John,

Manatees. Black-footed ferrets. Spotted owls.

Endangered species across the country — from Florida to the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest — have just been pushed closer to extinction by Elon Musk and his tech-bro army at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

DOGE recently fired thousands of federal workers at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including at least 400 U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees — 4% of the agency’s entire workforce. Many people fired were field biologists working on the ground to protect and recover some of the country’s most imperiled animals and plants and the wild places where they live.

The dangerous effects of these mass firings are starting to come into focus. The Crystal National Wildlife Refuge lost two of only eight full-time staff members, which is bound to hurt Florida manatees because that’s the only refuge dedicated to protecting them. Surveys crucial to northern spotted owls’ survival won’t occur this year. The loss of five staff members at the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on Hawai’i have jeopardized vital work to cultivate endangered native plants and remove invasive species for the benefit of critically endangered honeycreepers. And at NOAA, even the scientist who worked day and night to protect imperiled orcas from an oil spill — and was then named 2023 employee of the year for the western United States — was fired with no warning.

It’s not too late to stop this madness. [link removed]

Thanks to public outrage over the indiscriminate firings, more and more members of Congress are demanding accountability from unelected Elon Musk and DOGE, and as a result federal agencies have started rehiring recently fired employees. Now more than ever, Congress needs to do everything it can to stop the wholesale dismantling of our federal government.

Tell your representative and senators to reverse these harmful staff cuts in the upcoming government-spending deal to help protect the United States’ natural heritage for generations to come. [link removed]

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Center for Biological Diversity
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