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• Projects could get a pass to harm sea turtles and their nests. The changes would make it harder for wildlife agencies to stop projects from destroying sea turtle habitat. For example, beach construction or bright lights at night disturb nesting turtles, but these might not be stopped under the ESA amendments.
• “Conservation” might be replaced with “regulated taking.” This change would mean more fishing lines and nets in the water, increasing the chances of turtles getting caught or injured.
• Faster permitting, fewer protections. Developers would get speedy approval to build or change coastal areas, skipping science-based reviews of how projects impact sea turtles. This makes it harder to protect the nesting grounds that are critical for recovering sea turtle populations.

If legal protections are changed by the U.S. Congress, recovering sea turtles who have benefited from human interventions under the ESA may be at great risk of extinction due to failure to implement conservation practices that will support sea turtle survival.

What You Can Do to Help

• Contact your representatives in Congress. Let them know that you care about protecting sea turtles and keeping the ESA strong. Send an email today!
  
• Send sea turtle postcards to policymakers. You can help educate your friends, family or community and take action at the same time by hosting a postcard writing party. Find postcards and toolkits here.
• Join conservation efforts. You can volunteer to clean up trash in waterways near you to help stop plastic from making it to the ocean. You can also support sea turtle research and conservation organizations such as the Sea Turtle Conservancy (conserveturtles.org).
  
  Sea turtles have come a long way, but they still need our help. We must make sure that the laws protecting them stay strong.

 

The post Sea Turtles Won’t Survive the ESA Amendments Act appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

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Later this year and in early 2025, we will be sending out updates about how educators and students can join the Collaborating for Biodiversity project, including opportunities for youth artists grades K-12 to collaboratively create works of art in a range of media. The platform for artwork submissions will open in January and close in April 2025. Collaborating for Biodiversity will center species listed, proposed for listing, or recovered from the Endangered Species Act. We will emphasize the creation of artworks increasing awareness of the importance of biodiversity.

What is Biodiversity? The word biodiversity combines:

Bio: ‘way of life’ or ‘life giving’

with

Diversity: Variation in plant and animal life, especially as represented by the number of species *

          *definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary

Biodiversity provides a broad array of benefits from supporting human physical and mental health and protecting food security, to mitigating climate change and ensuring that a range of habitats for recreation and appreciation of the natural world are protected and respected. You are invited to share the word about this upcoming youth art opportunity. We’re excited for educators students to participate in Collaborating for Biodiversity during the 2024-2025 school year!

ESC is also currently running a related biodiversity-themed Bonfire campaign: The Future is Biodiverse. To learn more about the threatened and endangered wildlife and plants shown in this design, and to support the project, please visit The Future is Biodiverse campaign at https://www.bonfire.com/the-future-is-biodiverse/

The post Creative Engagement – Announcing Collaborating for Biodiversity appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

Since the origin of Pollinator Protectors in 2016 with milkweed plantings in just four states, the campaign has grown to include plantings in 26 US states and several projects in Mexico. In 2024, we’re spotlighting our work in Arizona, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio, in a new infographic.

Let’s dive into more detail in Arizona, where we’ve emphasized imperiled Monarch butterfly and pollinating bat species.  To support migratory pollinators, ESC is focussing on a community just 11 miles from the US-Mexico border: Arivaca, Arizona. To date, we’ve funded 12 native plantings for pollinators in Arivaca, creating a native plant corridor in partnership with the Arivaca Pollinator Pathway Project. In cooperation with our member organizations including Bat Conservation International, Lobos of the SW, and others, ESC funded the creation of two murals in Arivaca, by Tohono O’odham artist Paul ‘Nox’ Pablo. These murals are in a high visibility location beside an agave planting for nectivorous bats and other daytime and nighttime pollinating species. The mural is at the community dance hall, where conservation programming and presentations take place, including a 2024 talk by ESC’s Creative Engagement Director, Jeanne Dodds, about native Arizona pollinators and plant conservation.

In the last few months of 2024, we’re completing projects in Washington, DC, Idaho, and Washington State. These include neighborhood plantings for pollinator corridors with our partner DC Natives, a high-visibility rest area planting with educational signage, near the Snake River on the Idaho border, and native pollinator plantings at a youth garden and an urban Seattle farm.

To support these impactful community-led projects creating habitat for native pollinators and plants, please visit our Pollinator Protectors donation page. Your support makes our projects possible- thank you!

The post Pollinator Protectors Case Studies appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

In each newsletter, we highlight one of our over 400 member organizations and their incredible work to save species and habitats

One of ESC’s newest member groups, Species Unite, is leading the way in lessening animal suffering and promoting coexistence. They do this by helping people transition away from animal products, telling the stories of those fighting injustice against nonhuman animals worldwide, and campaigning for a better world for all.

Species Unite produces a weekly podcast highlighting individuals doing heroic work to save animals. Some recent episodes include Artificial Intelligence and the Future for Animals, Collective Fashion Justice, Saving Wild Tigers, and For the Love of Lemurs.

They have also created a wolf curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students, designed to teach children the importance of protecting wolves and their role in maintaining balanced ecosystems. Their Wolf Education Program is an important way to build a new generation of animal activists. Species Unite’s goal is to expand this initiative to every state in the US, reaching hundreds of schools and over 100,000 students. If you know a teacher, please share their wolf curriculum!

