Ending the Harms of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

We’ve reached a huge milestone in our fight against the mass detention center in the heart of the Everglades: ICE announced it has removed all detainees from the cruelly named “Alligator Alcatraz,” and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed it’s closing.

For a year the Center for Biological Diversity has fought to shut down this facility as officials tried to bulldoze environmental laws protecting the Everglades and endangered species like Florida panthers and Florida bonneted bats.

We will keep working to ensure accountability, full restoration of the site, and long-term protection so a tragedy like this can ever happen again.

“Finally it looks like ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is meeting its end,” said the Center’s Elise Bennett. “But the Trump and DeSantis administrations have shown we can’t trust them with Big Cypress’ future. So we’ll keep fighting till panthers can return and bonneted bats can reclaim the star-spangled skies.”

You can help with a contribution to our Future for the Wild Fund — doubled if you donate now.

Court Upholds Protections for SoCal Steelhead

Steelhead are a unique form of rainbow trout. They’re “anadromous” — meaning that, like salmon, they spend part of their lives in the ocean, though unlike salmon they can swim up multiple rivers over the course of their lives.

But steelhead in Southern California are doing particularly poorly, so we’ve been working to help them survive for more than a quarter-century. Last week, along with local allies, the Center secured a victory when a court rejected a water agency’s challenge to their protection under the California Endangered Species Act.

“Development, dams, and water diversions have threatened this species so deeply that only a handful of spawning southern steelhead have been seen in recent years,” said Evan Levy, a Center attorney. “I’m looking forward to a new chapter for these remarkably complex fish.”

Suit Aims to Save Sunflower Sea Stars

Sunflower sea stars have up to 24 arms, can be more than 3 feet wide, and come in a variety of bright colors. But their population has plummeted by 90% since 2013 due to a gruesome marine epidemic called sea star wasting disease, driven by warming waters.

So on Monday we sued the Trump administration over its failure to protect sunflower sea stars under the Endangered Species Act. It hasn’t yet listed a single species.

“It’s been painful to watch this disease spread among the species as the ocean warms,” said the Center’s Oceans Director Miyoko Sakashita. “We need to jump in and do everything we can to save these gorgeous sea stars.”

Arizona Aluminum Plant Canned

We’re elated: A company just abandoned plans to build a controversial aluminum recycling facility in Benson, Arizona. This ends a yearlong fight led by residents worried about the plant harming their health, draining groundwater supplies, and threatening the nearby San Pedro River — habitat for millions of migratory birds and beloved endangered species like yellow-billed cuckoos, Chiricahua leopard frogs, and spikedace fish.

“The community and the San Pedro River will be better off because people fought to protect the place they love,” said the Center’s Russ McSpadden.

If you're an Arizonan who took action with the Center, thank you. You made a difference.

New Podcast Episode: Gentle Giants Under Fire

Florida manatees have had a rough go of it these past few years. Leaking septic systems, fertilizer runoff, and other pollutants have choked off seagrass supplies, leaving manatees with less food to eat. In some cases they’re starving to death. Meanwhile, boat strikes and a burgeoning tourism industry are pushing them closer to the brink.

In the newest episode of our Sounds Wild podcast, cohost Mike Stark travels to Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge to talk with the Center’s Florida and Caribbean Director Elise Bennett about what the future holds for these gentle giants of the sea.

Listen to the latest episode on our website or find it on Apple or Spotify.

Revelator : Rewilding Point Reyes

Restoring California's Point Reyes and its amazing wildlife will require strategy, collaboration, and vigilance.

In this new Revelator article, Ken Bouley of Turtle Island Restoration Network offers five key areas of focus that can guide the restoration of this vital landscape as a model for ecological recovery, climate resilience, and inclusive stewardship.

If you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Revelator’s free weekly newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.

That's Wild: Fungi Could Reach Sun 750 Million Times

“Arbuscular” mycorrhizal fungi are delicate, lifegiving networks that stretch through the soil in relationships with some 70% of plants. They’ve been forming on Earth for almost half a billion years.

New research published in Science uses soil data and machine learning to create the first-ever global map of these fungal networks — far denser in wild places than croplands — which sustain plant life and help regulate the climate.

The sheer scale of the tubular cells, called hyphae, is awe inspiring. If laid end to end their networks would reach a length of 68 quadrillion miles. That is, they could stretch from the Earth to the Sun some 750 million times.

We need to do all we can to keep them healthy, say the researchers, which has serious implications for industrial agriculture.

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Photo credits: Florida panther by Rodney Cammauf/NPS; Southern California steelhead by Alex Vejar/California Department of Fish and Game; coyote by Lane Wintermute/USFWS; Pycnopodia helianthoides starfish by Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0; yellow-billed cuckoo courtesy USFWS; manatee by Keith Ramos/USFWS; Point Reyes Bouley used with permission; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi imaging by J. Stewart et al. (2026), CC BY 4.0.

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