0-0-0-0 |
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