Middleboro Review and so on blogspot: CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

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Saturday, February 12, 2022

Breaking: A Monumental Win for Wolves

Monumental Win: Wolves’ Protection Restored

In a landmark ruling, a federal judge today restored Endangered Species Act protection to gray wolves across most of the United States, reversing a Trump-era rule stripping their safeguards. The ruling prohibits wolf hunting and trapping in states outside the northern Rocky Mountains. Our fight for wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming goes on.

“This is a huge win for gray wolves and the many people across the country who care so deeply about them,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I hope this ruling finally convinces the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to abandon its longstanding, misguided efforts to remove federal wolf protections. The agency should work instead to restore these ecologically important top carnivores to places like the southern Rockies and northeastern United States.”

The Center has been defending wolves tooth and nail for decades. Help our fight with a donation to our Saving Life on Earth Fund now.

Suit Filed to Save Seabirds From Luxury Resort

For over a decade, on the island of Maui, endangered Hawaiian petrels — called ‘ua‘u for the sounds they make — have fallen victim to the lights of the Grand Wailea Resort. So on Tuesday the Center and allies filed suit to make the resort do more to help them survive.

Hawaiian petrels fly thousands of miles across the Pacific to forage for squid and other food but return to only one place — Hawai‘i — to lay their eggs. Bright lights along the beaches can disorient and kill them.

“The Grand Wailea could easily be a partner in these birds’ recovery instead of a factor in speeding their extinction,” said Maxx Phillips, the Center’s Hawai‘i director.

Tiehm’s Buckwheat to Get Protected Habitat

A fragile desert wildflower — the subject of a fierce conservation battle since the Center took up its cause in 2019 — will be given critical habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service just announced. The beautiful little flower now survives almost entirely in the footprint of the proposed Ioneer lithium mine, about 200 miles from Reno, Nevada.

“Ioneer’s plans to destroy much of the plant’s habitat and establish it somewhere else are highly unlikely to comport with the critical habitat designation,” said the Center’s Patrick Donnelly. “I’m thrilled that the Service has recognized the existential threats to Tiehm’s buckwheat.”

Feds Petitioned to Stop Buying Single-Use Plastic

With 180 other groups, the Center just petitioned the U.S. government to stop buying single-use plastic products. About 100 billion plastic bags a year are used in the United States; by 2050, scientists predict, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. And the U.S. federal government is the single-largest consumer of goods and services in the world, so its purchasing power can make an enormous difference.

“Here’s a chance for the Biden administration to do more to combat this crisis than all the local plastic bag bans in the country combined,” said Emily Jeffers, the Center attorney who wrote the petition.

Win for the Condors of Los Padres

In response to our advocacy, a federal appeals court has blocked a commercial logging project in a roadless area of California's Los Padres National Forest. The move will protect 1,100 acres of old-growth forest harboring endangered California condors and other rare wildlife.

“The previous administration made a reckless decision to OK cutting down trees in a remote area that contains prime habitat for California condors, California spotted owls and northern goshawks,” said Justin Augustine, a Center attorney. “Since the Biden administration values our roadless areas and wildlife, I expect it’ll ensure that this beautiful forest remains protected, not commercially logged.”

Petition Demands Halt to Illegal Gulf Drilling

The Center and more than 300 allies just petitioned the Biden administration to stop greenlighting new oil and gas drilling on existing leases in the Gulf of Mexico until it properly studies their climate threat. Our petition follows a court win blocking the decision to offer 80.8 million more Gulf acres to the oil industry.

Pollution from offshore drilling harms the Gulf’s Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-wealth communities and threatens the region’s sensitive wildlife, from Rice’s whales to Kemp’s ridley sea turtles.

“Federal officials have let oil companies drill offshore for decades without ever properly examining the damage,” said Center lawyer Kristen Monsell, who wrote the petition. “Every new well pushes us closer to climate catastrophe.”

Rare Bumblebee, Plant Move Toward Protection

Thanks to a Center petition filed last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that it’s starting a one-year status assessment of the variable cuckoo bumblebee — not seen since 1999 — to decide whether it gets Endangered Species Act protection. This critically imperiled insect is entirely dependent on its host species, the American bumblebee, which the Center has also petitioned to protect.

The same day — after another 2021 Center petition — the Service declared it’s also kicking off a status review of the thick-leaf bladderpod, found only in southern Montana’s Pryor Desert, where it’s imminently threatened by gypsum mining. This whimsically named plant is only a few inches tall and has tiny, yellow flowers that bloom in June.

Lawsuit Launched for Florida’s Largest Bat

The Center and allies have filed a notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service to make it protect habitat for Florida bonneted bats, the rarest bats in the United States. After the Center and allies sued, the Service finally granted the bats Endangered Species Act protection in 2013 — but it took another lawsuit to make the Service propose critical habitat in 2018, and the agency still hasn’t finalized its proposal.

“Florida bonneted bats can’t survive the onslaught of sea-level rise, development and pesticide use in south Florida unless their habitat is protected,” said the Center’s Florida Director Jaclyn Lopez.

Revelator: How Can We Save Wolverines?

Denning in deep snow high in the mountains, wolverines are notoriously elusive, which means they’ve been hard to study and protect. But new research changes all that — and policymakers can’t elude the dire need for conservation measures anymore.

Read more in The Revelator and subscribe to the newsletter if you haven’t yet.

That’s Wild: Dozens of Regenerative Butts

King Ghidorah worms are a species of branched sea worm named after Godzilla’s monstrous rival. They live inside sea sponges and were first discovered off the coast of Japan in 2019. But instead of having three heads and two tails, like the famous television kaiju, these worms have dozens of branched butts.

