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Rare Arizona Wildflower Wins Protection
Following a petition and lawsuit by the Center and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just granted Endangered Species Act protection — along with nearly 13 acres of protected critical habitat — to a critically imperiled plant called the Arizona eryngo. In the carrot family, the eryngo can grow to more than 5 feet tall and has cream-colored spherical flowers.
Down to only four populations along the San Pedro River of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, the plant grows in unique wetlands fed by natural springs that come from a deep aquifer — which is being drained by too much groundwater pumping to fuel urban sprawl.
Said Robin Silver, a cofounder and board member at the Center: “The eryngo gives us one more reason to save the San Pedro — the last free-flowing river in the desert Southwest.”
Tell Congress: Fund Renewable Energy Infrastructure
In a major win for our energy future, last week President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to ramp up domestic manufacturing of solar panels, heat pumps and insulation with priority deployment in environmental justice communities. In line with the Center’s legal blueprint of how to use this law to advance a just and wildlife-protective energy future — and the demands of thousands of organizations, elected officials, and communities — the president’s executive order recognizes the threat the climate emergency poses to our energy security and the urgent need to advance real climate solutions. Now the administration needs Congress’ support in the form of critical funding.
Tell your senators and representative to cosponsor the Energy Security and Independence Act and appropriate more Defense Production Act funds for renewables.
Safeguards Sought for North Carolina Salamanders
The Center and allies petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service this week to protect Hickory Nut Gorge green salamanders. Scientists estimate that only a few hundred of these green-splotched salamanders remain on Earth — in only one 14-mile-long gorge in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
“These precious amphibians have been clinging to the gorge’s walls for millions of years,” said the Center’s Will Harlan. “But now, to keep holding on, they urgently need protection under the Endangered Species Act.”
Suit Filed Against Harmful Drilling Permits
The Center and allies sued the Bureau of Land Management Wednesday for issuing more than 3,500 Biden-approved oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming. The permits violate the Endangered Species Act and other laws requiring federal agencies to ensure activities don’t hurt endangered species and the environment.
The approved oil and gas wells will emit up to 600 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that will worsen the climate crisis, damage ecosystems, and harm more than 150 climate-imperiled species, from Hawaiian songbirds to polar bears.
“Fossil fuels are driving the extinction crisis, and the Bureau of Land Management is making things worse by failing to protect these species,” said the Center’s Brett Hartl.
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Okefenokee Gets Reprieve From Massive Mine
Good news for North America’s largest blackwater swamp: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just admitted it was wrong when, under Trump, it decided the federal government didn’t need to oversee a controversial titanium mine planned next to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Georgia has indefinitely shelved state permits needed for mining while the Corps reassesses whether federal permits are needed.
The Center is part of the Okefenokee Protection Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 organizations working to protect the Okefenokee — including by stopping this mine from harming its fragile ecosystem and imperiled species, like red-cockaded woodpeckers, eastern indigo snakes and wood storks.
Said Center attorney Elise Bennett: “The fight isn’t done, but this represents a key opportunity to reinstate robust environmental oversight while steering the Okefenokee toward a more sustainable and prosperous future.”
Lawsuits Challenge Two Massive Bay Biofuel Projects
The Center and allies just sued Contra Costa County over its rushed approval — using incomplete, misleading environmental reviews — of two proposed Bay Area refineries looking to convert from processing crude oil to processing biofuels.
The Marathon-Tesoro project in Martinez would produce more than 700,000 gallons of biofuel products every year, while the Phillips 66 project in nearby Rodeo would produce more than a billion gallons yearly, making it one of the world’s largest biofuel refineries. Combined, they’d require at least 82,000 truck trips, nearly 29,000 railcars, and more than 760 ship and barge visits annually — worsening traffic, spills and accidents, and pollution in already hard-hit communities.
“This is greenwashing, plain and simple,” said Center attorney Victoria Bogdan Tejeda. “Trading one polluting industry for another isn’t beneficial to the climate or communities.”
That's Wild: The Sex Life of an Ancient Animal
Trilobites were some of the first arthropods on Earth, appearing some 520 million years ago. Although trilobite fossils are relatively common, they usually don’t feature reproductive structures, which are made of soft tissues and rarely petrify. So nobody has been able to figure out how these ancient, pill-bodied arthropods reproduced — until now.
In a very unusual find, scientists have unearthed a 508-million-year-old fossilized pair of trilobites in the middle of mating, preserved in remarkable detail. To hold the female close, the male is using grasping appendages similar to the “claspers” used by the males of modern marine animals like shrimp and horseshoe crabs (trilobites’ modern analogues) to hold their mate while they release sperm underwater.
Learn more from Scientific American.
Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth
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Photo credits: Arizona eryngo by Elizabeth Makings; solar panels by Public Domain Pictures/Pixabay; Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander by Todd Pierson; Mexican gray wolf by Robin Silver/Center for Biological Diversity; red-cockaded woodpecker courtesy USFWS; Phillips 66 refinery by Gary Hughes; animals at night courtesy West Midlands Ringing Group; trilobite fossil by Mike Peel/Wikimedia.
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