House to Review 15 Crucial Conservation Bills

Today the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife is hosting a hearing on more than a dozen urgently important conservation bills — including several the Center for Biological Diversity and our supporters have been fighting hard to promote.

The Extinction Prevention Act, for one, would create four grant programs providing $5 million each annually to conserve critically imperiled North American butterflies, freshwater mussels, desert fish and Hawaiian plants. The Monarch Action, Recovery and Conservation of Habitat Act (MONARCH Act) would supply $125 million in emergency funds over five years to save the western population of monarch butterflies from extinction — just in time, we hope. Other bills will help save amphibians, bears and even captive primates.

“The global extinction crisis is ravaging life on Earth, so it’s heartening to see Congress begin to address the devastating decline of wildlife,” said the Center’s Stephanie Kurose. “These bills offer real hope that help is finally on the way for some of our most neglected and endangered animals and plants.”

Suit Defends Rare Whales From Seismic Blasts

To help save one of the world’s most endangered whales, the Center and allies just sued over a decision allowing major seismic airgun testing in the Gulf of Mexico without proper protections for animals. Under the Trump administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service broke three different conservation laws by approving the testing, which is used to search for oil and gas deposits deep beneath the sea floor. The intense noise it produces harms marine animals on a vast scale — including whales, who use their keen sense of hearing for almost everything they do, from communication to reproduction. This seismic noise can even directly harm whales by causing hearing loss and hemorrhages. Most at risk is the Rice’s whale (aka Gulf of Mexico whale), a species with just 50 surviving individuals.

“Wreaking this kind of havoc to find new fossil fuels makes zero sense as the climate crisis accelerates,” said Center lawyer Kristen Monsell.

You can help us fight for whales and other wildlife with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Rare Alaska Wolf Closer to Protection 

Responding to a 2020 petition by the Center and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finally declared that Alexander Archipelago wolves might warrant Endangered Species Act protection. The Service has repeatedly denied protections to this stunning gray wolf subspecies of southeast Alaska and British Columbia despite the many threats they face, from old-growth logging on the Tongass National Forest to legal trapping, which recently killed 165 out of just 170 wolves on Prince of Wales Island. 

“These beautiful wolves are vital to the health of the Tongass forest ecosystem,” said Center lawyer Ted Zukoski. “But if they’re going to survive, they urgently need protection — not traps and chainsaws.” The Center has been working for that protection since 1996, when we first sued the Service for withholding safeguards. 

Vanishing: Essays on Extinction’s Human Toll

What does it mean when a bird song you expect to hear — one that’s become part of your family’s culture — suddenly isn’t there?

On Friday we launched a new essay series called Vanishing where authors, artists, scientists and others explore what’s at stake for people as wildlife disappears around us. The Revelator will publish a new piece every other Friday.

Writer Rochelle L. Johnson kicks off the series with her story of a family in search of a bird’s refrain in “Song for the Bobolink.”

EPA Agrees to Smog-Reducing Plan

Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center and allies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just committed to steps that will clean up dangerous smog in some of the West’s most populated and polluted places. Under our agreement, the agency promised to ensure that California’s Coachella Valley and Kern County, plus Colorado’s Metro Denver area and Front Range, have effective plans to reduce ozone air pollution, the main component of smog.

Beyond its harm to human lungs, ozone pollution damages trees that provide essential habitat for imperiled birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Ozone even impacts majestic national parks: Last year Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and California’s Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks were among the 26 that had at least one day when ozone concentrations were dangerously high.

UNESCO Urges Healing After Border Wall

After receiving a petition led by the Center — and including the Tohono O’odham of Sonora, Mexico — this month the UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged this month the UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged the United States to stop border wall construction and work with Mexico to assess the wall’s harm to a precious World Heritage site. Our petition sought “in danger” status for Mexico’s El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, sacred to the Tohono O’odham and home to wildlife that evolved over millions of years freely crossing the border.

The committee also recommended ways to restore the landscape and habitat for borderlands plants and wildlife, from Mexican gray wolves to Sonoran pronghorn.

Revelator: Links From the Brink

What were the best and worst environmental news stories of the month? The Revelator has its picks, along with science about mountain lions, innovative legislation in Maine, the latest on decolonizing species names, the folly of billionaires in space, and a fossil-fuel contradiction that will make your brain hurt.

Check out the news roundup and sign up for the free weekly e-newsletter.

The Beginning of the End for These Oil Rigs?

In a great move for the climate and oceans and all their wildlife, the Biden administration just announced it will start analyzing the impacts of decommissioning oil and gas drilling platforms, pipelines and wells off Southern California. This starts the process of permanently ending all offshore oil and gas operations at eight platforms and removing them — along with their associated pipelines — from the ocean.

“We’re glad to see this announcement and hope it signals the end of drilling off California’s coast,” said the Center’s Kristen Monsell. “It’s time for companies to clean up the platforms and pipelines that litter our beautiful marine environment.”

That's Wild: Walking on Water, Upside-Down

One night in the middle of an Australian forest, a biologist researching frogs glimpsed the underside of a beetle moving around in a pool — but it wasn’t drowning, as he’d first assumed. He grabbed his phone to make a video, so nobody could call him a liar when he told them it was traipsing along purposefully … upside-down on the underside of the water's surface.

How is that possible? What does that even mean, “the underside of the water’s surface”? The video seems to turn the aquatic world on its head.

Watch it now on Facebook or YouTube; then read more at The New York Times.

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Photo credits: Monarch butterfly by Ron/Flickr; Rice's whale courtesy NOAA; Alexander Archipelago wolf © Michelle Rodgers; bobolink by Jason Crotty; Smog in Kern County at sunset by David Seibold/Flickr; Mexican gray wolf by Jim Clark/USFWS; mountain lion by CorrinnaSt/Pixabay; oil rigs courtesy BSEE; water scavenger beetle screenshot from video by Dr. John Gould.

Center for Biological Diversity
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