Lawsuit Filed to Help Save Giraffes

Did you know the United States allows giraffe parts to be imported and turned into home décor and accessories like rugs, pillows, knife handles and saltshakers?

It’s an abominable way to treat an animal that so desperately needs our help to avoid extinction. There are fewer than 69,000 adult giraffes left in the wild, with a recent drop in their populations of almost 40%. 

Though giraffes live in Africa, the U.S. Endangered Species Act could help save them. So the Center for Biological Diversity and allies sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday to make it protect giraffes under the Act, curbing American imports and sales of giraffe parts and increasing conservation funding for these iconic animals.

“Giraffes face a silent extinction,” said Tanya Sanerib, the Center’s international legal director. “The U.S. market is flooded with products made with their bones and skins. It’s past time we halt these gruesome imports to help everyone’s favorite long-necked mammal.”

You can help save giraffes and other species worldwide with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Biden Urged to Spend More on Endangered Species

After the recent announcement of 23 extinctions, the Center and 38 allies urged the Biden administration to request more funding for endangered species conservation. The new budget for Endangered Species Act listings must be at least $63.7 million — more than three times what it is now — if we’re to save countless other species from disappearing as the ivory-billed woodpecker and Bachman’s warbler have.

“Extinctions are preventable. So when we permanently lose an animal or plant, it’s really a political choice,” said the Center’s Stephanie Kurose. “Our most vulnerable species face a deadly combination of decades of underfunding and unnecessary bureaucratic delays within the Service. The Biden administration needs to do better.”

Speak Up to Save 1,000-Year-Old Redwoods

A majestic grove of 1,000-year-old redwoods in Northern California is facing an imminent threat — and it needs your help.

Richardson Grove State Park, in Humboldt County, shelters one of the last protected stands of accessible old-growth redwood trees in the world. But a plan to widen Highway 101 to make room for oversized trucks would cut into and pave over the root systems of the thousand-year-old trees, causing dieback of the canopy and possible loss of parts of the grove.

There’s no reason to imperil these majestic trees, as other cost-effective, environmentally sound solutions exist for improving the movement of goods along the coast.

This may be our last chance to save these irreplaceable redwoods. Urge decision-makers to save Richardson Grove.

Suit Aims to Shield Marine Wildlife From Offshore Drilling

Following the ugly California oil spill, the Center just filed a notice of intent to sue the Biden administration if it doesn’t immediately reexamine how oil drilling off the state’s coast threatens endangered species and their habitats.

“Dead, oil-soaked birds and fish are gruesome proof of offshore drilling’s harm to wildlife,” said Kristen Monsell, our oceans legal director. “Oil drilling off California must be immediately phased out and all the old, decaying infrastructure scheduled for decommissioning.”

Want to help? Check your inbox tomorrow for a chance to take action.

Revelator: Biocultural Restoration in Hawai`i 

Hawai`i faces two extinction crises: one of indigenous biodiversity and another of Indigenous culture. According to a new essay in The Revelator, this represents the great unravelling of an eco-civilization. 

Read it for yourself and, if you still haven’t subscribed, get The Revelator’s free e-newsletter. 

Lawsuit Launched Against Wildlife-Killing Program 

In our latest action against the U.S. animal-killing program Wildlife Services, the Center just filed a notice of intent to sue the federal government for not properly analyzing how its wolf-trapping endangers Canada lynx in Minnesota.

Last year Wildlife Services killed more than 5,000 native animals in Minnesota — including 203 wolves, 167 coyotes, and 30 foxes caught in foothold traps and strangulation snares. These inhumane, indiscriminate traps also capture and kill Canada lynx, which are protected by the Endangered Species Act.   

“Wildlife Services’ cruel killing of wolves and other wildlife is harmful and totally out of touch with science,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center. “The science shows that nonlethal methods of addressing conflicts with wolves work. We’re hoping to force federal officials to consider alternatives to all this needless killing.” 

In Court to Save Freshwater Species From Pesticides

A Clean Water Act pesticide general permit makes rules for how pesticides can be applied directly to water. Among other things, it must ensure that endangered species are protected. But the latest permit issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency protects only oceangoing species — leaving out freshwater species like bull trout, pallid sturgeons, razorback suckers and dozens more.

So we just sued to make the EPA study how pesticides harm freshwater animals.

“The EPA can’t pick and choose which endangered species to protect from pesticide pollution,” said Brett Hartl, our government affairs director. “Avoiding the reckless dumping of pesticides directly into our water would help species across the country. It would also protect freshwater habitats and drinking water we depend on.”

Vanishing: A World Without Sawfish? No Thanks

There’s a very real chance that we could lose some, or even all, sawfish species in our lifetimes.

Saving them is more than just saving a wonderfully bizarre species with tooth-studded, saw-like snouts. For our latest Vanishing essay, scientist Helen Yan explores the wonder and plight of these amazing creatures — and the way their loss would reverberate through the world.

Read her essay and check out the rest in the Vanishing series, which examines the human toll of the vanishing wild.

2 Million Acres Returned to Utah Monuments

After a long, hard fight by tribal organizations, supported by allies like the Center, President Biden has restored full protection to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. The move safeguards 2 million acres Trump stripped from the iconic national monuments four years ago.

“This shows Biden understands the importance of these cultural and ecological treasures,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center’s public lands program. “Now he must quickly deliver on his pledge to protect 30% of our nation’s lands and waters by 2030 before other magnificent places are plundered by extractive industries.”

In Court to Stop Cattle From Trampling Species

Defending a long list of imperiled Southwest species, the Center and allies just filed two separate lawsuits to stop cattle from trampling two sensitive desert oases in Arizona.

First we sued the Bureau of Land Management to save the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area — including habitat for endangered species like desert pupfish and spikedace — from trespassing cattle. The very next day we sued the agency over cattle in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, home to a unique endangered plant called the Huachuca water umbel.

“What’s supposed to be protected as a national conservation area looks more like a feedlot,” said Center ecologist Chris Bugbee, whose field surveys document the damage. “This senseless destruction has to be stopped right away, before we lose more animals to extinction.”

That’s Wild: Come Surf in a Hurricane

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in partnership with Saildrone Inc., has released remarkable footage gathered by a drone surfing waves inside Hurricane Sam, a category 4 hurricane.

The video and images are a first of their kind from inside a major hurricane and give scientists a new view of what it’s like in there.

See for yourself and read more at NPR.

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Photo credits: Giraffe by Frans Van Heerden/Pexels; ivory-billed woodpecker illustration in the public domain; Richardson Grove redwoods by Miguel Vieira/Wikimedia Commons; oiled pelican courtesy office of Gov. Bobby Jindal/Wikimedia Commons; Hawai'i by Claire Fackler/CINMS, NOAA; Canada lynx by Nicolas Grevet/Flickr; bull trout courtesy USFWS;  largetooth sawfish by David Wackenfelt; Bears Ears National Monument by Bob Wick/BLM; Huachuca water umbel by Josh More/Flickr; Hurricane Sam courtesy NASA.

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