Center for Biological Diversity
[link removed]
Endangered Earth
No. 1290, March 27, 2025

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Join the National Hands Off! Rallies on April 5
Next Saturday, April 5, Center for Biological Diversity staff and supporters will join other national and local organizations across the United States to turn out for Hands Off! — a national mass activation in defiance of the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on the environment and our communities.
President Donald Trump’s anti-environmental onslaught is by far the direst threat to wildlife, wildlands, clean air, clean water, and the climate in U.S. history. Trump, Musk, and congressional Republicans don’t care what they destroy to rake in more money for themselves and their wealthy allies. But the Center is ready to fight back.
Join us on April 5 to demand they get their hands off public lands, endangered species, and the federal agencies and funds that help support all these things and more.
Sign up to attend or host a Hands Off! event in a city or town near you. [[link removed]]
And get ready with printable signs and shareable graphics from our website. [[link removed]]
See you in the streets.
Collage of a scrub jay and marbled murrelet [[link removed]]
Filing Defends Threatened Species Nationwide
The Center filed an intervention [[link removed]] Wednesday in a lawsuit by Montana-based hunting and property-rights interests trying to take away safeguards from species classified as federally threatened, like Florida scrub jays and marbled murrelets.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s longstanding “blanket rule” gives such species the same protections as endangered ones (unless a specific rule is developed). But in Trump 1.0 the rule was temporarily scrapped, and the plaintiffs in this suit clearly want it gone.
“We’re at risk of losing a million species this century, and yet Trump’s hellbent on stripping wildlife of critical protections,” said the Center’s Noah Greenwald. “In this case, the administration has some help from groups whose actions could have a devastating effect on many imperiled animals.”
Help us stand up for threatened species with a gift to the Future for the Wild Fund . Do it now and your donation will be doubled. [[link removed]]
Aerial view of a North Atlantic right whale [[link removed]]
Stepping in to Save Whales From Deadly Ship Strikes
The Center and allies just moved to intervene in a lawsuit [[link removed]] challenging a 2008 federal rule protecting North Atlantic right whales from speeding ships and other vessels. Filed by a vessel captain fined for knowingly violating speed limits, the suit claims that NOAA Fisheries didn’t have the authority to issue the rule — but we know it did.
With a population of just 370 individuals and fewer than 70 reproducing females, North Atlantic right whales are dying too quickly for birth rates to keep up. Vessel strikes — especially deadly for mothers and calves — are one of the species’ two main killers. And when they don’t kill, they often leave whales weakened and painfully scarred.
The other big threat driving these whales toward extinction? Fishing-gear entanglement.
Tell the feds: The widespread adoption of pop-up fishing gear will save the lives of countless whales and other marine animals. [[link removed]]
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Biodiversity Briefing: Our Strategy to Save the Wild
The Trump administration wasted no time launching attacks against the species and wild places we all love, so the Center has been challenging it with a new lawsuit every three days. We’ll need constant vigilance to defend the laws and agencies that protect public lands and wildlife, from spotted owls to humpback whales.
In our latest Biodiversity Briefing presentation [[link removed]] , Executive Director Kierán Suckling discussed the Center’s strategic imperatives for saving life on Earth in this critical moment.
These briefings [[link removed]] , including live Q&A, are open to all members of the Center’s Leadership Circle [[link removed]] and Owls Club [[link removed]] .
David Meyers and the eastern Oregon conservation property in the background [[link removed]]
In Memoriam: David Myers
Over the course of his multidecade career in conservation and philanthropy, David Myers, cofounder of the Wildlands Conservancy, saved vast tracts of land from development, including over half a million acres in San Bernardino County, California — the largest purchase of land for preservation in the state. He passed away March 10 at age 73.
An early, longtime supporter of the Center, Myers partnered with us to purchase and preserve more than 100,000 acres in California, Oregon and Utah.
“David Myers was an inspirational and tireless crusader for wild places,” the Center’s Peter Galvin told the Los Angeles Times [[link removed]] . “He also worked harder than anyone I know in the conservation movement to introduce low-income kids and their families to natural realms beyond their neighborhoods.”
Myers’ legacy lives on through the places he protected and the many people whose lives he touched.
Close-up of a Sumatran orangutan [[link removed]]
The Revelator : Save This Species
In the launch of The Revelator ’s new column — the next iteration of its previous “Species Spotlight” series — editor John Platt explores why Sumatran orangutans mean so much to him [[link removed]] and why people need to protect them.
If you don’t already, subscribe to The Revelator ’s free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news [[link removed]] .
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That’s Wild: Octopus Rides a Shark
Most octopuses live on the seafloor, while sharks cruise closer to the surface — but that didn’t stop one bright-orange cephalopod from hitching a ride on a mako shark in the waters off New Zealand.
A new article by the scientist who caught the strange interaction on a GoPro, back in 2023, highlights the mystery of the octopus-shark rideshare. For the octopus it may have turned into a wild caper indeed: Mako sharks can reach speeds of 45 miles per hour.
Learn more and watch the video. [[link removed]]
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Center for Biological Diversity
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