Red fox
Center for     Biological     Diversity   

Lawsuit Targets Out-of-control Wildlife Killing in California

Every year the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services kills thousands of animals in California, including foxes, bobcats, bears and coyotes. Typically carried out at the behest of the agricultural industry, it's an ugly enterprise that relies on poisons, painful traps, strangulation snares and helicopter gunners. It's got to stop.

This week the Center for Biological Diversity and allies sued the Department of Agriculture over its outdated wildlife-killing plan in Northern California. We've been working for years to force reform of this government program, which killed more than 1 million native animals in the United States last year.

"Wildlife Services' cruel killing practices are ineffective, environmentally harmful and totally out of touch with science," said the Center's Collette Adkins. "It's long past time this program joined the 21st century and updated its practices to stop the mass extermination of animals."

Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle and consider donating to our Wildlife and Wild Places Defense Fund.

Green sea turtle

Trump Dumps Rule to Stop Whale, Sea Turtle Drownings

Terrible news for marine mammals and sea turtles up and down the Pacific Coast: The Trump administration has cancelled an Obama-era proposal to limit the number of imperiled whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be injured or killed by swordfish gillnets off California, Oregon and Washington.

Gillnets are set out overnight to drift freely where marine animals feed, creating dangerous, mile-long invisible curtains that entangle species like fin whales, humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins and leatherback sea turtles. Once trapped in gillnets, nontarget wildlife can eventually drown -- and when fishermen haul their nets to the surface in the morning, they're just dumped back into the ocean, whether dead or injured.

Read more in the Los Angeles Times.

Really? Energy Sec. Says CO2 Doesn't Drive Global Warming

Rick Perry

Rick Perry, who heads the U.S. Department of Energy for the Trump administration, came out with a baffling statement this week that he doesn't think carbon dioxide is a primary driver of global warming. Well, top scientists -- and the world's most prominent scientific groups -- beg to differ.

And so do we. As Shaye Wolf, the Center's climate science director, told the Associated Press: Perry "has the science exactly backward."

Get more from ABC News.

Hawaiian petrel

Lawsuit Launched to Save Seabirds From Light Pollution

The Center and Hawaiian allies, represented by Earthjustice, have filed a notice of intent to sue the Hawaii Department of Transportation for failing to stop bright lighting at state-operated airports and harbors from killing and injuring three species of critically imperiled seabirds: Newell's shearwaters, Hawaiian petrels and band-rumped storm petrels.

These birds circle the bright lights until they fall to the ground from exhaustion or crash into nearby buildings, and the lights have contributed significantly to seabird mortality -- helping cause a catastrophic 94 percent decline in Newell's shearwaters on Kauai since the 1990s.

"Fixing these lights is more than feasible -- it's necessary in order to save these magnificent seabirds from extinction," said the Center's Brian Segee.

Read more in the Honolulu Civil Beat.

Maya Golden-Krasner

"Pruitt wants people all across America -- especially families like my own, living in smog-prone areas like Southern California -- to breathe dirtier air while he purposefully slows efforts to clean up the escalating damage to our health and economy caused by our anachronistic allegiance to fossil fuels."

— Center Senior Attorney Maya Golden-Krasner in a Los Angeles Daily News op-ed. Read more.

Coal mine

Lawsuit Seeks Documents on Administration's Ties to Coal

The Center sued the Trump administration this week to get public records about closed-door meetings between the Bureau of Land Management and industry executives over the reversal of the Obama administration's moratorium on coal extraction on federal public lands.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke revoked the order earlier this year. The Center filed a public records request in March after numerous reports of secret meetings between top Trump administration officials and coal-industry executives. Our request has been ignored, so we're going to court.

"The public has every right to know who Zinke and others are meeting with, especially when it comes to policies that will have disastrous consequences for our public land and climate," said the Center's Bill Snape.

Read more in our press release.

In-depth: A Closer Look at Public Lands Enemy No. 1

Rob Bishop

This week Outside magazine published an in-depth look at the destructive politics of Rep. Rob Bishop, the Utah congressman driving much of the effort in D.C. to hand over federal lands to states across the West. Bishop makes clear that he hates the Antiquities Act -- a key law for protecting national monuments -- and that his philosophy on public lands hews closely to that of the Bundy clan and extremists who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year.

Check out the story and read our report on Bishop and the 14 other top congressional enemies of public lands.

Solar panels on building

Nevada, Florida OK New Solar Measures

Solar energy got some important boosts last week.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that will expand tax breaks for renewable energy devices like solar panels on commercial and industrial buildings. Although Florida needs stronger actions to remove roadblocks to rooftop solar, this measure is a good step forward.

In Nevada, Gov. Brian Sandoval reinstated the previously terminated net-metering law, allowing solar panel owners to get reimbursed at a discounted rate for excess energy sent back to the grid. Unfortunately, the governor also vetoed a higher renewable portfolio standard and rejected a community solar bill.

"We're happy to see Nevada and Florida pushing ahead with these important solar measures," said the Center's Chad Tudenggongbu. "But there's still much more to be done."

Read more about the measures in Florida and Nevada.

Mexican gray wolf being released into the wild

Wild & Weird: Released Into the Wild

Endangered wildlife are temporarily held in captivity for a variety of reasons: They may need special attention to recover from an injury, biologists might want to tag or collar them for monitoring, or maybe they're part of a captive-breeding program seeking to bolster dwindling populations. Whatever the reason, the moment of their release is a glorious one.

Check out the Center's new compilation of wildlife releases -- including of Mexican gray wolves, a Florida panther, a hellbender and a California condor -- on Facebook and YouTube.

Follow Us
 Facebook  Twitter  YouTube  Instagram  Medium 

Center for Biological Diversity   |   Saving Life on Earth

Opt out of this mailing list.    |    View this email in your browser.

Donate now to support the Center's work.

Photo credits: Red fox by Alan D. Wilson/Nature's Pics Online; green sea turtle by E. Lymon/NOAA; Rick Perry by Gage Skidmore/Flickr; Hawaiian petrel by Brenda Zaun/USFWS; Maya Golden-Krasner staff photo; coal mine by ddimick/Flickr; Rob Bishop by Gage Skidmore/Flickr; solar panels by les_stockton/Flickr; still from video of Mexican gray wolf release courtesy Arizona Game and Fish Department.

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