Center for Biological Diversity
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Endangered Earth
No. 1,036, May 14, 2020
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Our Latest Suit to Stop the Border Wall
The Center for Biological Diversity and allies sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for taking $7.2 billion from the Department of Defense for border-wall construction without congressional approval. The planned construction will wall off all remaining jaguar corridors along the U.S.-Mexico border. This will be devastating for other wildlife too, including Mexican gray wolves and ocelots.
Our lawsuit also challenges six waivers that sweep aside dozens of environmental and public-health laws to fast-track wall construction in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
"Trump's assault on the U.S. Constitution has reached new heights as he turns the borderlands into sacrifice zones," said Center senior attorney Brian Segee.
Learn more.
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Consider supporting our fight against the border wall by making a donation to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.
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Island Marble Butterfly Wins Protection at the 11th Hour
The island marble butterfly, with its beautiful green-and-white wings and furry-looking white head, was deemed extinct for 90 years — until it turned up on Washington state's San Juan Island in the 1990s.
In 2002 the Center and allies petitioned for the butterfly's protection under the Endangered Species Act — and then sued to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take action on our petition. That petition was denied in 2006, and the butterfly kept declining, from five populations to one.
But now, 18 years after we asked the government to save this species, island marble butterflies have been granted protection, along with 812 acres of protected habitat.
Get more from Courthouse News.
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Join Us Today: A Discussion on the Future of Wolves
Wolves in the West are at a crossroads. After being nearly driven out of existence, they've returned in places like the Southwest and California, Oregon and Washington. But what happens in the coming years will determine whether they thrive or languish.
Join us later today for a Saving Life on Earth discussion about our work to save these iconic animals. The presentation will include Amaroq Weiss, the Center's senior West Coast wolf advocate, and Michael Robinson, our senior conservation advocate.
This week's conversation will dig into the history and biology of wolves in the West, the state of their recovery along the West Coast and in the Southwest, the challenges ahead — and how you can help.
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VIDEO
Pandemics aren't just for people. Diseases can cause animal populations to decline or even go extinct — and they're often worsened by environmental threats caused by people. Watch this new video from The Revelator about five disease threats to wildlife on Facebook or YouTube, and learn more.
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Protection Sought for California Freshwater Minnow
The Center just petitioned to secure Endangered Species Action protection for the Santa Ana speckled dace, a small minnow native to Southern California streams.
Speckled dace have been eliminated from three-quarters of their former habitats due to dams, water diversions and urbanization. Remaining dace populations are jeopardized by drought, intense wildfires, flooding, invasive species and rapid climate change.
"Dace are pretty resilient fish if we protect their stream habitats and give them half a chance to recover," said the Center's Jeff Miller. "Let's throw Santa Ana speckled dace a lifeline in the form of Endangered Species Act protection."
Learn more.
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Center Legal Actions Launched This Week
This week our teams took legal action across the United States in defense of land, wildlife habitat, and clean air and water.
In Minnesota we sued the Trump administration to stop a massive copper mine at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. These world-class waters are too precious to put at risk — we'll defend these spectacular glacial lakes with everything we've got.
In Colorado we sued to stop illegal pollution from the West Elk coal mine — the single-largest industrial source of climate-destroying methane pollution in the state.
In Wyoming we filed an official challenge to one of the largest logging and road-building projects in the state's history, which threatens Medicine Bow National Forest.
And in California's Riverside County, we filed an appeal challenging the approval of a massive sprawl development that threatens the state's San Jacinto Wildlife Area and will worsen air quality for county residents.
Learn about all these lawsuits and our other recent work.
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Revelator: 'Extinct' Ecuador Toad Rediscovered After 30 Years
"If the Mindo harlequin toad had a yearbook photo, its caption might have read 'most unlikely to be rediscovered,' " John Platt writes in The Revelator. Nevertheless, the toad just was rediscovered — two years after being declared "possibly extinct" and 30 years after its last sighting in Ecuador. Scientists thought the little red-and-green toad was erased from the planet by the deadly chytrid fungus. Since the fungus has brought the demise, or presumed demise, of dozens of other amphibians, this toad's re-emergence brings hope that more lost species might still be found.
Read more.
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Subscribe to The Revelator's weekly e-newsletter.
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Join Our #CaptionTheWild Contest on Social Media
Endangered Species Day is Friday. To celebrate, every day this week on our social media platforms we're posting a wildlife photo that's begging for a caption from followers. At the end of the week, we'll pick our 10 favorite captions and send the winners a free copy of the "Endangered" board game.
Ready to join the fun? Head over to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find the images, and comment with your suggestions. Make sure to include #CaptionTheWild.
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Op-ed: It's Time to Make Rural Energy Democratic and Clean
Established in the 1930s under the Rural Electrification Act, rural electric cooperatives today provide power to approximately 42 million people in 47 states, including 93% of the most persistently impoverished U.S. counties.
But along the way, these co-ops often turned into a "good old boys" network protecting the interests of a few and deepening the disenfranchisement of the poor.
It's time to reform electricity cooperatives in a way that's fair, transparent, responsive to all communities — and also ready to address the climate crisis. But how do we do that?
Find out in this op-ed written by the Center's Energy Justice Campaigner Shiva Patel and coalition partner Wan Smith.
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Color Your Own Endangered Species Murals
Need something to occupy your kids . . . or yourself? Check out our new printable, color-able designs based on our Endangered Species Mural Project. Spearheaded by artist Roger Peet, the project works with artists, scientists and organizers to bring images of endangered wildlife to the streets. The coloring pages are linework replicas of 12 of our murals, featuring species like the jaguar, Mexican wolf, Indiana bat and North Pacific right whale.
Print out the coloring pages.
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Learn more about the Endangered Species Mural Project.
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Wild & Wonderful: 'Sky Island' Singing Frogs
It's getting hot in Arizona's Sonoran Desert, where the Center is headquartered. So our videographer Russ McSpadden ventured up into the "Sky Island" mountaintops high above the desert in search of mild weather. In a steep waterfall he came across a colony of canyon tree frogs singing their mating songs. Look and listen at Russ's Twitter account.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
