Republicans in the western United States have been trying to whittle away the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since Donald Trump took office. Under new proposals, wildlife managers would limit protections for species designated as “threatened” (a level below endangered), consider the economic costs prior to defending a species, and de-emphasize long-term threats such as climate […]
Tag: trump
POLL: Should Trump’s border wall be scrapped to protect wildlife populations?
The infamous proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico has been, to put it lightly, controversial. The apple of the Trump administration’s eye, a total barrier between the two countries remains entrenched in the wish list of the U.S. president. But while Donald Trump maintains that it would effectively reduce illegal immigration, critics say […]
POLL: Should Trump’s Administration be allowed to weaken the US Endangered Species Act?
The Trump Administration has unveiled a plan to revise regulations that implement portions of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), which conservationists say would cripple the law adopted in 1973 to protect imperiled species and critical habitat. A proposal announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s […]
POLL: Should Trump’s officials allow ‘shaker machines’ to search the arctic refuge for oil?
The Trump administration has announced it is considering a proposal to conduct seismic testing for oil and gas in the Arctic national wildlife refuge, the largest such preserve in the US. If the plan moves forward, vehicles with “shakers” – diesel-powered equipment that sends tremors through the landscape – will be deployed along Alaska’s northern […]
POLL: Do you agree with Trump that trophy hunting is good for wildlife?
Donald Trump has called big-game trophy hunting a “horror show”, despite his own sons’ participation in elephant and leopard hunts, and in 2017 he formed an advisory board to steer US policy on the issue. But rather than conservation scientists and wildlife advocates, it is composed of advocates for the hunting of elephants, giraffes and […]
POLL: Should trophy hunting of lions be made illegal?
On June 7th, a trophy hunter shot a male lion in Umbabat Private Nature Reserve in South Africa, a part of the Greater Kruger National Park. Nothing surprising about this: around 500 lions, usually males, are killed every year by trophy hunters on the African continent. What’s made this different is the suspicion that the […]
POLL: Should all protections be stripped from gray wolves?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced that it has begun reviewing the status of the gray wolf in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act, and the agency intends to publish a proposal revising the wolf’s status “by the end of the calendar year.” Translation: Gray wolves will probably lose […]
POLL: Should Trump’s Administration Remove Protection for Red Wolves?
While another assault has just been launched on protection for gray wolves, federal wildlife officials have also just announced a plan that conservationists fear will doom critically endangered red wolves to extinction. Red wolves once roamed vast portions of the southeast, but they were essentially wiped out by the 1960s due to habitat loss and […]