Center for Biological Diversity
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Endangered Earth
No. 1,169, Dec. 1, 2022

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Northern Long-Eared Bats Win ‘Endangered’ Status
After years of legal work by the Center for Biological Diversity and our allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected highly imperiled northern long-eared bats as endangered on Tuesday. That reversed a previous “threatened” listing that let clearcutting and other activities destroy the bats’ habitat. Unlike many other bats, northern long-eareds forage on wooded hillsides and along the top of ridgelines — and they like to live in mature forests.
Now these extraordinarily vulnerable animals, whose populations have plummeted drastically in the past 15 years due to the white-nose epidemic, will have more protection.
“Northern long-eared bats are on the brink of extinction,” said Center lawyer Ryan Shannon. “We have to find a cure for the white-nose syndrome that’s killing these bats, and we have to protect the forests where they live. This endangered listing will help on both counts.”


Stop the Boondoggle at Black Mesa
For decades the Indigenous people of Arizona's Black Mesa have resisted energy-industry attacks on their sacred land. Now they need support to fend off the latest threat: a disastrous plan to build three hydroelectric “pumped-storage” projects that would result in massive industrialization. The projects would cause irreversible harm to land and water resources that are as critical to people as they are to endangered wildlife like Mexican spotted owls.
You’ve helped us stop similar projects along Arizona’s San Francisco and Little Colorado rivers — and you can help us again. Urge federal regulators to protect Black Mesa by denying these permits.


Lawsuit Demands National Gray Wolf Plan
The Center filed suit this week challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan. The current plan is egregiously outdated — it was developed in 1992 and mostly focuses on Minnesota, neglecting suitable habitat for wolves across the rest of the country.
Said Center attorney Sophia Ressler: “The Service’s refusal to complete a national wolf recovery plan, besides violating the law, neglects both the people who want this majestic species to recover and the wolves who are so important to our country’s biodiversity.”
As many as 2 million gray wolves once roamed North America before government-sponsored killing programs reduced them to just 1,000 individuals in the lower 48 states.


Wins for Wildlife Across the World
Center staff just got back from the latest meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Panama. There we helped defeat bids to reopen trade in ivory and rhino horn and won protections for dozens of turtle species, glass frogs, sea cucumbers, and sharks. CITES countries agreed to hold Mexico accountable for failing to protect vaquitas and work to save pangolins, elephants, leopards, seahorses, and lions. On the downside, it let Namibia relax white rhino trade controls and didn’t grant its highest protections to hippos and elephants in four countries.
“I’m thankful the international community recognizes the grave threat trade poses to reptiles, amphibians and many ocean animals,” said the Center’s Tanya Sanerib. “We’ll keep fighting for species that got short shrift this year and pushing for an ambitious pandemic prevention plan.”


Check Out Our Fall Membership Newsletter
This fall’s Endangered Earth , the Center's print newsletter, is now available online.
Read about what's at risk without a global commitment to stop human-caused extinctions now. Also: saving monarch butterflies; what Biden must do for the climate; the human population hits 8 billion; and much more.
We make this members-only newsletter available to online supporters to thank you for taking action — but please consider becoming a member today and helping even more. Just call us toll free at 1-866-357-3349 x 323 or visit our website to learn more and donate.


Saving Wolves Like OR-93 With Wildlife Crossings
One year ago, after breaking records by traveling from northern Oregon to Southern California, beloved wolf OR-93 was struck and killed by a vehicle.
In a new tribute, our Senior Wolf Advocate Amaroq Weiss reflects on OR-93’s untimely death — and the crucial importance of California’s recent wildlife-crossings law, cosponsored by the Center, in preventing future tragedies.
“In the coming decades, more wolves are bound to return to California. Wildlife passages are an invaluable way to do right by them, and by the memory of OR-93,” says Amaroq.


Gains for Carnivores and More in Montana
Following opposition from the Center and our supporters, the U.S. Forest Service has rejected a proposal to expand Montana’s Holland Lake Lodge, which would’ve been disastrous for imperiled grizzly bears, wolverines, Canada lynx, and bull trout. POWDR, the company behind the proposal, plans to keep pushing it — and we’ll keep resisting.
“We’ve stopped the most imminent threat,” said the Center’s Senior Northern Rockies Attorney Kristine Akland. “Now we have time to prepare for the next stage of the fight.”


Revelator : The Cost of ‘Free Water’ in the West
Heavily subsidized water cultivated in the U.S. West comes at the cost of the region's scarcest resource. Now that the West is drier than ever, we need solutions soon — before we run out of the water we've taken for granted for so long.
Learn all about it in The Revelator and don’t miss the free e-newsletter bringing you each week’s best environmental articles and essays.


That’s Wild: Bees Aren’t Too Busy to Play Ball
Bees are known as diligent workers, but a recent study shows they may love playing, too.
Researchers found that bumblebees will go out of their way to roll wooden balls around for no other reason than, apparently, entertainment. Playfulness is usually ascribed to mammals and birds; this may be evidence of it in insects.
"This sort of finding has implications to our understanding of sentience and welfare of insects and will, hopefully, encourage us to respect and protect life on Earth ever more," said study coauthor Samadi Galpayage.
Check out a video of what bee play looks like — including the bee version of a somersault.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States