Endangered Earth Online: Your weekly wildlife update.
If you like what you read here, sign up to get this free weekly e-newsletter and learn the latest on our work.

Alaska wolf
Center for     Biological     Diversity   

Trump's Latest Assault on Alaska's Wolves and Bears

Trump's wildlife thrill-killers are at it again. This week they launched a new effort to end Obama-era rules in Alaska that banned trophy hunters from gunning down wolf pups in their dens and baiting bears so they can be shot.

The new rule will turn places like Denali National Park and Preserve into a killing field. It's an awful expansion of the kind of trophy hunts Trump implemented in Alaska a few days after he took office. Once again the Center for Biological Diversity will fight back.

"Cruel and harmful hunting methods like killing bear cubs and their mothers near dens have no place in our national reserves," said the Center's Collette Adkins.

We need your help in this fight. Please consider giving to our Trump Resistance Fund.

Yellowstone grizzly bears

Wyoming Approves Cruel Yellowstone Grizzly Hunt

The state of Wyoming has just approved a hunt that could kill 22 of Yellowstone's famed grizzly bears when they wander out of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks this fall. The move comes less than a year after the Trump administration stripped Endangered Species Act protection from the great bears.

Wyoming received 125,000-plus comments opposing hunting of these grizzlies, which are threatened by isolation from other populations, loss of key foods and human-caused deaths.

"Yellowstone's bears are national treasures, and millions of people come to see them every year," said Noah Greenwald, the Center's endangered species director. "It's senseless that Wyoming thinks they're more valuable dead than alive."

Read more in The Washington Post.

Blinded by the Light Pollution — Check Out This Map

Light pollution map

The Revelator just mapped out some of the brightest U.S. oil and gas operations, showing they outshine even big cities' lights.

Light pollution can be deadly for birds. It obscures features normally visible to them in dark skies, and birds' attraction to artificial lights often throws them off their migration paths. Some fruitlessly circle natural-gas flares, the effort causing them to lose almost half their body weight in one night. Artificial light can also degrade habitat quality and disrupt predator-prey relationships.

Learn more and get The Revelator's newsletter.

Corals

It's Time to Ban Sunscreen's Coral-killing Chemical

Even a miniscule amount of oxybenzone or octinoxate — chemicals found in sunscreen and other personal-care products — can harm corals, contributing to bleaching and even death. That's why this week the Center petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the chemicals from those products.

Our petition follows a similar measure approved May 1 by the state legislature in Hawaii, where coral reefs have been harmed by ocean warming, acidification and pollution from man-made chemicals and coastal runoff.

"Coral reefs are in real trouble, and the FDA can help," said Center attorney Emily Jeffers. "Removing coral-killing chemicals from sunscreens is a simple, obvious step we're long overdue in taking."

Read more in our press release and take action now.

Butterfly

Disastrous Farm Bill Defeated — Thank You

We breathed a sigh of relief late last week with the defeat of the 2018 Farm Bill. More than 2,000 Center supporters called members of Congress to urge them to vote against it — thank you.

The bill included unprecedented anti-environment provisions, including one exempting pesticides from Endangered Species Act review and allowing them to kill imperiled plants and animals. It would've been the broadest attack on the Act in history.

"The failure of this disastrous Republican bill is a great victory for endangered wildlife, public forest lands and clean water," said the Center's Lori Ann Burd. "We're grateful to win this battle, but we won't stop fighting to protect the health of our planet and species."

Read more in The Guardian.

Our New Partnership With Planned Parenthood in Arizona

Planned Parenthood supporters

The Center and Planned Parenthood of Arizona have joined forces to host community forums across the state.

Together we're working to unite supporters for common goals, including fighting Trump's plan to slash federal funding for reproductive healthcare and maintaining the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act without copays.

"If we want to solve our communities' most pressing issues, we must work in partnership and solidarity," said Regina Romero, the Center's director of Latino engagement. Read more.

Bi-state sage grouse

A Second Chance for Bi-state Sage Grouse

Great news: After a lawsuit by the Center and allies, bi-state sage grouse now have a second chance to receive the help they so badly need.

A federal court has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2015 wrongly denied Endangered Species Act protection to these genetically unique birds, which live along the central California-Nevada border, including in the Mono Basin and areas farther north.

The next step will be a court hearing to determine when the Service must reconsider federal protection for the birds.

"Sage grouse in the bi-state area have been sliding toward extinction for years," said Center Senior Scientist Ileene Anderson. "The Endangered Species Act can save them, but only if they actually get protected."

Read more in our press release.

Trump Opens Door to Dangerous Fracking in Northern Arizona

Little Colorado spinedace

A new Trump administration plan proposes to auction off 4,200 acres of public lands for oil and gas development in northern Arizona.

The lands, which straddle the Little Colorado River, are within three miles of Petrified Forest National Park and near habitat for a federally threatened fish called the Little Colorado spinedace. Drilling and fracking would also threaten to deplete and pollute groundwater in the Little Colorado River Basin.

Read more in our press release.

Bear butt

Wild & Weird: What in the World Are You Doing, Bear?

Recent footage captured on one of the Center's borderlands critter cams in southern Arizona opens on a nighttime scene of a bear with her head in a hole and her hiney in the air. Is she looking for grubs? Hiding from the day's headlines? Actually, she's drinking water seeping up from underground.

Check out our new footage on Facebook or YouTube.

Follow Us
 Facebook  Twitter  YouTube  Instagram  Medium

Center for Biological Diversity   |   Saving Life on Earth

Donate now to support the Center's work.

Photo credits: Alaska wolf by dev_wr/Flickr; Yellowstone grizzly bears by Jim Peaco/NPS; light pollution map by Dipika Kadaba/Center for Biological Diversity; corals courtesy NOAA; butterfly by ejpphoto/Flickr; Planned Parenthood supporters by VCU CNS/Flickr; bi-state sage grouse by Bob Wick/BLM; Little Colorado spinedace by Scott Loarie/Flickr; black bears by Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity.

Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States