Lawsuit Launched to Save Rare Alaska Wolves

The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just filed notice of our intent to sue the federal government to force it to act on our petition to protect Southeast Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago wolves. Decades of logging in and around the Tongass National Forest have destroyed the old-growth woods these small, dark wolves need to raise their pups and hunt Sitka black-tailed deer. And legal trapping recently killed more than half the wolves’ largest population on Prince of Wales Island. In July 2020 we petitioned for their federal protection — but have gotten no response.

“We need the Biden administration to take a stand for these beautiful island wolves before trapping and logging drive them to extinction,” said Center attorney Camila Cossío.

Donate to the Wolf Defense Fund to help us save them.

Suit Stymies Western Arctic Oil-Drilling Plan

Responding to a lawsuit by the Center and partners, the Biden administration just announced it will rethink Trump’s plan to drastically expand western Arctic oil and gas leasing. The Bureau of Land Management said the plan to offer up nearly 18.6 million acres of the western Arctic — home to imperiled animals like polar bears and Pacific walruses — may not mesh with President Biden’s executive order on tackling the climate crisis.

“We hope this is the first step toward ending Arctic oil leasing,” said Center attorney Kristen Monsell. “Any reasonable review will show that the Biden administration must revoke this disastrous plan and start phasing out existing fossil fuel extraction. Anything less than that won’t cut it.”

Wins for Rare Freshwater Crayfish and Mussel

This week saw two victories for embattled freshwater dwellers of the U.S. South: protection for the slendercraw crayfish of Alabama and proposed protection for the pyramid pigtoe mussel that ranges across nine states, from Virginia to Oklahoma. The Center and allies have been fighting for these animals for many years.

“Protecting these humble little critters from extinction might not sound like a priority to some,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center, “but by working to save the animals that live in creeks, we ultimately protect rivers and our own necks.”

Leaping Lynx Caught on Camera

We love this footage of a Canada lynx flying over a beaver dam in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Lynx can only run fast over short distances, but they can jump more than 20 feet into the air from a crouched position. Those long, powerful back legs are evolutionarily adapted to ambush-hunting in deep snow.

Watch on Facebook or YouTube.

Suit Aims to Save Humpbacks From Fishing Gear

The West Coast’s fishery for bottom-dwelling sablefish seriously harms at least one endangered Pacific humpback whale every year. So on Tuesday the Center notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of our intent to sue over its failure to protect these magnificent, acrobatic whales from entanglements in fishing lines.

“Endangered humpback whales can’t dodge strings of sablefish pots,” said Catherine Kilduff, a Center lawyer. “This is critical habitat, and it shouldn’t be a death trap.”

Critical Habitat Proposed for Miami Tiger Beetles

In South Florida, on the front lines of sea-level rise, lives a bejeweled insect as small as a grain of rice and as fast — for its size — as a cheetah. Thanks to the litigation by the Center, the Fish and Wildlife Service just proposed to protect about 2,000 acres of critical habitat to help it survive.

Found only in the last fragment of pine rocklands, Miami tiger beetles were believed extinct before they were rediscovered in 2007 near Zoo Miami. They share their precious, vanishing home with other gravely threatened animals like Florida bonneted bats and rare butterflies — all at risk from plans to build a waterpark, as well as the rising seas.

Agreement: Protecting Southwest Streams From Cows

Following our 2020 lawsuit, the Center just won a commitment from the U.S. Forest Service to better keep grazing cattle off vulnerable waterways on federal lands in Arizona and New Mexico. Livestock have been trampling and fouling these fragile streams and creeks, driving rare birds like southwestern willow flycatchers and yellow-billed cuckoos — as well as fish like Gila chubs and loach minnows — perilously close to extinction.

“Habitat destruction and invasive species have put nearly all the region’s aquatic species at risk,” said Brian Segee, our endangered species legal director. “It’s my hope that the simple step of removing cattle from these waterways will give imperiled species a fighting chance at survival and recovery.”

IUCN Meets for World Conservation Congress

Members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature — including the Center — are meeting this month for IUCN’s World Conservation Congress to talk about fixing the planet’s most critical conservation problems. The Center is cosponsoring several motions, like one urging protection for Africa’s wildlife-filled Okavango Delta from fossil fuel drilling, and another addressing the plight of vaquitas and other rare species harmed by the illegal totoaba swim bladder trade.

“We face the devastating loss of up to a million species,” said the Center’s International Legal Director Tanya Sanerib, who’s attending the conference virtually. “This is a chance for conservation experts to offer the solutions and hope we so desperately need right now to save life on Earth.”

Biden Must Name a Fish and Wildlife Service Director

The Center and allies are urging President Biden to nominate a permanent director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — now. The agency desperately needs a leader to combat the political interference that’s compromised its scientific integrity and hampered its ability to protect the nation’s endangered species and migratory birds.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service was left rudderless for most of the Trump administration, with profoundly harmful consequences,” said Brett Hartl, our government affairs director. “That can’t happen again.”

Join Our Food Justice Film Festival, Sept. 16-19

Please join us for our second annual Food Justice Film Festival, featuring four powerful films that explore agriculture and climate change, the colonization of food, exploitation of farmworkers and children, and the importance of saving seeds and traditions.

The free festival takes place online Sept. 16–19 and features Truly Texas Mexican, The Ants & The Grasshopper, The Harvest/La Cosecha and SEED: The Untold Story.

To participate, create a free account at our film screening platform. Space is limited, so create your account today. This will give you access to all films during the festival period of Sept. 16–19 to watch at your convenience. And visit our film festival website for pre-recorded panel discussions with the filmmakers, farmers and activists.

Revelator: Small Rodents Need Big Help

Mice, hedgehogs and voles play outsized roles in their ecosystems, from providing prey for predators to dispersing seeds and shaping vegetation patterns. Unfortunately, a new paper finds, we’re failing these “small-bodied mammals” — and that comes with a cost to ecosystems around the world.

That’s Wild: A Capybara Class War?

An affluent gated community in Argentina is in a tizzy over an “invasion” of hundreds of capybaras, the world’s largest rodent. But the multimillion-dollar development sits on the ecologically important Paraná River wetlands, the capybaras’ natural habitat.

Grievances with the native rodents include reports of raided gardens, trampled flower beds, tussles with pets, feces-covered lawns and even traffic accidents.

Of course, capybaras lived in the area long before the ritzy mansions popped up in 2000, and progressive Peronists call the development an elitist enclave that excludes the working class. So maybe those scrappy capybara commoners are just trying to reclaim what’s theirs.