Our newest fight against a dangerous pesticide

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Close-up of a monarch butterfly resting on a purple flower

No. 1,338, February 26, 2026

Suit Challenges Trump Approval of Dangerous Dicamba

The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency for reapproving a weedkiller called dicamba for spraying on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans.

Once sprayed, dicamba is prone to drifting, damaging nearby farms, gardens, orchards, and wildlife refuges. It kills trees and other native plants and threatens dozens of imperiled species — including monarch butterflies, since it harms milkweed, the only plant monarch caterpillars eat.

We already won two federal court decisions striking down the EPA’s previous dicamba approvals. This approval provides even fewer protections than those did (despite Administrator Lee Zeldin’s claims).

“Zeldin insists he’s working closely with the Make America Healthy Again movement to make pesticides safer,” said the Center’s Nathan Donley. “But his reckless reapproval of this highly toxic pesticide shows his words to be nothing more than an attempt to ‘MAHA-wash’ the facts.”

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Rare Mussels Get Another Shot at Protection

Thanks to a Center lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to rethink whether to grant brook floaters Endangered Species Act protection. These 3-inch freshwater mussels scoot along river bottoms with an orange “foot” and send their babies to live on fish gills, where they snag nutrients until they’re big enough to make it on their own. Brook floaters are threatened by hurricanes, water pollution, loss of riparian forests, and rising stream temperatures.

“Brook floaters are among hundreds of species facing extinction because of the ongoing destruction of environmental protections by Trump and his cronies,” said the Center’s Tierra Curry. “By slashing the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act, this administration is paving the way for rivers to catch on fire again and throwing the match themselves.”

Sierra Nevada red fox looking straight at the camera

After a Decade, Scientists Collar an Elusive Fox

California biologists have been searching for endangered Sierra Nevada red foxes for a decade — only about 50 of the rare, alpine creatures remain. Finally, near Mammoth Lakes last month, they captured one, collared it, and let it go. Now they’ll be able to track its movements and learn more about its lifeways and needs.

The Center has been working to save Sierra Nevada red foxes since 2011, when we first petitioned for their Endangered Species Act protection — which we eventually won, but only for those in the Sierra. So in 2024 we petitioned again, asking the government to protect populations in Oregon and the California Cascades as well.

Collage of a Puerto Rican plain pigeon and a Red Rock sunflower

Help Sought for Puerto Rican Pigeon, Vegas Flower

The Center, along with local allies, petitioned on behalf of two species this month, requesting much-needed critical habitat protections for plain pigeons in Puerto Rico and an endangered species listing for Red Rock sunflowers in Nevada.

Plain pigeons have been listed as endangered since 1970 but have never received the habitat protection they deserve. In the 1930s they were driven to scarcity by mass deforestation and unregulated hunting. Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated their population, which plummeted from about 12,000 in 2017 to fewer than 300 in 2024. Now a mere 55 to 200 cling to survival.

Rare Red Rock sunflowers are found only around three desert springs in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area outside Las Vegas. But this spectacular area attracts up to 3 million visitors each year, and the sunflowers grow in a busy area.

“It’s lucky that the Red Rock sunflower grows on public lands safe from development,” said Megan Ortiz, a Center attorney. “But they’re not protected from visitors.”

Steller sea lions photo with an invitation to take action against seabed mining

Suit Challenges Trump Rejection of Climate Science

The Center and allies just sued the Trump administration over its rollback of the landmark finding that underpins federal efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks — the nation’s largest source of climate pollution.

The Trump EPA reversed the agency's famous 2009 “endangerment” finding, which determined that planet-warming pollution like carbon dioxide and methane threatens public health and the welfare of current and future generations.

“We’re suing to stop Trump from torching our kids’ future in favor of a monster handout to oil companies,” said David Pettit, an attorney at our Climate Law Institute. “Nobody but Big Oil profits from Trump trashing climate science and making cars and trucks guzzle and pollute more.”

Revelator: Saving Chambered Nautiluses From Trade

Chambered nautiluses are beautiful marine mollusks with international protections — but sale of their shells continues by the tens of thousands.

Head to The Revelator to read about one researcher working to save them — and how everyone can help. And then let Etsy and eBay know these beautiful creatures and other wildlife shouldn’t be available for sale on their platforms.

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That’s Wild: Hitching Rides on Whales

It’s a wild ride, hitching on a humpback — and remoras, or suckerfish, do it for a living. Recent footage from a camera tag on a humpback shows how the fish, suctioned to the whale’s skin, hurl themselves off when the whale’s about to breach, then reattach at high speeds when their ride reenters the water.

“Even though they are likely beneficial for the whales, as they eat other host organisms such as sea lice, the whales seem to dislike their presence,” said marine scientist Olaf Meynecke “We have observed whales eyeing them, undertaking multiple breaches, then checking again.”