SpaceX marked its spot

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No. 1,359, July 23, 2026

Injunction Sought to Save a Wildlife Refuge From SpaceX

The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just filed a motion asking a judge for an emergency injunction to halt a deal giving SpaceX more than 700 acres of public land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. We sued in June to stop the land giveaway altogether, but it could go through before the courts can rule on whether it’s even legal — hence our motion.

This wildlife refuge is one of the most ecologically important landscapes in South Texas, home to federally protected species like ocelots, piping plovers, and aplomado falcons. SpaceX’s nearby operations and failed rocket launches have already damaged the lands it's seeking in the deal, scattering flaming debris and harming shorebird nests.

“Federal officials are racing to fork over America’s public lands to one of wealthiest corporations on Earth before the courts can even weigh in,” said the Center’s Laiken Jordahl.

Help us stop the destruction with a donation to the Future for the Wild Fund.

Fighting Trump’s Axing of Species Protections

On Friday the Trump administration finalized two devastating rules further weakening the Endangered Species Act. One repeals the so-called “blanket rule” that provided protections to species listed as threatened (like grizzly bears, manatees, and loggerhead sea turtles). The other greases the wheels for private interests to block or shrink critical habitat protections.

We’ll fight both of them, of course — and on Tuesday we took the first step, filing a request in federal court to defend the blanket rule.

Since 1975 this lifesaving reading of the Act has automatically given threatened species the same protections as endangered species. The first Trump administration repealed it in 2019 before the Biden administration reinstated it in 2024. Our legal request stems from a 2025 lawsuit (which we intervened in) by special-interest groups disputing that reinstatement.

“Just like endangered species, threatened species need strong protections to avoid extinction and recover,” said our Endangered Species Codirector Noah Greenwald.

You can help: Urge Democratic congressional leaders to do everything in their power to restore essential protections for threatened and endangered species.

Collage of monarch butterflies and a Trader Joe's storefront

Tell Trader Joe's: Carry Monarch-Safe Avocados

The United States consumes 3 billion pounds of avocados every year, mostly from Mexico. To meet skyrocketing demand, avocado plantations are gobbling up Mexican forests where imperiled monarch butterflies spend the winter.

Guardián Forestal's innovative “Pro-Forest Agriculture” program aims to protect butterflies and forests. By certifying packinghouses that source avocados only from orchards on land cleared before 2018, it prevents avocados grown on newly deforested sites from reaching U.S. markets.

More than 90% of Mexican avocado exports to the United States are already certified. But until all avocado-importing packinghouses use the program, Mexico’s precious forests — and the animals and people who depend on them — remain imperiled.

Sprouts has publicly adopted the PFA program. Costco has committed to reducing deforestation in its avocado supply chain. But Trader Joe's has stayed silent.

In honor of National Avocado Day July 31, help us call on Trader Joe's to commit to selling deforestation-free avocados.

Florida Reptiles Are the First Species Protected in T2

After more than a decade of Center advocacy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally protected one lizard and two snakes under the Endangered Species Act: Florida Keys mole skinks, Rim Rock crowned snakes, and Key ringneck snakes.

Until now the second Trump administration had listed zero new species under the Act — the worst record in over 50 years.

Even as it listed all three reptiles as “endangered,” the Service failed to issue the critical habitat protections rare and vanishing species need to survive. A new Trump playbook has weakened the Act’s implementation in devastating ways.

“Protecting these creatures because of habitat destruction and then refusing to protect the places they live is like admitting someone to the emergency room for a heart attack and then refusing to treat them,” said Center attorney Ragan Whitlock.

Win: Colorado Enacts a Limit on ‘Furbearer’ Killing

In response to Center advocacy — and those of you who took action and spoke up for wildlife — the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission just approved a daily limit of two furbearing animals per hunter or trapper. The 17 species covered by the limit include beavers, pine martens, ringtails, and swift and red foxes.

Until now these smaller animals, unlike elk or deer, could be trapped and hunted in unlimited numbers.

“The commission chose conservation over unlimited commercial exploitation, and Colorado’s wildlife will be much better off,” said the Center’s Samantha Miller.

A Humboldt penguin returning to the nest

Revelator: Desert Penguins

You might not expect to find penguins surrounded by rocks and sand — or heavy industry — but that’s exactly what you’d see in Peru, where voracious demand for fish oil and guano puts the squeeze on shrinking populations of desert-dwelling Humboldt penguins.