Center for Biological Diversity
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Endangered Earth
No. 993, July 18, 2019
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New Record Set: 2 Million People Speak Up for Wolves
The final count is in: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has received 1.8 million comments opposing the Trump administration's proposal to remove federal protection from gray wolves across most of the lower 48 states.
This is the largest number of comments received by the feds on an Endangered Species Act issue in the law's whole 45-year history. And 650,000 of those comments — a significant portion — came from Center for Biological Diversity supporters. More than 1,000 of you collected 53,000 handwritten comments from your communities at farmers markets, dog parks, on the street, and at events across the country. It's been an incredible collective effort. Thank you.
Next the Service will review the comments and make a final decision. The fight isn't over — and our lawyers and organizers are watching closely.
Check out our thank-you video featuring photos of our activists.
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And consider making a gift to our Predator Defense Fund to support the Center's fight to save gray wolves and other apex predators from coast to coast.
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Courtroom Roundup: Caribou and Condors
The Center's legal team sued the Trump administration three times this week: to protect Southern Mountain caribou so they can come back to the lower 48; halt a logging project in the Los Padres National Forest that would destroy condor habitat; and stop fracking that threatens northern Arizona groundwater.
The week saw important wins, too. Our challenge to oil drilling in California's Carrizo Plain National Monument was upheld, which means no new drilling right now in this iconic landscape. Responding to another of our lawsuits, a court partially blocked summer grazing on Oregon public lands that are home to greater sage grouse and redband trout.
And because a famous little fish — the snail darter of the 1970s Tellico Dam controversy — has achieved recovery, we petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to lift its Endangered Species Act protection. This is the kind of success story we work for.
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Interview: The Secret Life of Mussels
What's so cool about freshwater mussels, anyway? "Everything!" says Center scientist Tierra Curry. In a recent interview with NPR's Living on Earth program, Tierra talked about how these seemingly humble creatures became her favorite species, why you should care about freshwater mussels, and what you can do to help these tiny powerhouse bivalves.
Read or listen to the interview with Tierra at Living on Earth.
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VIDEO
Monarch butterflies are in trouble. Want to help them out? Learn what to do — and what not to do — in a new video on Facebook and YouTube. And get more from The Revelator.
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Masai Giraffes Declared 'Endangered'
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has just declared Masai giraffes, one of nine African subspecies, endangered by poaching and land-use changes. Recognizing the urgent need to save these beloved animals from extinction, the Center and allies recently petitioned, and sued, to protect all giraffes under U.S. law.
"This is a call to action from prominent scientists," said the Center's Tanya Sanerib. "If we don't put more limits on the giraffe trade, we could lose these extraordinary animals forever."
Read about it in National Geographic.
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Revelator: One Woman's Love for a City's Coyotes
Are you reading The Revelator? Edited by seasoned environmental reporters John Platt and Tara Lohan, and brought to you by the Center, The Revelator is an independent, online news source covering all things wild. This week read an interview with Janet Kessler, a devoted observer and photographer of San Francisco's urban coyotes.
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Sign up for The Revelator's weekly newsletter and every Thursday you'll get an email with the latest Revelator articles, a sneak peek at upcoming stories, and links to other breaking environmental stories from around the web.
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EPA OKs Use of Bee-decimating Pesticide
President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency just approved use of the insecticide sulfoxaflor — which the EPA itself has declared "very highly toxic" to bees — on 200 million acres of new crops. Sulfoxaflor is in a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that's driving the pollinator apocalypse.
Now sulfoxaflor can be used on favorite summertime foods like watermelon, strawberries and squash, while causing even more harm to imperiled pollinator populations. Disturbingly the EPA said it was "thrilled" to be approving this "highly effective" poison — basically pitching the product for the pesticide industry. The Center will be taking the agency to court over its decision.
Read more in The Washington Post.
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Wild & Weird: The 'Scrotum Frogs' of Titicaca
Lake Titicaca water frogs live in the eponymous lake in the Andes Mountains. The lofty elevation there, above 12,500 feet, can give people altitude sickness. But these high-living frogs have evolved baggy, wrinkly skins to help them cope, a feature that gives them a bit of a testicular look — and the moniker "scrotum frogs."
The extra surface area of these frogs lets them absorb more oxygen in their cold-water homes. We think they're cute as heck, but they did win fourth place in the British Science Association's "ugliest animal" contest in 2013.
These unique critters are in trouble, though: They suffered a mass die-off in 2016, and it's estimated their numbers fell by 80 percent from 1990 to 2004 from human predation and water pollution.
Check out our new video of these ugly-adorable frogs on Facebook and YouTube.
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Center for Biological Diversity
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