Today, American Rivers announced that the lower Snake River is the most endangered river in the United States. For decades, four large hydropower dams on the river have been disrupting water flow, killing salmon, impacting other endangered wildlife, violating tribal treaties and degrading local economies. The years of destruction are adding up and the river is reaching a tipping point: We must act now if we want to save the Snake River and all who depend on a healthy, free-flowing river.
Fortunately, people throughout the Pacific Northwest have been exploring a new path forward. A proposal by Congressman Simpson in…
The 2020 end-of-year count of wild Mexican wolves has been completed and the results show that the population grew by 14% over last year to a total of 186 wolves — higher than it’s been since reintroduction. While we remain concerned about high rates of illegal mortality and agency-ordered lethal removals, the continued growth of the wild population is a success, which is largely due to the hard work of amazing field technicians working on Mexican gray wolf recovery efforts. These dedicated volunteers are instrumental in every step of the process, from field camera monitoring to helicopter counts to one…
Take a moment to imagine a masked predator stalking the prairie grasslands of the United States, hunting prey in the quiet blanket of the night. It’s likely you’re not picturing a small weasel, only 18 to 24 inches long and weighing barely a couple of pounds. This small carnivorous bandit is the black-footed ferret, native to the Great Plains with a remarkable story of perseverance to its name.
Declared extinct in 1979, black-footed ferrets today number about 400 individuals in the wild. In 1981, a dog named Shep made a surprise rediscovery on a ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, that led…
I grew up in Mexico City, the oldest of five children. Since I can remember I was fascinated with insects, and bees were my favorite. My mother could not believe why her oldest daughter was not much of a “normal” girl. Through the years she came to accept that I wanted to be a scientist, and I never gave up on that dream. My proudest moment was when I graduated with the first Ph.D. in my entire family (I have a very big family). I still remember the day I graduated. …
More Mexican gray wolves live in the wild now than at any time since their reintroduction! Just before the beginning of Lobo Week (commemorating the 1998 return of Mexican gray wolves to the wilds of New Mexico and Arizona) the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced there were 186 wolves in the 2020 population count, 14% more than the year before. The growth reflects the persistent hard work of federal, state and tribal biologists, people that live and work in wolf country and NGOs, like Defenders, committed to coexistence.
But more work is needed to achieve ecologically meaningful recovery…
Few states in America are more at-risk to the effects of climate change than Florida. Many of our state’s seaside communities are facing flooded streets even on sunny days because of rising tides pushing salt water up through stormwater drains. While inland Tallahassee doesn’t have this issue, the natural spring systems pocketing the karst coastal plain extending south 20 miles to the Gulf of Mexico are seeing their freshwater flows reduced or even reversed by rising seas — just like the stormwater drains in our seaside communities.
Over the past decade, our state and federal elected representatives refused to enact…
Birders use a lot of phrases and acronyms with their particular (some might say “peculiar”) hobby. For example, if you see a species for the first time and it actually stays in one place long enough for you to not only fully take in its beauty but, more importantly, to identify all its diagnostic field marks, you call that an “SSL” or soul-satisfying look. The “soul-satisfying” part of birding is what draws people to this field of endeavor and keeps them coming back as devotees for their lifetime. …
I first fell in love with the ocean as a six-year-old girl exploring the tidepools of Crescent City, in Northern California. I helped my father find pieces of a 6 million- to 6.4 million- year old lignitic (partially coalified fossil) forest for his master’s thesis at Humboldt State University. He was a disabled Army veteran, single dad and geology student, so I often accompanied class lectures and field trips. I carefully went tidepooling to look for pieces of this forest in the intertidal zone that was uncovered during the 1997–1998 El Niño event. …
The 2020 end-of-year count of wild Mexican wolves has been completed and the results show that the population grew by 14% over last year to a total of 186 wolves — higher than it’s been since reintroduction. This success is, in large part, due to the hard work of amazing technicians working on Mexican gray wolf recovery efforts. These dedicated volunteers are instrumental in every step of the process, from field camera monitoring to helicopter counts to one of the most successful pup cross-fostering events to date! To make this happen, Defenders coordinates with the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team…
The Conservation Stewardship Program
As our nation’s largest working lands conservation program, the Farm Bill’s Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), can and should be a boon for wildlife. But cuts in program funding under the previous administration left limited resources that farmers can use to enhance their conservation efforts on the lands they steward. During these uncertain times, our nation’s farmers and ranchers are facing upheaval from a pandemic, a failed trade war, climate change, systemic racism and environmental injustice, and pressure to sell their land to developers. But this program helps keep working lands working and farmer livelihoods thriving while providing crucial wildlife habitat.
Defenders of Wildlife
Defenders works on the ground, in the courts and on Capitol Hill to protect and restore imperiled wildlife across North America.