The post Endangered Species Coalition Member Group Highlight: Species Unite appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

The Endangered Species Coalition is also preparing. We anticipate an announcement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the next few months that could change the trajectory of grizzly bear recovery in the western U.S., and we are raising the alarm. By a court-approved deadline of January 31, 2025, the USFWS will be issuing its final status review of grizzly bear protections in the Yellowstone (GYE) and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems (NCDE). At the same time, we expect that USFWS will also announce a revision to the way grizzly bears are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act, possibly proposing to remove federal protections for one or both of those populations of bears.

No doubt, grizzly bear populations in both recovery zones have rebounded tremendously since the grizzly was listed in 1975, and indeed, grizzly are showing up in historic habitat where they have not been seen in a century. (The GYE and NCDE are each about 1,000 bears currently.) Thanks to decades of dedicated conservation efforts by federal, state and tribal wildlife managers, wildlife conservation groups, sportsmen and landowners, the Yellowstone and NCDE population of grizzly bears has met and exceeded the population and distribution criteria in the Recovery Plan.

But it’s too soon to declare victory. Grizzly bear populations remain disconnected from each other, even as biologists say that natural connectivity is critical to recovery. The Montana legislature has recently passed laws expanding wolf trapping in grizzly bear habitat, granting permits to livestock producers to kill grizzly bears that they deem a “threat” to livestock—even on public land. And we know that outfitters are chomping at the bit to sell grizzly bear trophy hunts. In short, based on how hostile state governments in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have become towards grizzlies, wolves and other native carnivores, we think a delisting at this time could halt grizzly bear recovery in its tracks, and even reverse a lot of the progress we’ve made to date.  

So, ESC will continue to fight for stronger, not weaker, protections for grizzly bears. We would appreciate your voice at this critical time—please write a letter to the editor of your favorite news outlet urging the USFWS to keep grizzly bears protected in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. We’ve put together a simple toolkit, complete with some suggested talking points, to make it easy for you to write and submit a letter. Your voice is appreciated!

Meanwhile, it’s time for me to say a heartfelt goodbye to the Coalition. After nearly two decades working with ESC in varying capacities, I will be moving on to work in the decarbonization space—working with another nonprofit organization to develop and advance clean, equitable, and affordable energy policies in Montana and Idaho. I am grateful for the opportunity to fight for wildlife with the Coalition all these years, as well as for all the support from our members, donors and activists. I know you all will carry on the fight. All the best.

Derek Goldman, Northern Rockies Representative and Field Director

The post The Northern Rockies—Grizzly Bears and a Farewell appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

This Fall, I joined other ESC staff and several member groups in Washington, D.C., for a rally supporting the Tribal Heritage and American Bison, Grizzly Bear, and Wolf Restoration and Coexistence Act. Joining with member groups, I met with North Carolina legislators to discuss critical legislation to protect and improve biodiversity. 

I’ve also been hard at work leading the Activist Training Lab.This program is unique to ESC and includes coaching, training, and mentoring to build the foundational skills for grassroots organizing.  Our newest cohort of trainees will be covering some of the following subjects:  

• Organizing 101
• Issues, Goals, and Power Mapping
• Campaign Planning
• Volunteer Retention and Recruitment
• Local and Regional Organizing*
• Congressional Advocacy and Organizing*
• Cultural Organizing*
• Telling Your Campaign Story and Closing

Given the challenges of the new administration and Congress, it’s clear that we’ll have to activate our member groups and bring more people into the movement to champion the Endangered Species Act and wildlife protections. Through strong organizing, I’m confident we can do just that. Please reach out if you or your organization want to learn more about the Activist Training Lab. We would love to work with you.

The post Organizing for Biodiversity – ESC’s Activist Training Lab and New National Grassroots Organizer appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

Email your U.S. Representative and ask that they reject attacks on endangered species in the Defense budget bill.

The amendments or “riders” that are most concerning are:

• Representative Andy Biggs is seeking to exempt the entire U.S. Military from complying with the Endangered Species Act. During the debate over last year’s defense budget bill last year, this measure failed 193-237 when offered as an amendment. If Congress allowed this to pass, it would threaten scores of imperiled species.
• Representative Matt Gaetz has proposed allowing the Air Force to use “live or inert impact weapons or aerial gunnery” in proximity to highly-endangered Rice’s whales that may cause injury or death–despite the Air Force not requesting this exemption.
• Representative Earl “Buddy” Carter is attempting to block funding for a rule that would require boat operators to obey speed limits in known right whale habitat. Boat strikes are a leading cause of death to this critically-endangered species and blocking speed limits would likely result in more killings of right whales.

Your Representative needs to know that you do not support these attacks on endangered species. These measures have no place in this must-pass legislation.

North Atlantic right whales and Rice’s whales are among the most endangered species on the planet. These attacks could push them even closer to extinction and prevent any progress in bringing them back. Please email your U.S. Representative today to tell them to oppose these amendments.

Thank you for your commitment to wildlife and wild places.

Sincerely,

Susan Holmes
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
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PS. Are the links not working? Please take action at this URL: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-no-attacks-on-endangered-species-in-defense-funding-bill/

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