Wildlife

March 6, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today affirmed the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves from the list of threatened and endangered species in the western Great Lakes and the northern Rocky Mountain states of Idaho and Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. Wolves will remain a protected species in Wyoming.

“The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” Salazar said. “When it was listed as endangered in 1974, the wolf had almost disappeared from the continental United States. Today, we have more than 5,500 wolves, including more than 1,600 in the Rockies.”    » read more »

Bush Administration Rule Leads to Wolves Removal from Endangered Species List

CHICAGO (March 6, 2009) – The Secretary of the Interior announced today that he will remove the gray wolf from the federal Endangered Species List in Montana and Idaho, as well as the western Great Lakes region. Wolves in the state of Wyoming will remain under Endangered Species Act protection due to federal concern over the inadequacy of the state’s management plan.

The State of Idaho recently proposed killing 200 wolves within their borders.

Following are comments from Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC’s Endangered Species Project:    » read more »

Jekyll Island, GA - 03/05/2009 - Holly Binns, Project Manager for the Pew Environment Group’s Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast, issued the following statement today about the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s 7 to 6 vote to halt red snapper fishing for six months, with an optional six-month extension, in the South Atlantic from North Carolina to Florida. The moratorium would go into effect as early as mid-June.    » read more »

March 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the U.S. Senate voted down an amendment aimed at keeping Bush-era endangered species regulations on the books.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would give the Obama administration 60 days to withdraw endangered species regulations pushed through by the Bush administration in its last days in office. On Tuesday, President Obama announced he would restore the protections that the Bush rules sought to remove.    » read more »

March 3, 2009 -- Washington, DC – President Obama today directed federal agencies to once again consult with independent scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine if their actions might harm threatened and endangered species. This action will limit the damage caused by the midnight Endangered Species Act regulations put in place by the Bush Administration in December 2008.

John Kostyack, Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming at the National Wildlife Federation, said:    » read more »

Statement by Francesca Grifo, Union Of Concerned Scientists

WASHINGTON (March 3, 2009) – Today President Obama announced that his administration is overturning a Bush administration rule that allowed federal agencies to initiate projects, such as roads or dams, without consulting with Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service scientists about the threats the projects might pose to endangered species.

Below is a statement by Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):    » read more »

Environmental experts deliver first-of-a-kind progress report to Capitol

TALLAHASSEE (March 2, 2009) – While Florida has made several improvements in its efforts to restore the health of its ocean and coasts, the state still has work to do, according to a report card released today by a group of nationally and internationally recognized environmental organizations. The report card evaluated the progress the state has made in reversing the decline of its ocean and coastal resources in 2007 and 2008.    » read more »

Feb. 26, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – The President’s 2010 Budget includes $12 billion for the Department of the Interior to undertake initiatives to promote energy security with a focus on clean renewable sources and strategies to address climate change, protect and preserve America’s national parks and public lands, strengthen Native American communities, enhance outdoor opportunities for young people, and conserve wetlands and wildlife habitat.

“President Obama has laid out a fiscally responsible blueprint for 2010,” Secretary Salazar said. “He has made tough choices, underscored his priorities and stressed the need for federal agencies to carry out their missions with transparency and accountability to the American taxpayer.”    » read more »

SB 391 Will Fix Depredation Law

Feb. 24, 2009 -- SANTA FE – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today joined with advocates in urging lawmakers to act quickly and pass a bill that bans the practice of killing wildlife that damage private crops.

Senate Bill 391, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, would limit landowners’ ability to kill antelope, elk and deer damaging crops while preserving their ability to take or kill predators that are threatening their property or livestock (“depredation”), and strengthening the requirements for the Department of Game & Fish to prevent or remedy damage caused by wildlife.    » read more »

02/23/2009 - A new collaboration of key Australian and international conservation groups today launched Save Our Marine Life to secure the future of Australia’s south west marine environment. This globally significant region is home to a far greater proportion of unique marine life than the Great Barrier Reef.

At the launch in Perth, a new report was also released. It found that up to 9 out of 10 marine species found off Australia’s south west coast are found nowhere else on Earth, but less than 1% of this region is protected.    » read more »

Feb. 15, 2009 -- GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK, CO – In a visit today to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in his native San Luis Valley in Colorado, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar described the opportunities for job creation afforded by President Obama’s economic recovery and reinvestment plan. He noted that investments in local “shovel-ready” projects would not only create jobs but also benefit conservation and restoration efforts in both the national park and nearby wildlife refuges.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 02/12/2009 - Culling whales will not increase fisheries catches in tropical waters, according to a new paper supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program and published today in the journal Science. For years, Japan has argued that reducing the number of baleen whales in the oceans would improve fisheries because whales eat fish that are caught for human consumption. The study published today found that even a complete eradication of whale populations in tropical waters would not lead to any significant increase in fish populations.    » read more »

Lisbon, Portugal - 02/11/2009 - The Pew Whales Commission, a high level body of eminent diplomats, judges, lawyers, scientists and former Ministers, today called for government ministers to resolve the whaling stalemate.

"The Pew Whales Commission agreed on the need for a higher level of political muscle to move the International Whaling Commission (IWC) out of its current impasse," said Dr. Peter Bridgewater, Commission Chair and former chair of the IWC. "All agreed that the IWC must be preserved as the organization to conserve whales, but it needs to be brought up to date. The 1946 treaty simply does not protect whales from the threats of the 21st century."    » read more »

Brussels, Belgium - 02/05/2009 - The Shark Alliance is celebrating today’s release of the European Commission’s Plan of Action for the Conservation of Sharks which sets the stage for sweeping improvements in European Union (EU) shark fishing and protection policies.

The Plan aims to improve information about shark fisheries, end shark overfishing, pay special attention to threatened shark species, and close loopholes in the EU ban on shark finning (the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea). The EU Shark Plan includes actions at national, EU and international levels.    » read more »

Three New Places Added to BioGems Llist; New Web Site Engages More Than 400,000 Activists

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2009) -- The Natural Resources Defense Council named 13 natural areas and six associated wild species as “BioGems” today. These extraordinary and at-risk places stretch from the Arctic in Alaska to Patagonia in Chile. New to the list of BioGems are the Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California and the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Alberta, Canada, which are imperiled by oil and gas development. For the first time, NRDC has designated a country as a BioGem -- Costa Rica -- which is seeking to become the world’s first carbon-neutral nation.    » read more »