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No. 1324, November 20, 2025 |
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Tell the Feds: Atrazine Pollutes, Drives Extinction |
Atrazine is banned in 60 countries, but it’s the second-most-used herbicide in the United States — even though it’s one of the nation’s most common water contaminants and a known hormone disruptor linked to birth defects, multiple cancers, and fertility problems. It’s highly toxic to wildlife, poisoning habitat for aquatic plants and animals — as well as the drinking water that all life needs to survive.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed atrazine potentially harmful to more than 1,000 federally protected species, including California red-legged frogs, whooping cranes, and San Joaquin kit foxes. But now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that this poison’s widespread use doesn’t pose an extinction risk to a single species.
Tell the Service: It’s past time to protect imperiled species and public health from atrazine. |
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Suit Challenges Administration’s First Offshore Oil Sale |
This week the Center joined allies in suing the Trump administration over its decision to hold an 80-million-acre offshore oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. The sale would blatantly break the law; threaten coastal communities and endangered wildlife like Rice’s whales; and leave behind a dangerous legacy of defunct oil wells, pipelines, and platforms.
“This massive expansion of offshore drilling will come with a toxic deluge of new spills,” said Center attorney Rachel Mathews. “Oil industry executives will get richer while wildlife and people working and living on the Gulf Coast pay a terrible price.” Help our fight against this anti-wildlife administration with a matched gift to the Future for the Wild Fund. |
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Court Win: Border-Wall Lawsuit Can Go Ahead |
Ongoing Trump border-wall construction poses a real threat not just to human communities in the borderlands but to wide-roaming species like endangered jaguars — one of whom, named El Jefe, became a national icon when he crossed into Arizona from his home in Mexico in 2011 and then stayed for years.
In the remote, sensitive San Rafael Valley, explosives were being used even amidst the federal government shutdown as the Trump administration plowed forward with its plan to build a destructive, 27-mile wall segment there. So the Center sued — and earlier this month a judge ordered the government to respond to the suit.
Read an in-depth feature on our legal victory in the Tucson Sentinel. |
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New Podcast Episode: Cows in Our Midst |
Cows don’t belong in rivers and streams — especially in the U.S. Southwest’s riparian areas, home to endangered species like northern Mexican garter snakes and southwestern willow flycatchers.
In the newest episode of our Sounds Wild podcast, host Vanessa Barchfield goes into the field with Chris Bugbee, one of the Center’s conservation advocates, to explore what happens when cows wander into places where they shouldn’t be, as well as how hooves can change an ecosystem.
Listen to the latest episode on our website or find it on Apple or Spotify.
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Celebrating California’s Latest Wolf Pack |
California wildlife officials just confirmed a new wolf family, the Grizzly pack: two adults and one pup who’ve established territory in southern Plumas County in the Sierra Nevada.
That means California still has 10 packs — despite a kill order destroying the Beyem Seyo pack in October after members of that pack were tied to livestock conflicts.
“This year has brought both joyful and tragic news about wolves’ homecoming to California, but I’m elated there’s a new pack and more than 30 new pups roaming our state,” said the Center’s Amaroq Weiss.
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Here’s an Idea: Simplify the Holidays |
The winter holidays are a time of joy, connection, and tradition. These days they’re also excessively wasteful. Besides all the trash we generate and food we toss, extracting the fossil fuels and other natural resources it takes to produce unnecessary plastic toys, novelty gifts, and wrapping paper devastates wildlife and habitat.
Want tips to flip the script? The Center’s Simplify the Holidays website — plus a webinar we recently hosted — can help you redefine holiday traditions and celebrations in ways that respect the planet so you can focus on what really matters. And follow our new Instagram account for helpful content all year.
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Revelator: Ghost Reefs of 2083 |
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That's Wild: Spiders Who Build Doppelgängers |
Two species of tropical spiders in the orb-weaving Cyclosa genus have recently been observed making spider-shaped decoys out of silk and debris like prey body parts. The fake spiders hang prominently in the real spiders’ open-air webs, perhaps to fool would-be predators. Or maybe, scientists speculate, the decoys are supposed to evoke bird poop — an undesirable object meant to turn away other undesirables.
Spiders in the Philippines tend to sit inside their decoys, while the Peruvian spiders usually perch above them.
Watch a video on YouTube. |
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Photo credits: California red-legged frog by Rick Kuyper/USFWS; Rice's whale by Paul-Nagelkirk/NOAA; jaguar courtesy Conservation CATalyst/Center for Biological Diversity; {{if not --[[Arctic Reserve Action]] SavedSearch_501930}} polar bear by Lisa Hupp/USFWS; northern Mexican garter snake by Jeff Servoss/USFWS, southwestern willow flycatcher by Jim Rorabaugh/USFWS; wolf by Austin James, Jr./Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; screenshot of zero-waste webinar courtesy Center for Biological Diversity; coral bleaching by Mark Spalding/World Resources Institute; decoy spider by George Olah.
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