Center for Biological Diversity

Today is Secondhand Sunday! Support resellers, highlight the benefits of thrifting, and make secondhand your first choice this holiday season. Vintage, thrifted, and secondhand items can make the perfect gift. With the growing interest in secondhand shopping, the holiday season is a great time to find pre-loved treasures for your friends and family. Visit this link for more secondhand gift-giving tips and tricks ➡️ https://bit.ly/4rkAWol [Image description: A stack of books next to a steaming mug. Red and black text at the top reads: "Secondhand Sunday: Make secondhand your first choice this holiday season."

🚨🐺 ALERT: Wolf Recovery Abandoned The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just announced it will not create a nationwide recovery plan for gray wolves — a shocking reversal and a direct blow to wolf conservation. Wolves in the West Coast, southern Rockies, and Northeast are still struggling to return, and the law requires a recovery plan to ensure their survival. We’ve been here before. When Trump delisted wolves in his first term, 200 were killed in just 72 hours. Now his administration is repeating history — with plans to hand wolf management back to states that are dead set on exterminating them. The Center has fought every single rollback for 20 years. And we won’t stop now. “I’ve been fighting for wolves since law school, and every time we win more wolves are safe from being shot and trapped thanks to the strong federal protections they receive. This cycle of on-and-off again protections must end. Wolves deserve to be safe, and that’s why we’ll never stop fighting for them,” Collette Adkins, Carnivore Conservation Director. Please stay tuned for updates, and in the meantime, learn more about wolves' long road to recovery and our work to save them ➡️ https://bit.ly/4eNLwgP Video credit: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/NPS [Video description: Video shows a series of video clips and pictures of gray wolves with captions. No spoken audio, music plays.]

When it comes to wildlife trade, pangolins hold a dubious distinction: They’re the most trafficked mammal in the world, often sold for their meat or for medicinal purposes. But for these exceedingly cute animals — the only mammals with scales — the tide may finally be turning. In the newest episode of our Sounds Wild podcast, host Mike Stark talks with Sarah Uhlemann, director of the Center’s International program, about what makes pangolins so unique and how their fate became so entangled with wildlife trade around the world, including in the United States. Listen to the latest episode on our website (or find it on Apple or Spotify) ➡️ https://bit.ly/3WlzQdy New episodes will be shared each week, so please stay tuned. [Video description: Includes spoken audio with captions. Three short clips showing pangolins: Night time trail cam footage of a pangolin wandering away from the camera through the trees. A pangolin curled into a tight ball. The final clip as the video fades to black is of a closeup of a pangolin looking around.]

Atrazine is banned in 60 countries, but it's the second-most used herbicide in the United States — even though it's one of the nation's most common water contaminants and a known hormone disruptor linked to birth defects, multiple cancers, and fertility problems. It's highly toxic to wildlife, poisoning habitat for aquatic plants and animals — as well as drinking water all life needs to survive. Even at extremely low levels, atrazine can chemically castrate male frogs, leading to reproductive damage that can cause major population declines in amphibians. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed atrazine potentially harmful to more than 1,000 federally protected species, including California red-legged frogs, whooping cranes, and San Joaquin kit foxes. But now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that this poison's widespread use doesn't pose an extinction risk to a single species. Despite initial tough rhetoric on atrazine's dangers as part of its Make America Healthy Again messaging, the Trump administration has done an about-face and doubled down on perpetuating industry talking points that this chemical is safe. The truth is that atrazine does drive extinction, and the United States needs meaningful restrictions to safeguard iconic imperiled species — and people too. Tell the Service: It's past time to protect imperiled species and public health from atrazine ➡️ https://bit.ly/4a7YYwA [Video description: No audio or music, wildlife sounds in the background. Two adult whooping cranes hunt for crab at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, surrounded by shimmering water.]

For Native American Heritage month, we’re highlighting some of our Indigenous partners who fiercely defend their rights and protect wild lands and imperiled wildlife. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians has played a central role in fighting against "Alligator Alcatraz" by joining a lawsuit to halt construction and operation of the detention facility. The tribe's legal challenge, filed alongside environmental groups, cites concerns over the facility's location in the Everglades, potential environmental damage, and violation of federal laws requiring environmental reviews. A judge has already granted a temporary injunction to stop construction based on these arguments. Indigenous tribes, primarily the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the grassroots group Apache Stronghold, have played a central role in attempting to halt the attack on Oak Flat through extensive legal battles, political advocacy, and public protests. Their efforts are ongoing, and they have so far succeeded in securing temporary legal injunctions that have delayed the transfer of the land. In New Mexico, Indigenous tribes are playing a critical role in halting oil and gas pollution by establishing their own environmental programs, using citizen science to monitor pollution, and lobbying for stronger regulations. They are also using legal and political strategies, such as advocating for rights-of-nature laws and challenging project approvals that lack tribal consent. Their efforts focus on protecting tribal lands, water resources, and health from the impacts of fossil fuel development. [Video description: no spoken audio. Video shows clips of drone footage taken above Oak Flat, a sacred cultural area in Arizona's Tonto National Forest. Footage shows red pillars of rock and sweeping canyons.]

