In May of 2023, a female mountain lion squeezed through a picture-frame-size opening in a steel fence along the US-Mexico border. While hundreds of people tried to cross into the US, she headed south, looking for prey or water or a potential mate. The 8.5-by-10-inch hole is one of a handful of wildlife passages cut […]
Tag: Trump Administration
Endangered Species Day Comes as Wildlife Face a New Crisis
May 16 is Endangered Species Day, founded to honor the incredible biodiversity that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has helped conserve for more than half a century. Thanks to the ESA, sea otters still splash along the Pacific coastline, grizzly bears roam the Northern Rockies, and California condors once again soar over the Southwest. Since […]
Trump officials are trying to yank this animal’s last shot at survival
The bird above is not your typical charismatic species. It’s no bald eagle, no peregrine falcon. It’s a groundbird known as the lesser prairie-chicken that lives in the southern Great Plains. It’s not even the greater prairie-chicken, another, related avian species, that’s a bit larger. Today, however, this bird is very much worth paying attention […]
Trump reportedly eyes $26m in funding cuts for US national parks
The Trump administration is reportedly eyeing dozens of grants across the National Park Service for termination, according to reporting from the New York Times, one of several moves destabilizing the US’s investment in public lands. According to the newspaper, staff members at Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” have created a spreadsheet of federal […]
Indigenous nations fought for a new national monument. Will it survive Trump?
In northeastern California, the Upper Pit River undulates through evergreen forests, wet meadows and rugged mountains. It’s part of the snow-fed headwaters of the Sacramento River, the largest river in the state. The Sacramento flows some 611 kilometers (380 miles) to the San Francisco Bay, supporting diverse and unique ecosystems and carrying water to cities […]
‘No One Voted to Slaughter Hummingbirds’: Trump’s DOI Guts Bird Protections, Again
The Trump administration moved on Friday to weaken protections for migratory birds threatened by industrial activities, including oil and gas operations. Acting Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Gregory Zerzan restored an opinion from the first Trump administration that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) “does not apply to the accidental or […]
Trump administration seeks to narrow Endangered Species Act by redefining ‘harm’
The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed a rule to redefine what it means to “harm” a protected species under the Endangered Species Act, a move conservationists say will strip vulnerable plants and animals of habitat they need to survive. The proposal advanced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service would […]
Bird flu finds its way into Western wildlife
Last fall, a Clallam County, Washington, resident spotted a young male cougar walking slowly through a field on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. It was the middle of the day — a clear sign that something was off — and he was also skinny and weak, dragging his matted tail in the mud. […]