Court Win for Sierra Nevada Red Foxes

Thanks to a Center for Biological Diversity legal challenge, a federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act in refusing to protect California habitat for extremely endangered, extremely elusive Sierra Nevada red foxes.

Ten years after we petitioned, in 2021 the Service listed the foxes’ Sierra Nevada population as endangered but didn’t designate critical habitat, ignoring threats to their home and failing to consider their long-term fate. So we went to court — and the court found that the agency had made three separate legal mistakes in withholding habitat safeguards. Now it must draft a new decision.

“This is a huge victory for one of California’s rarest and most beautiful animals,” said the Center’s Endangered Species Legal Director Brian Segee. “And critical habitat is one of the Endangered Species Act’s most important safeguards — because animals and plants can’t recover if the places they depend on disappear.”

Trump Memo Would Allow Endangered Wildlife Killing

President Trump’s Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a sweeping new directive trying to strip imperiled wildlife of protections from killing or injury — aka “take” under the Endangered Species Act — unless it’s an activity’s sole, specific purpose.

For example, if Trump gets his way, it’ll be legal for recklessly speeding ships to “incidentally” crush endangered whales and for timber companies to clearcut forests while “incidentally” killing the endangered owls and bats who live there.

“This administration wants to give wildlife killers a ‘Get out of jail free’ card,” said the Center’s Government Affairs Director Brett Hartl.

Help us fight back with a gift to the Endangered Species Act Protection Fund.

Trump Administration Sued Over Pesticide Records

The dangerous, notoriously drift-prone pesticide dicamba has damaged millions of acres of crops, as well as home gardens, wildlife refuges, native plants (like threatened western prairie fringed orchids), and pollinators (like endangered rusty-patched bumblebees). Yet this year Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency reapproved its use — despite multiple court decisions that prior reapprovals were illegal.

Many months ago we requested documents about that approval process, but they haven’t materialized. So the Center just sued the EPA to produce those records.

“Why on Earth is the White House reviewing and withholding documents involving the decision to approve a pesticide?” asked the Center’s Nathan Donley. “If you’ve done nothing wrong, then you have no reason to withhold public documents.”

Lawsuit Launched to Save Venus Flytraps

The Center has warned the Fish and Wildlife Service that we intend to sue over its denial of Endangered Species Act protection to imperiled Venus flytraps. These charismatic carnivorous plants have declined by 98% in the wild, mostly because of habitat destruction, poaching, climate change, and lack of wildfires (which help keep other plants from overgrowing their habitat). Wild flytraps live only along the coastal plain of North and South Carolina, where development is running rampant.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service must act quickly to snatch these snapping plants from the jaws of extinction,” said Center scientist Will Harlan.

Suit Targets Trump OK of California Oil Pipeline

The Center and allies sued the Trump administration Tuesday for issuing a second permit allowing oil to flow through an aged pipeline system near Santa Barbara. The permit waives certain safety regulations for the pipeline, which already ruptured and caused a massive spill in 2015.

In a rush to open coastlines to offshore oil drilling, the Trump administration has been fast-tracking approvals for the pipeline and other projects, making an end run around California regulators.

“Trump officials have doubled down on a dangerous game of letting their oil-industry friends play by different safety rules,” said the Center’s Julie Teel Simmonds. “If there’s another oil spill, ocean wildlife and Californians will pay the price.”

The Revelator: Saving Sharks' Homes

A new project has identified thousands of critical habitats for some of the world’s most threatened fishes. Now saving these sites is up to us.

Read more in The Revelator.

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That's Wild: Pelican Asks for Government Help

A pelican tangled in fishing line, with a hook lodged in its wing, went knocking at the right door in Panama City, Florida, last week.

That door belonged to a local office of NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency charged with stewardship of marine wildlife. When the hurt bird tapped at the door’s glass, it was let in and got fixed up by NOAA biologists before flying away.

Read more and watch a video.

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Photo credits: Sierra Nevada red fox by Keith Slausen/USFS; northern spotted owl courtesy BLM; rusty-patched bumblebee by Dawn March/USFWS; brown bear by Jennifer Kardiak/USFS; Venus flytrap by Tippitiwichet/Flickr (CC BY 2.0); blue whale by NOAA; gray reef sharks by Kelvin Gorospe/NOAA; pelican courtesy NOAA.

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