No. 1282, January 30, 2025 |
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Legal Win Blocks Highway Threatening Arizona Species |
Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the Federal Highway Administration and Arizona Department of Transportation have agreed to halt planning of Interstate 11 in Arizona while they rethink its approval.
The 280-mile highway would destroy habitat for endangered species like cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, Pima pineapple cacti, and western yellow-billed cuckoos. It would worsen air quality and climate change, harm public lands — including Saguaro National Park and Ironwood Forest National Monument — and disturb hundreds of Arizona Tribes’ sacred and cultural sites. On top of all that, it would help spread invasive buffelgrass that causes more wildfires.
“The interstate’s approval was based on a deeply flawed environmental analysis that the Federal Highway Administration now has a chance to fix,” said the Center’s Russ McSpadden. “I hope this agreement will make sure the agencies stop ignoring community concerns about the highway’s threats to plants, wildlife, people and the climate.” |
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Robert Reich on Resisting Trump |
As mass deportations begin, writes former U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich in The Guardian, this is no time to despair — we have to act. That means protecting those targeted by the new administration: the hardworking, decent members of our communities who are undocumented or have undocumented family members; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans people; and local government officials and other civil servants who may come under fire.
It means not doing business with big companies that are propping up the regime, pushing for progressive policy on state and local levels, getting behind unions, speaking out, and combating disinformation with truth. And if you’re able, writes Reich, throw your financial support behind effective, anti-Trump groups that Reich trusts — like the Center.
Give to our Future for the Wild Fund now. |
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Agreement to Halt Whale-Killing Seafood Imports |
Each year more than 650,000 whales, dolphins, seals, and other marine mammals are caught and killed in fishing gear around the globe.
But starting next January, thanks to a legal agreement we won, that number should be lower. The United States just committed to banning imports of seafood that wasn’t caught according to U.S. standards for protecting marine mammals from entanglement. “It’s about time the United States uses its enormous seafood market to help the world’s oceans,” said the Center’s Sarah Uhlemann.
The country should also do more to protect marine mammals off its own coasts. Tell NOAA Fisheries to promote whale-safe fishing gear. |
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In Court to Protect Florida Scrub Jays |
The Center and allies, represented by Earthjustice, have filed a legal request to intervene in a 2024 lawsuit by a national private property group, Pacific Legal Foundation, that’s trying to strip Florida scrub jays of their Endangered Species Act protection.
Popular with birdwatchers worldwide because of their gorgeous blue plumage and inquisitive nature, scrub jays live in families, including young helpers who raise new chicks. Florida scrub jays — who live only in Florida — were federally protected in 1987 after their population had dropped by about 90% since the 1800s. But threats to these gregarious, brilliant blue birds have only increased. |
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Tucson Op-Ed: Save the Santa Ritas, Now |
For millennia, writes Austin Nunez in the Arizona Daily Star, the Tohono O’odham have shared their home in the Santa Rita Mountains with jaguars and other wildlife, gathering medicine, clay, and basket materials in this sacred place where the ancestors are buried. But after decades of fighting a proposed copper mine alongside the Center and other groups, the Tribe is now facing imminent danger that Hudbay Minerals will move ahead with its plans: On Jan. 2 the state of Arizona granted the company a deeply flawed air-quality permit. “As chairman of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation,” Nunez writes, “I call upon all Arizonans to join us. Stand with us to defend Ce:wi duag and the future of this land.” |
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A scuba diver in the Maldives recently found herself immersed in a giant ball of fish — and it turned out they were baby pufferfish, a rare treat. Pufferfish can inflate themselves into spiky spheres to intimidate predators, but in this case they didn’t seem to feel the need.
Watch this video to be part of the baby blowfish bubble. (Just scroll down halfway.)
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Center for Biological Diversity
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Tucson, AZ 85702
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