No. 1323, November 13, 2025 |
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Suit Filed to Save Izembek Refuge in Alaska |
This week the Center for Biological Diversity teamed up with Alaska Native Tribes to sue the Trump administration for trading away public lands to enable a devastating road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
The federally protected wilderness is home to grizzly bears, caribou, salmon, sea otters, and sea lions. It has some of the world’s largest carbon-absorbing eelgrass wetlands that provide a globally important stopover for millions of migratory birds, including endangered Steller’s eiders — plus Pacific black brant and other geese. The planned road would slice through the heart of this unique ecosystem, wreaking havoc on bird habitat and our partner Tribes’ subsistence way of life.
The Trump administration OK’d the land swap using a law that would only authorize such an exchange if it enhances conservation and subsistence. This road would do the opposite. Help the Center’s fight for Izembek and all public lands in Alaska with a gift to our Alaska and Arctic Defense Fund. |
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Pacific Humpbacks Win Team to Fight Entanglements |
Following a 2023 Center legal victory, NOAA Fisheries has announced it will form a “take-reduction team”: a federal task force to save Pacific humpback whales from deadly entanglements in sablefish pot gear. The agency’s own researchers say the gear badly injures or kills at least one humpback a year.
Now the new team, including the Center’s Kristen Monsell, will recommend regulations to fight entanglements. NOAA Fisheries must consider the recommendations and issue regulations within 13 months of the team’s establishment. “I’m thrilled,” said Kristen. “Pacific humpbacks migrate hundreds of miles to feed off the West Coast, and they need to arrive in safe waters.” |
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New Podcast Episode: The State of Our Birds |
There are 3 billion fewer birds in North America than there were in 1970 — and a new report says 1 in 3 bird species needs help. In this episode of the Center’s Sounds Wild podcast, host Mike Stark talks with Jeff Walters of the American Ornithological Society about why things have gotten more difficult for our feathered friends, how we can help, and the deep connection between people and birds.
Listen to the latest episode on our website (or find it on Apple or Spotify).
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Trump EPA Greenlights ‘Forever Chemical’ Pesticide |
During the record-breaking government shutdown, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers not getting paychecks, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency found time to approve a highly persistent pesticide called cyclobutrifluram for golf courses, lawns, cotton, soybeans, and lettuce.
The pesticide is a “forever chemical” — one of the notorious group known as PFAS that linger in the environment indefinitely.
“In the same week that millions of people lost access to food aid, we see that the EPA’s pesticide office has all the resources it needs to keep rubber-stamping dangerous new pesticides,” said Nathan Donley, the Center’s environmental health science director. |
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A Climate Summit Without the U.S. Government |
At the United Nations’ 30th climate summit — COP30, being held in Brazil — world leaders are now meeting to discuss action on the climate crisis. The U.S. delegation is notably absent, due to the Trump administration’s climate denial, so staff from the Center and other American organizations traveled to Belém to advocate for action in their place.
The world shouldn’t “allow a bully like Trump to derail decades of negotiations,” the Center’s Jean Su told Scripps News. We’re at the conference, said Jean, “to represent the majority who care passionately about having clean air, clean water, and a safe climate future.”
We’re also representing species being pushed toward extinction by climate change. Learn more on our website — and don't miss our new factsheet, “The Climate Emergency: Closing in on Wildlife,” linked at the top of the page.
And watch one of our favorite warming-threatened animals, American pikas, in action in this Facebook video. |
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Revelator: Birding Blind Spot? |
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That's Wild: Why Bowhead Whales Live for Centuries |
Believed to be the longest-living mammals on Earth, bowhead whales have been found with Victorian-era spear tips lodged in their blubber; the oldest recorded individual lived to be 211. Now scientists are homing in on the reason for that longevity. Some bowhead populations are endangered, and these 100-ton, 60-foot-long Arctic dwellers aren’t easy to study. But researchers from the University of Rochester believe the secret may lie in high concentrations of a protein called CIRBP in the whales’ bodies that repairs certain DNA-strand breakages. “There are different ways to improve genome maintenance, and here we learn there is one unique way that evolved in bowhead whales,” said senior researcher Vera Gorbunova. “Now we have to see if we can develop strategies to upregulate the same pathway in humans.” |
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Center for Biological Diversity
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