Endangered Earth Online: Your weekly wildlife update.
New Lawsuit Aims to Stop Yellowstone Grizzly Killings
Our fight to protect Yellowstone-area grizzly bears goes on.
The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just launched a lawsuit over the Trump administration's plan to let 72 grizzly bears be killed in the name of livestock grazing in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Instead of making sure that measures to reduce grizzly bear conflicts are enforceable, Trump's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has authorized more and more killings of Yellowstone's grizzlies — a unique, highly threatened population.
"Wiping out Yellowstone grizzlies to make way for cattle to graze cheaply on our public lands makes no sense," said the Center's Andrea Santarsiere. "These treasured bears deserve better."
Watch
a news report at KPAX and
consider supporting our lawsuit with a donation to our Predator Defense Fund.
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445 River Miles to Be Protected for Two Coalfield Crayfish
Two crayfish species that live among the coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia will soon be thrown a lifeline. After a petition and lawsuit by the Center, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Monday to protect 445 miles of waterways as critical
habitat for Guyandotte River and Big Sandy crayfish under the Endangered Species Act.
"Coal mines are bad for the health of every living being around them," said Perrin de Jong, a Center attorney based in Asheville, North Carolina. "These rare crayfish could be wiped out by the mines, which also threaten people by polluting their air and drinking
water."
Get
more from The Washington Post.
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Center Launches Energy Justice Program
The Center has launched an
Energy Justice program to drive the urgent transition to a clean energy future.
Most utility companies are private monopolies. They choke off the development of cleaner energy through price-fixing and court battles aimed at maintaining the existing fossil fuel infrastructure that brings them such easy profits.
Our new program, staffed by attorneys and green energy experts, will wage innovative campaigns to challenge utility corruption and build toward democratic, decentralized, renewable electricity.
"In this era of climate catastrophe, we have to stop these outdated monopolies and usher in a new electricity future," said Jean Su, the new program's director. "We're seizing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to design a new system of accountable, equitable,
truly public power."
Get
more from Common Dreams.
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With critically endangered species, every individual matters. In this new video from
The Revelator, meet "Stevie Nicks" — a blind black-footed ferret who's played a key role in a conservation success story. For years the Center has defended these endangered animals against fracking in their habitat, trapping and killing, the Keystone
XL Pipeline, toxic pesticides, and other threats.
Watch the video and
get more from The Revelator.
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Keeping Florida's Terrapins From Dying in Crab Traps
Diamondback terrapins — beautiful little turtles that grace the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Massachusetts to Texas — are in decline in many of the places they live.
So the Center and allies petitioned Florida state wildlife officials on Tuesday to adopt laws protecting them from drowning in blue-crab traps.
The use of "bycatch reduction devices" — small, inexpensive attachments for the traps that stop turtles from getting in — could save many terrapin lives with little to no effect on crab haul.
It's a simple solution. We're counting on state officials to do the right thing.
Learn
more in our press release.
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Suit Filed to Clean Up Smog for 80 Million People
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The Center and allies just sued Trump's Environmental Protection Agency to force action on smog pollution. Our suit challenges the EPA's failure to ensure the reduction of dangerous ground-level ozone from oil and gas drilling
in parts of 11 states. The polluted areas, in states from Arizona to Maine, are home to 80 million Americans.
"Smog triggers asthma attacks and other serious health problems that routinely send people to the hospital," said Center attorney Robert Ukeiley.
Learn
more.
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The Revelator: Can Citizen Science Help Rescue Our Reefs?
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Coral reefs, so vital to ocean biodiversity, are in dramatic peril from climate change and other threats. Without swift reductions in greenhouse gases, they're predicted to go extinct worldwide by 2100. A new
Revelator piece looks at how volunteer reef-restoration projects, led by scientists, might help buy corals time and pull them back from the brink.
Read
the article and
sign up for The Revelator's e-newsletter.
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Wild & Weird: Crane Snowbirds Come to Arizona From Siberia
Some 20,000 sandhill cranes are now occupying their winter home in a southern Arizona wetland. Many migrated to Whitewater Draw all the way from Alaska and Siberia, with others making shorter trips from Colorado and Utah. The sight of so many large, boisterous
birds finding refuge in the arid grasslands near the U.S.-Mexico border is breathtaking.
Watch
video of sandhill cranes at Whitewater Draw.
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