Black bear
Center for     Biological     Diversity   

Trump Signs Bill to Bait, Trap, Kill Alaska Wolves, Bears

President Trump's sick war on wildlife is taking off. Late Monday he quietly signed a bill that allows wolves and their pups to be killed in their dens and bears to be gunned down in bait stations in Alaska's national wildlife refuges.

These refuges were designed to be a haven for animals, but they clearly won't play that role under Trump. The bill also allows aerial gunning and the use of steel-jawed leghold traps to hold the animals in place until they can be shot.

Thanks to the 33,000 of you who took action urging Trump to veto this disgusting bill. The fight is not over. The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the Trump administration three times in the past week, and the resistance movement is growing stronger by the day.

Read more in our press release and consider giving to our Trump Resistance Fund.

Wolf

Suit Seeks to Save Carnivores From Deadly 'Cyanide Bombs'

The Center and allies on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for failing to protect endangered species from two deadly pesticides used to kill coyotes and other native carnivores.

Our lawsuit seeks common-sense measures to prevent unintended deaths from sodium cyanide used in M-44s -- also known as cyanide bombs -- which killed an Oregon wolf in February, temporarily blinded a child, and killed three family dogs in two separate incidents in Idaho and Wyoming in March alone.

"Cyanide bombs are indiscriminate killers," said the Center's Collette Adkins. "These dangerous pesticides need to be banned, but until that happens, they shouldn't be used where they can hurt people or kill pets and endangered wildlife."

Get more from KFGO.

Air Force Agrees to Help Endangered Hawaiian Seabirds

Hawaiian petrel

Following our notice of intent to sue, the U.S. Air Force has consented to help endangered seabirds -- including by reducing light pollution from a Kauai facility that's been killing birds like Hawaiian petrels and Newell's shearwaters by disorienting them so that they circle, become exhausted and drop from the sky.

"There's still more to be done -- other light sources on Kauai are killing seabirds, and powerlines need to be addressed," said the Center's Loyal Mehrhoff. "But I'm very glad to see the Air Force make a solid promise to help prevent bird deaths." Read more.

Delivery of grizzly postcards

55,000 Postcards to Trump: Protect Yellowstone Grizzlies

The Center this week delivered more than 55,000 postcards from across the country urging the Trump administration not to remove Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone's grizzly bears.

The Center had originally planned to deliver the postcards to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, but Zinke's Interior Department refused to accept them or even communicate with the Center's organizers. So instead we sent the cards to the headquarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Americans across the country love Yellowstone's grizzlies, and the last thing they want is for these bears to lose federal protection and face cruel and senseless trophy hunts," said the Center's Andrea Santarsiere.

The postcard project was a partnership between the Center and Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.

Learn more in our press release.

Cactus ferruginous pygmy owl

Court Overturns Denial of Protection for Fierce Little Owl

In response to a lawsuit brought by the Center and allies, a federal judge in Arizona has overturned a 2011 decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service that denied Endangered Species Act protection to the tiny but ferocious cactus ferruginous pygmy owl.

The court also overturned a policy making it far more difficult for species imperiled in important portions of their ranges to gain federal protection. The pygmy owl faces serious threats to its survival in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and northern Mexico, but the Service had denied protection anyway, arguing the bird was secure elsewhere.

The latest landmark decision is a lifesaver for this little desert owl and many other species.

Read more in the Arizona Daily Star.

Earth2Trump Roadshow: On the Road Again

Earth2Trump roadshow

The Center's Earth2Trump Roadshow of Resistance, which first made waves nationwide in January, hit the road again this week with shows in Portland, Maine; Northampton and Boston, Mass.; and Providence, R.I. Each free show offers music and calls to action by speakers like Lakota elder Cheryl Angel.

Tell your social networks about Earth2Trump, and if you'll be at a stop on this tour, join us to celebrate our strength in resisting Trump's dangerous agenda. Stay tuned -- four more shows are coming to New York later this month. Learn more.

Another Alaska Spill Threatens Belugas on the Brink

Beluga whale

We recently told you about an offshore pipeline leaking natural gas into Alaska's Cook Inlet, the home of one of Cook Inlet belugas, one of the world's rarest whale species. The gas spill has been ongoing since December, discharging more than 24 million cubic feet of methane greenhouse gas pollution.

Now Hilcorp has admitted there's another leak in Cook Inlet, this time from its offshore oil pipeline in federally protected habitat for Cook Inlet belugas, of which just 340 individuals survive. The Center has been defending these whales since 1999, and we're not stopping now. Read more.

Prairie dogs

Court Restores Utah Prairie Dog Protections

A win not just for prairie dogs but for endangered species across the country: The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the federal government does have authority to protect Utah prairie dogs and other endangered species occurring in a single state.

In a stinging rebuke to extreme private-property-rights advocates, a Republican judge concluded that eliminating protections for "purely intrastate species" would "leave a gaping hole" and "undercut the conservation purposes" of the Endangered Species Act. The Center and allies submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case supporting protections for prairie dogs.

"We're tremendously relieved," said Noah Greenwald, our endangered species director. "If the decision had gone the other way, iconic species like the Florida panther and southern sea otter could have lost protection."

Read more in The Christian Science Monitor.

Dugong

Wild & Weird: Do You Know the Dugong?

Dugongs are like adorable elephant-manatee-cow hybrids with permanent smiles. They eat seagrass all day, roll with a multispecies entourage of fish, and were once thought of as mermaids by sailors. Sadly their populations are declining.

Check out our new dugong video on Facebook and YouTube, and then please take a moment to demand a halt on construction of an ill-conceived, illegal U.S. Marine Corps base in Henoko Bay, Okinawa -- one of the last refuges for the endangered Okinawa dugong.

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Photo credits: Black bear by Alan D. Wilson/Nature's Pics Online; wolf by oberon7up/Flickr; Hawaiian petrel by Brenda Zaun/USFWS; grizzly bear postcard delivery by Rachel Couch; cactus ferruginous pygmy owl by Sky Jacobs; Earth2Trump roadshow by Taylor McKinnon/Center for Biological Diversity; beluga whale by katysilbs/Flickr; prairie dogs by benkreeger/Flickr; dugong video still (c) Howard Hall Productions.

Center for Biological Diversity
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Tucson, AZ 85702