endangered-species

March 23, 2021

Conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest filed a legal challenge to reinstate federal protections on more than 3.4 million acres of federal old-growth forests, which are essential for the survival of the threatened northern spotted owl. The lawsuit asks the court to reject a rule issued in the last days of the Trump administration that eliminated one-third of the critical habitat protections for the species. The nonprofit law firms Earthjustice and Western Environmental Law Center represent Audubon Society of Portland, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Northwest, Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Wild, Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society in the lawsuit.

February 7, 2021

Rep. Simpson today put forward a significant and important initiative to address the critical issue of bringing back abundant salmon and steelhead in a restored Snake River. The initiative would make major infrastructure and economic investments to assure communities and the energy system remain strong.

January 20, 2021

Washington, DC— Today, the Biden Administration announced it will review Trump’s multi-faceted rollbacks to endangered and threatened species protections-- including Trump’s gutting of the regulations implementing the Endangered Species Act, stripping of protections for millions of acres of habitat for the n

January 19, 2021

NEW YORK— National environmental groups filed a lawsuit today in the Southern District of New York challenging the Trump administration’s reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which eliminated longstanding, vital protections for more than 1,000 species of waterfowl, raptors and songbirds.

January 14, 2021

Today, with six days remaining in the Trump administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule eliminating 3.4 million acres of critical habitat for the northern spotted owl in Washington state, Oregon, and California. This decision comes one month after the Service announced that the species should be uplisted from threatened to endangered, but the agency is too busy to provide these desperately needed protections.

January 14, 2021

HONOLULU, HAWAI’I-- Today Earthjustice filed two lawsuits in the District of Hawai’i in response to the outgoing administration’s most recent attacks on the Endangered Species Act, the law that serves as the last safety net for animals and plants facing extinction. Toward the end of last month, the Trump administration issued two new regulations that strip vital protections from federal lands and other areas that the best available science indicates are necessary for the conservation of threatened and endangered species.  

January 14, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today six environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s rule that removed Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states except for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico. The U.S.

January 11, 2021

The Trump administration has proposed yet another rollback to the Endangered Species Act during the last days of the administration. The rollback comes on the heels of actions in recent weeks stripping protections from gray wolves and migratory birds, and gutting critical habitat protections for endangered and threatened species.

January 5, 2021

In the midst of the first human-driven mass extinction with over 1 million species at risk of disappearing forever, the Trump administration has finalized a rule stripping critical protections of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This reckless move is the latest in a slew of efforts by the Trump administration to gut vital safeguards for wildlife.

December 17, 2020

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) finalized a rule change that alters the process for designating critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. This will weaken the ability to designate critical habitat for at-risk species and prioritize economics over science. The rule gives increased weight in decision making to developers to prioritize oil and gas development and other industries over safeguarding and restoring habitat for endangered species.

December 15, 2020

The Trump administration tomorrow is expected to finalize a rule to circumvent establishing habitat protections for endangered and threatened species. The rule follows a string of other efforts and rollbacks to weaken the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration.

October 29, 2020

In the latest attack on endangered species, the Trump administration today finalized a rule stripping protections from gray wolves across most of the lower 48 states. The politically-driven move will turn wolf management over to historically hostile state agencies