(EnviroNews DC News Bureau)— Washington D.C. — Days ahead of the 2020 presidential election, then-President Donald Trump’s Interior Department (DOI/Interior) under Secretary David Bernhardt made an announcement that sent shockwaves through the environmental movement: gray wolves (Canis lupus) were to be stripped of their protections under the Endangered…
(EnviroNews Nature) — On Jan. 14, 2021, a coalition of nine conservation organizations represented by the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for its decision to “prematurely” strip the gray wolf (Canis lupus) of protection under the Endangered Species…
(EnviroNews Nature) — Missoula, Montana — On Dec. 14, 2020, the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) filed a formal legal complaint on behalf of WildEarth Guardians (Guardians), Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, and 10 other wildlife advocacy groups. The lawsuit accuses the Trump Administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…
(EnviroNews Nature) — Washington D.C. — Falling in line with a recent expansive EnviroNews report detailing a barrage of end-of-term rollbacks, species de-listings, and slashes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Trump Administration’s Interior Department (DOI) announced it would be lobbing another volley of rollbacks at the…
(EnviroNews Nature) — In response to Donald Trump being elected president in 2016, environmental NGO Defenders of Wildlife (Defenders) launched the Center for Conservation Innovation (CCI) on March 30, 2017 in order to save 14,000 documents related to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). They had good reason to be…
(EnviroNews DC News Bureau) — Washington D.C. — The Endangered Species Act (ESA/the Act), in its original form, required listing decisions to be made based on science and trade data without any other considerations given for any reason. But a Trump Administration rollback in 2017 and finalized on…
(EnviroNews DC News Bureau) — In what prominent conservation group WildEarth Guardians (Guardians) is calling “death by a thousand cuts,” the Trump Administration is at it again, with another proposed change that would weaken the overwhelmingly popular Endangered Species Act (ESA/the Act). This go-round features an attempt to…
(EnviroNews Colorado) — After decades of deliberation the final revision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan (the Plan) was released at the end of November, but former USFWS officials tell EnviroNews it strays far from scientists’ minimum recommendations for recovery of the…
(EnviroNews Headline News Desk) — Salt Lake City, Utah — Only hours after Donald Trump announced his administration would be significantly shrinking the boundaries for much of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah, environmental groups filed a lawsuit, naming President Donald J. Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan…
(EnviroNews Nature) — On Aug. 3, 2017, Defenders of Wildlife (Defenders) released a pilot report demonstrating how satellite data, remote sensing and cloud computing can be used to monitor wildlife habitat loss. Defenders’ Center for Conservation Innovation (CCI), which focuses on the use of technology and data in…
(EnviroNews Nature) — Washington D.C. — On August 4, 2017, Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ryan Zinke published a memorandum calling for the immediate revision of the 2015 Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan. This memo follows up on his June Secretarial Order to review sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) protections…
(EnviroNews DC News Bureau) — Whitefish, Montana — On June 28, 2017, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) released its 2017 recommendations to alter the Endangered Species Act (ESA) after its annual meeting in Montana. The resolution arrived at calls for an increase in state power over ESA implementation…
(EnviroNews Nature) — On May 10, 2017, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), led a committee oversight hearing called, “Conservation, Consultation and Capacity: State Views on the Need to Modernize the Endangered Species Act.” Green groups decry Barrasso’s desire…
(EnviroNews Nature) — Denver, Colorado — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) can continue to release Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi) from captivity into the wild after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction halting the program on April 25, 2017, which conservationists say…
(EnviroNews Alaska) — Washington D.C. — On April 3, 2017, President Donald Trump signed House Joint Resolution 69 (HJR 69) into law. The legislation rescinds the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) 2016 Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule (Refuge Rule). The Refuge Rule was enacted to protect native…