Trump Launches War on Wolves — Join the Fight Now

We knew this was coming: On Wednesday the Trump administration rolled out plans to end protections for nearly every wolf in the lower 48 states. This will be the single worst blow against wolf recovery in more than 40 years.

If Trump's plan goes through, it'll return us to the days when wolves were shot, poisoned, trapped and mercilessly persecuted to the brink of extinction. We can't let that happen.

We're mobilizing right now, planning our legal action and activating our grassroots volunteers from coast to coast. There are over 60 events happening this week with volunteers from Ignite Change, the Center for Biological Diversity's organizing arm. We're just getting started and we need you.

Sign up for a webinar tonight on how we can fight to save wolves and consider donating to our Wolf Defense Fund.

We're Headed to Court for Texas Salamanders

The Center and allies just filed a notice of intent to sue the Texas Department of Transportation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a highway project's threats to the endangered Austin blind and Barton Springs salamanders.

We recently learned that the MoPac Intersections Project in Austin has exposed at least 21 underground caves, sinkholes and other karst features that are home to these vanishing creatures. There's a high risk that construction will pollute the two species' habitat.

"Ripping open these caves to build the Intersections Project has created a huge pollution threat to Austin's endangered salamanders," said the Center's Jenny Loda.

Get more from KUT News.

In this video Laiken Jordahl, our borderlands campaigner, talks about an endangered Mexican gray wolf's astonishing journey across the border. Border-wall construction threatens the continued existence of Mexican wolves and 93 other imperiled species. Watch on Facebook or YouTube.

Endangered Species Act Recovery: Tiny Oregon Fish

First protected under the Endangered Species Act almost 40 years ago, a two-inch fish called the Borax Lake chub has been proposed for removal from the Act's protection.

The chub was once threatened by developments affecting the streams feeding into the 10-acre lake it lives in — which can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit because of thermal hot springs. We're glad this species will join more than a dozen others declared recovered by the Act over the past three years.

"I'm happy this unique little fish will continue to thrive in the wild," said the Center's Stephanie Kurose. "The Act is the world's most successful wildlife conservation law, and the chub's recovery is another powerful testament to its effectiveness."

Read more at Oregon Live.

Suit Launched Over Huge Utah Oil-shale Mine Plan

In a reckless gambit to usher in the nation's first oil-shale development, the feds have approved rights-of-way for a massive, polluting mine in Utah — just when we need to decisively ditch fossil fuels. Oil shale is one of the world's most carbon- and water-intensive fuels.

The strip mine and related facilities would siphon billions of gallons of water from the Green River, threatening wildlife and boosting global warming. So the Center and allies filed a notice of intent to sue Trump's Bureau of Land Management.

"This project would spell disaster for the climate, the Colorado River and endangered species," said the Center's Taylor McKinnon. "Draining rivers to mine high-carbon fossil fuels makes no sense."

Read more in The Hill.

Wild & Weird: 'Extinct' Taiwanese Leopard Spotted

Dreams sometimes do come true. One of the world's most beautiful cats, the Formosan clouded leopard, was declared extinct in 2013 ... but it now seems to have reappeared. Rangers spotted more than one leopard on the outskirts of a township hunting goats, while a group of motorists reported a lone leopard prowling around their scooters.

This isn't the first time a large, supposedly vanished animal has nonchalantly walked back into our lives from oblivion. In February a giant "extinct" tortoise, last seen in 1906, showed up on an island in the Galápagos.

Read more about the Formosan clouded leopard at Taiwan News.