Guardians’ settlement reins in government-sponsored
wildlife killing

The lives of millions of native animals may eventually be spared as a result of our landmark legal agreement this month with the rogue federal wildlife-killing program, Wildlife Services. Our settlement halts killing on over six million acres of public lands in Nevada and ends Wildlife Services’ reliance on decades-old science and biased information nationwide. Wildlife Services will update all analyses that rely on the old, bad science. And it will cease all killing activities in designated wilderness and wilderness study areas in Nevada, at least until the new analysis is complete. We are hopeful the settlement marks a sea change: that Wildlife Services will accept the clear science demonstrating that lethal control of native wildlife is ineffective, and often counterproductive, and instead adopt a coexistence mandate.

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One year later: we’re keeping fossil fuels in the ground

Guardians rallied in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 15, bringing to new heights our call for President Obama to stop leasing publicly owned fossil fuels. Raising the stakes higher than ever, we took our protest to the Department of the Interior, occupying their front entrance in a display of solidarity with our indigenous allies and communities around the world. Our Executive Director, John Horning, was among those arrested. The action comes after a year of success in keeping fossil fuels in the ground, including a moratorium on coal leasing. For our climate, it’s critical to elevate the stakes to bring greater pressure for fundamental change.

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New Mexico rivers
threatened by water grab

Guardians joined diverse interests in New Mexico this month in challenging a proposal to mine and transport billions of gallons of underground water from western New Mexico to the Albuquerque metropolitan area. This is the second attempt by the Augustin Plains Ranch to convince the State Engineer to approve this project that threatens to reduce flows in the Rio Grande, the Gila River, and Alamosa Creek and to harm already imperiled species like the Chiricahua leopard frog, Alamosa spring snail, and the Wright’s marsh thistle. We are weighing in to protect water and ecosystems that belong to all New Mexicans.

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Guardians sues feds for failing to protect critical bull trout habitat

We recently took legal action to protect Bull trout by challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s failure to protect the species’ habitat on the Payette National Forest in central Idaho from the harmful effects of roads. Bull trout, which currently occupy less than half of their historic range, require clean and cold waters and connected and complex habitat all of which are damaged by logging and other roads. Guardians’ lawsuit will make sure the agencies charged with conserving the species do so by eliminating roads and managing motorized trails to protect waters identified as essential to bull trout conservation and cold-water streams that are increasingly important in the face of climate change.

Standing in solidarity with native peoples in defending grizzlies

Tribes from across the United States and Canadian First Nations gathered in Grand Teton National Park on Oct. 2 to sign a historic cross-border grizzly bear treaty. Signing of “The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization and Restoration” comes as native peoples and conservationists work to stop the federal government’s rushed plan to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Guardians submitted additional comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the agency withdraw its premature and scientifically baseless proposal. We stand with the tribes and call on the government to ensure these bears remain protected.

Historic settlement: 160 species receive ESA protections

Guardians’ historic agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—which in 2011 required the agency to address the huge backlog of imperiled species awaiting Endangered Species Act protections —largely concluded on Sept. 30. The settlement requires the agency to make final listing decisions for hundreds of species. Because of the settlement, all 252 species that were candidates for protections in 2011 received final listing decisions. Fourteen are currently proposed for listing and 160 have received final listing rules, giving them the full protections of the ESA. We’ll post our report soon detailing the settlement’s successes, profiling some listed species, and noting the continued work ahead to protect imperiled species.

Guardians, Navajo allies
call out Utah congressman

Guardians and our Navajo allies stood up to defend communities from fracking, calling out Utah Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) for holding a political hearing that blatantly marginalized indigenous concerns. For years now, Navajo communities have suffered from unchecked fracking—facing air pollution, dangerous tank explosions, and signs of worsening health. On Oct. 4, Rep. Bishop and his pro-oil and gas cohorts held a field committee hearing in Santa Fe, N.M., yet they denied an opportunity for Navajo community members to speak out and share their stories. We’re standing up to politicians who think that only the oil and gas industry matters.

Bill introduced to stop federal trapping on our public lands

Guardians is supporting a bill recently introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) that would save thousands of animals from painful death by prohibiting federal employees from using inhumane “body-gripping” traps on our public lands. The bill would not only end unnecessary suffering, it would help prevent non-target animals—including threatened and endangered species such as Canada lynx and domestic dogs—from falling victim to this indiscriminate killing method. Guardians is calling on our elected leaders to co-sponsor and vote for this life-saving bill. Please lend your voice by signing the letter on our website.

