Take action for pelicans, alligators, fish, and people

 

No. 1249, June 13, 2024

Help Us Save Florida Wildlife From Toxic Algae  Lakes, rivers, springs, and estuaries in Florida suffer from blue-green algae blooms that often produce harmful substances called cyanotoxins. These toxins can pollute water, contaminate seafood, and injure and sicken people — and may even harm wildlife like brown pelicans, American alligators, and endangered smalltooth sawfish.    Better water-quality standards would help Florida identify dangerous blooms and curtail future ones. But despite a petition five years ago from the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the state hasn't stepped up at all.    So we just petitioned again — this time on a federal level. We’re asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its Clean Water Act authority to set standards limiting dangerous algae toxins allowed in Florida.    Your support will make our petition more powerful.     Join us in urging the EPA to adopt water-quality standards that help give people and wildlife safe, clean water.

Suit Seeks to Protect Rare Martens at Oregon Dunes  The Center just sued the U.S. Forest Service for not protecting Humboldt martens from off-road vehicles in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area — even though the Endangered Species Act safeguards the martens and their habitat there.     Humboldt martens — aka coastal martens — are stealthy, bushy-tailed carnivores in the weasel family who live only in Northern California and Oregon. They can grow up to 2 feet long but weigh under 3 pounds, eating a quarter of their weight daily to support their enviable metabolism. Believed extinct until their rediscovery in the 1990s, these martens still have a tiny population: fewer than 400.     Through nearly 15 years of unflinching legal work, we won federal protection for these martens in 2020 and, this spring, about 1.2 million acres of critical habitat — including 28,843 acres in the Oregon Dunes.    Give to the Center's Saving Life on Earth Fund to be part of our work.

Texas Mountain Lions Catch a Break  Happy news from Texas: Mountain lion hunting and trapping have just been regulated for the first time. Before this Texas was the only state — out of the 15 that have breeding populations of mountain lions — without any rules protecting them.     But that changed last week with a unanimous vote by 11 commissioners that bans “canned” (or captive) hunts of mountain lions and limits the amount of time they can be held in traps to 36 hours.      If you're a Center supporter who took action on this issue with us, thank you.

Biodiversity Briefing: Saving the Arctic  In Alaska imperiled species like polar bears, Arctic seals, whales, and caribou are fighting for survival. At the Center, we’re working aggressively to save Arctic wildlife and stop private industries — including trawling, old-growth logging, mining, and fossil fuel development — from destroying Alaska’s great wilderness.    In our most recent quarterly Biodiversity Briefing presentation, Executive Director Kierán Suckling discussed the Center’s commitment to safeguarding the Arctic and its extraordinary wildlife.     These briefings, including live Q&A sessions, are open to all members of the Center’s Leadership Circle and Owls Club.

New Mural Celebrates Steelhead, Sustainability  Our newest Endangered Species Mural in Condon, Oregon, honors steelhead fish and the Gilliam Soil and Water Conservation District, which has done extensive work to restore steelhead habitat and improve streams and watersheds in the county.      The mural shows two steelhead, fish once prominent in the tributaries of the John Day River who are now threatened and fighting for survival. At 1,500 square feet, this is one of the largest murals in the Center’s Endangered Species Mural Project and was painted by Roger Peet.

Revelator: Should Tourists Swim With Sea Turtles?  Researchers in Barbados found that ecotourism encounters with endangered green sea turtles have created some very human problems for the animals.    Read more in The Revelator. And if you don’t already, subscribe to the free weekly Revelator e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.

That’s Wild: Elephants Call Each Other by Name  Elephants invent individual names for each other and respond to their own names, according to a new study that’s gone viral. Researchers used a machine-learning algorithm to detect calls and responses — they hypothesize that the existence of individual vocal labels in these calls could suggest a capacity for abstract thinking.

Follow Us Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth     Donate now to support the Center's work.   Photo credits: Brown pelican by Andrew Morffew/Wikimedia; off-road vehicle in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area by Matthew Tharpe/USFWS, American marten (close relative of Humboldt marten) courtesy USWFS; mountain lion by MTSOfan/Flickr; Arctic animals used with permission; steelhead mural by Roger Peet; green sea turtle by David Reid; African elephant by Arno Meintjes/Flickr.   View our privacy policy. Center for Biological Diversity P.O. Box 710 Tucson, AZ 85702 United States