In the universe of the Godzilla franchise, Ghidorah can shoot concentrated gravity beams from each of his mouths. His namesake worm has a superpower too: Its branched backside can detach from its body and head, swim to the ocean surface, and release eggs or sperm that fertilize in the water column. Back inside the sea sponge, the worm can regenerate an entire new set of posterior branches.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

In Court to Save Florida’s Starving Manatees

Suit Filed to Save Manatees as Deaths Soar

More than 1,100 Florida manatees died in 2021 — a far higher toll than in any other year since record-keeping began. Many of the deaths were caused by starvation, with pollution choking off the seagrass the gentle marine mammals need to survive.

So on Tuesday the Center for Biological Diversity and our allies filed a lawsuit to make the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service update habitat protection for these extraordinary, urgently threatened animals.

“The carnage from 2021 should remove any doubt that Florida’s waters are in crisis,” said the Center’s Florida Director Jaclyn Lopez. “With these sweet creatures dying in record numbers, the Biden administration needs to act fast to protect their habitat from further destruction.”

Help our fight for manatees and more with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Wandering Wolf Mr. Goodbar Shot, but Survives

Mr. Goodbar — the endangered Mexican gray wolf who paced along New Mexico’s border wall for five days — was found shot in the leg but alive last Wednesday. He suffered for at least a week before he was discovered, darted, and taken to Albuquerque for surgery to remove the injured leg. Law enforcement is investigating his shooting, and he’ll be released back into the wild after recovery.

“Mr. Goodbar’s painful experiences illustrate the inhospitable world we’ve created for wolves and other vulnerable animals," said the Center’s Michael Robinson.

The Center has been defending Mexican wolves since our 1990 lawsuit won their reintroduction to the wild; we just submitted a proposal to better manage the subspecies.

Petition Filed to Save California Wildflower

The Center and allies petitioned Wednesday to protect California’s Inyo rock daisy under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as well as by the state.

This bright-yellow flower lives only at the highest elevations of the southern Inyo Mountains, near Death Valley National Park, on ancient carbonate cliff faces and rock outcrops. It can survive hot summers, freezing winters and frequent droughts — but not a massive, open-pit gold mine threatening important habitat on Conglomerate Mesa.

“These wildflowers endured decades of historic mining,” said Center biologist Ileene Anderson, “but they sure don’t stand a chance against today’s industrial-scale operations.”

Red Wolves to Get Real Help

After years of work by the Center and allies, the Fish and Wildlife Service just agreed to redouble its efforts to save red wolves from extinction, including rewriting their recovery plan, starting a pup-fostering program, and releasing more wolves than the wild population has seen in many years.

Red wolves — like this male picked up on a trail camera in eastern North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge — are among the world’s most endangered carnivores. People relentlessly persecuted them, and after the last few free-roaming wolves were captured for a breeding program in 1980, they were declared extinct in the wild.

Now only eight wild red wolves are known to remain.

Suit Aims to Save Florida Skink From Rising Seas

A lizard with a gorgeous pink ombre on its tail is on the climate front lines — sea-level rise will inundate nearly two-thirds of its Florida habitat by 2100. So the Center just sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its Trump-era denial of protection to the lizard, known as the Cedar Key mole skink.

“The government needs to make a new decision using the best scientific information,” said Center attorney Elise Bennett. “Anything less will fail to address climate change’s mounting threat to the skink, and to so many other Florida species that will share its fate.”

Protections Urged for South American Wetlands

On World Wetlands Day, after devastating wildfires ripped through the Pantanal wetland of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay — the world’s largest tropical wetland — the Center and allies sent an urgent letter to the secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for wetland conservation. We’re requesting a full assessment of fire damage and recognition of the Pantanal as “in danger” on the official world list of endangered wetlands.

“Ecosystem-damaging fires will continue without stronger commitments to protect these critical wetland habitats,” said the Center’s Alejandro Olivera.

The astonishingly biodiverse Pantanal is home to iconic endangered species including tuyuyús (wood storks), jaguars, marsh deer, giant otters and macaws.

Revelator: What’s Next for Mako Sharks?

North Atlantic shortfin mako sharks finally have some protection from the fishing boats that are killing them. But it’s just a temporary reprieve for this heavily exploited species.

Learn what these beautiful, fast-swimming sharks need now in The Revelator. Then subscribe to the free newsletter if you haven’t already.

Rooftop Solar Ruling Is a Win for Clean Energy

Utility companies routinely fight rooftop solar because it eats into their profits.

But on Monday, thanks to a lawsuit by Phoenix-area residents — supported in court by the Center and allies — a judge ruled that an Arizona utility can be prosecuted for breaking antitrust laws after it jacked up electricity rates for customers who installed rooftop solar. It’s the first time a federal court has said utilities can be liable under antitrust laws for attacking rooftop solar.

“The future for renewable energy just got a lot brighter,” said Jean Su, director of the Center’s Energy Justice program. “This is a game changer in the struggle to defend rooftop solar against utilities' all-out war on clean, affordable, climate-resilient energy.”

That’s Wild: Arctic Hare Sets Distance Record

Hares of most species spend their lives in a single territory, where they know all the food sources. But researchers recently found out Arctic hares are different — very different.

Fixed with a satellite tracking collar and released at the northern end of Canada’s Ellesmere Island, one adult female Arctic hare dubbed “BBYY” set a new record for long-distance hare travel: more than 240 miles in under 50 days.

Along the way she dodged predators like foxes and wolves.