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found today that atrazine, the second most widely used pesticide in the United States, is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The cancer designation was determined by a working group of 22 expert cancer researchers from 12 different countries. The researchers identified evidence from human epidemiological studies, animal studies, and laboratory assessments of whether atrazine exhibits key characteristics of a carcinogen, like DNA damage and oxidative stress. “It is outrageously irresponsible that we still allow use of this dangerous poison in the United States,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This finding is just the latest indictment of the industry-controlled U.S. pesticide oversight process that is failing to protect people and wildlife from chemicals linked to numerous health harms.” Read on ➡️ https://bit.ly/44db6Zq [Image description: A warning sign posted at the edge of a field filled with tall green plants. It says "Danger: Pesticides" in English and Spanish as well as "Keep out, no enter".]

Help us stop Trump's extinction plan! The Endangered Species Act is the world's most successful conservation law, and it's under attack again. The Trump administration just proposed four new rules that would gut the Act and drive imperiled plants and animals closer to extinction. The new rules aren't just reckless — they're a death sentence for wolverines, monarch butterflies, Florida manatees, and hundreds of other vulnerable species. These proposed changes to the Act will give industry a pass to bulldoze, drill, and destroy precious critical habitat. They'll also delay protection decisions, forcing species that aren't yet protected — like California spotted owls — to wait longer for lifesaving federal safeguards. And they'll likely ensure that some species never get safeguards at all. We have fewer than 30 days to voice our opposition loud and clear. Will you help? Tell the Trump administration to withdraw its extinction-fueling proposals immediately ➡️ https://bit.ly/3LM4NG5 [Video description: No spoken audio. Close up footage of a large number of monarch butterflies huddled together.]

The Center for Biological Diversity is facing the most serious threats we've ever seen from Washington, DC. First there were credible accounts of an executive order coming after us. Then there was a report from a far-right think tank that put the Center on a list of organizations it sees as enemies. At a White House roundtable, Trump encouraged his agencies to investigate the list of organizations mentioned in the report. The administration is demonizing us for a simple reason: We get in its way when it tries to destroy public lands and wildlife. We've sued Trump every five days since January, and we have no plans to stop. History tells us we need to be ready for a worst-case scenario, and while it's undeniably scary to be near the top tier of Trump's enemies list, we're prepared to withstand the assault. We'll stand up for ourselves and for the many others who are unable to fight back — especially imperiled wildlife — against threats from the powerful. But we need all our allies with us. Please give now so that we can defend ourselves against these attacks ➡️ https://bit.ly/4r32kqG Thanks to generous champions of the wild, your gift today will be matched. [Video description: No spoken audio. A pack of wolves, seen from the bottom of a hill, make their way through a snow-filled forest.]

Cows don’t belong in rivers and streams — especially in the U.S. Southwest’s riparian areas, that are home to endangered species like the Southwestern willow flycatchers and the northern Mexican garter snakes. In the newest episode of our Sounds Wild podcast, host Vanessa Barchfield goes into the field with Chris Bugbee, one of the Center’s conservation advocates, to explore what happens when cows wander into places where they shouldn’t be, as well as how hooves can change an ecosystem. Listen to the latest episode on our website (or find it on Apple or Spotify) ➡️ https://bit.ly/3WlzQdy New episodes will be shared each week, so please stay tuned. [Video description: Spoken audio with captions plays. Video shows four short clips: drone footage of cattle in a riverbed, a riverbed filled with cow hoofprints, a small group of cows running through a riparian area, and a single cow running along a riverbank.]

Breaking News 🚨 The Trump administration proposed a set of regulatory rollbacks today that would dismantle the Endangered Species Act and drive hundreds of imperiled animals and plants closer to extinction. Taken together, these proposals would significantly weaken protections for climate-impacted species and species newly listed as threatened. They would also make it easier for industry to bulldoze, drill, and destroy critical habitat, while making it harder for animals and plants in need of protection to get the safeguards they deserve. “Trump’s proposals are a death sentence for wolverines, monarch butterflies, Florida manatees and so many other animals and plants that desperately need our help,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We assumed Trump would attack wildlife again but this dumpster fire of a plan is beyond cruel. Americans overwhelmingly support the Endangered Species Act and want to see it strengthened, not sledgehammered. We’ve fought this before and we’ll fight it again.” Get the full story in our official press release ➡️ https://bit.ly/4reyVds [Image description: A red fox stands in the snow, looking at the camera. White text in a black box reads: "We assumed Trump would attack wildlife again but this dumpster fire of a plan is beyond cruel. Americans overwhelmingly support the Endangered Species Act and want to see it strengthened, not sledgehammered. We’ve fought this before and we’ll fight it again.”]