Guardians calls for illegal coal leases to be canceled

WildEarth Guardians called on the Obama administration recently to cancel at least 18 illegally approved federal coal leases in Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. The move promises to keep 2.5 billion tons of coal in the ground and 4.7 billion metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. Our call comes as we’ve exposed the fact that the administration has frequently allowed officials without the legal authority to approve coal leases. By law, these approvals have no legal effect, giving us an opportunity to undo years of coal leasing and turn back coal mining at an unprecedented scale.

Repairing fences on the Gila
to manage cattle and
give wolves space

Wolves are now back in the Gila’s Deep Creek, thanks to Guardians’ work to close the Deep Creek allotment to cattle grazing in 2014. This month, Guardians and 15 volunteers spent a weekend repairing fences and removing old barbed wire on the allotment. The volunteer crew was rewarded when wolves from the Dark Canyon pack serenaded them as they camped. This summer was the first time wolves have been heard on Deep Creek since the closure in 2014. Guardians is working to retire more allotments—and take down even more fences—from the Greater Gila Bioregion of New Mexico and Arizona to give wolves even more room to roam.

Photos tell the story:
Two decades of restoration

In 1997, WildEarth Guardians initiated a grassroots effort to restore the Santa Fe River in northern New Mexico. To improve water quality and wildlife habitat, staff and volunteers planted tens of thousands of cottonwoods and willows along a barren stretch of the river immediately downstream from the wastewater treatment plant. Since that time, we have engaged in over 30 additional restoration projects across New Mexico and the Southwest. All told, Guardians staff and volunteers have planted more than one million trees to improve watershed health, water quality, and wildlife habitat.

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Western attorneys general reject Utah plan to seize public lands

The attorneys general of 13 Western states recently concluded that litigation under consideration by some western states, including Utah, to seize land that belongs to all of us would fail. The conclusions came in a report that even Utah’s attorney general did not contest. No state has been more aggressive in claiming ownership of federal public lands within its state boundaries than Utah. In 2012 the state legislature passed a law demanding that the federal government turn over 31 million acres of public lands by the end of 2014. We hope that the report diminishes the state of Utah’s interest in pursuing a lawsuit against the United States to privatize the common wealth that is our nation’s public lands.

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photo credits: (Left column) coyote—Sam Parks. Chiricahua leopard frog—Jim Rorabaugh. bull trout—Jim Mogen, USFWS. First Nations defend grizzlies—WildEarth Guardians. New Mexico meadow jumping mouse—J.N. Stewart, Creative Commons. Bishop hearing—Elizabeth Miller. Canada lynx—photos.com. coal pit—Peabody Energy. fence mending—WildEarth Guardians. Rio de las vacas—WildEarth Guardians. Comb Ridge near Bluff, UT—Archiemet, Creative Commons.  (Right column) Craig Jolly—Craig Jolly. Santa Fe rally—WildEarth Guardians. Flathead National Forest—USFS.

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Activist Spotlight

“I support the WildEarth Guardians because, within the landscape of a larger environmental movement grown soft with compromise, the Guardians still carry the original green fire proudly. Like the wolves themselves, the Guardians are lean, agile, efficient, and in matters of wild places and wild things unyielding. When I support the Guardians with my money and my time, I see exactly where both of these contributions go: to the front lines, where each dollar and hour truly matters.”

~ Craig Jolly, Santa Fe, N.M.

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Celebrate an incredible year of wins for the climate at Guardians’ 10th Annual Treehugger Bash on Thursday, Dec. 8, 6 p.m. at the Grove Café & Market in Albuquerque. Get your tickets today or at the door. $35.00 per person, includes hosted vegan dinner and drinks.

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So, How'd it go...

Last month we asked you to join us in telling the Flathead National Forest to craft a strong revised plan to guide where and how much of the forest will be safe for wildlife over the next couple of decades. More than 9,500 of you stepped up and signed our letter urging the U.S. Forest Service to rewild and remove unnecessary roads, prohibit disturbance from snowmobiles and off-road vehicles raging across this 2.4 million acres of quiet, wild landscape, and protect vital grizzly bear, bull trout, lynx, and wolverine habitat.

President Obama’s time in office is quickly coming to a close. WildEarth Guardians is joining groups across the country to urge our members and friends to petition the president one last time to end leasing on our public lands and waters to dirty energy companies. Please take a second and join the many thousands amplifying this message.

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