No. 1286, February 27, 2025 |
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In Court to Save Redwoods — Again |
The Center for Biological Diversity and allies have appealed a California court’s dismissal of our legal challenge to the Richardson Grove Project — an “upgrade” of Highway 101 to accommodate oversized commercial trucks that would cut into the sensitive root networks of old-growth redwoods in Richardson Grove State Park. The park is home to one of the world’s last protected stands of accessible ancient redwoods, some 3,000 years old, as well as wildlife like marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls.
“For nearly two decades Caltrans has been pushing an unpopular project that was never needed and causes a world of harm to California’s famous trees,” said the Center’s Director of Programs Peter Galvin. “It doesn’t make any sense to waste taxpayer money on a project that serves no purpose but causes irreparable harm.” You can help: Urge decision-makers to save Richardson Grove’s iconic trees. |
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Suit Targets Trump Attack on Offshore Protections |
The Center and allies just sued the Trump administration to protect oceans from offshore drilling. We're challenging an illegal Trump order revoking a Biden withdrawal of vulnerable ocean areas from future oil and gas leasing.
“Trump’s putting our oceans, marine wildlife, and coastal communities at risk of devastating oil spills, and we need the courts to rein in his utter contempt for the law,” said the Center’s Kristen Monsell. “Offshore oil drilling is destructive from start to finish. Opening up more public waters to the oil industry for short-term gain and political points is a reprehensible and irresponsible way to manage our precious ocean ecosystems.”
Fuel our work for whales and other wildlife with a gift to the Center’s Future for the Wild Fund. |
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Mount Graham Red Squirrel Numbers Are Up |
Hopeful news for endangered squirrels: A recent survey of Mount Graham red squirrels counted 233 individuals in the Pinaleño Mountains of southeast Arizona, their only habitat on Earth. The new number is an exciting jump from just 144 squirrels counted in 2023 — but these tiny mammals are isolated in the area’s last islands of canopied forest, with nowhere else to go. To help save them, last year the Center went to court to expand the squirrels’ critical habitat.
See one of our cutest clients in action: Head to Facebook or Instagram to watch (and share) a video of a Mount Graham red squirrel foraging and face-stuffing.
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Trump Firings and Cuts Could Hurt Spotted Owls |
Many years of hard work have gone into saving endangered northern spotted owls from having their home trees cut down — and the nationwide firing of Forest Service and other workers on public lands could seriously undermine those efforts, the Center’s Noah Greenwald told reporters.
Without surveyors to get out into the woods and find owls, agencies won’t have the data they need to ensure that ongoing logging doesn’t drive the species closer to extinction. “As a former spotted owl surveyor myself,” said Noah, “I know firsthand how important keeping track of these inquisitive birds is to their survival. If we can’t do the surveys, the logging may need to stop." |
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Suit Aims to Help Pacific Northwest Chinook Salmon |
Chinook or “king” salmon are the largest of all Pacific salmon — once abundant throughout the river basins of Oregon, Washington, and Northern California but now a smaller and ever-dwindling population. So the Center and our allies have sued the Trump administration for delaying Endangered Species Act decisions for the region’s spring-run Chinook.
“These iconic fish are at risk of disappearing from our coastal rivers forever if the feds don’t act quickly,” said Jeremiah Scanlan, a legal fellow at the Center. “Spring-run Chinook salmon badly need protection, but the agency has taken the lazy river approach and drifted past its own deadlines.”
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Revelator: Capitalism Is Killing Corals |
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That’s Wild: Are Chatty Bats Bolder? |
The sounds animals make carry meanings that scientists are just beginning to explore — including how those sounds reflect individual personalities. Recently a Berlin-based ecologist published a study of Pallas’s long-tongued bats, whom she’d tested at an experimental site in Costa Rica using a rubber ball and a feeder lit by flashlight.
Her observations showed that bats who explored more, were bolder at feeding, and were more curious with the ball were more likely to vocalize socially. And the more agitated the animals were, the more sounds they made. Risk-taking bats may be more vocal as a proactive way to confront new challenges.
Be a bold bat: Take action on any of our current action alerts (and share the page with your friends). |
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States
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