Endangered Species Archive

  • We have forgotten the flocks of passenger pigeons that blotted out the sun, the herds of bison that shook the ground, and the untamed places in which we destroyed them. This is ecological amnesia. This capacity to forget, this fluidity of memory, has dire implications in a world dense with people, all desperate to satisfy their immediate material needs. Yet, the way forward is land and water protection and regeneration, permaculture, and community reconnection with the wild.

    Ecological Amnesia: Life Without Wild Things

    Posted on February 9, 2019 | 4 Comments
    We have forgotten the flocks of passenger pigeons that blotted out the sun, the herds of bison that shook the ground, and the untamed places in which we destroyed them. This is ecological amnesia. This capacity to forget, this fluidity of memory, has dire implications in a world dense with people, all desperate to satisfy their immediate material needs. Yet, the way forward is land and water protection and regeneration, permaculture, and community reconnection with the wild.

    Continue Reading...

  • Tejon Ranch Centennial Specific Plan (or Centennial) is a massive planned city in a unique, rare, fire-prone wilderness of grasslands and mountains, a residential and commercial development in LA County. Nick Jensen from the California Native Plant Society, and Jack Eidt from Wild Heritage Planners and SoCal 350, discuss the dangers to urban sustainability, fiscal health of LA County and the impacts on wild and endangered plants and animals with host Jessica Aldridge.

    Centennial Project: Suburbs Sprawl, Health & Environment Suffers

    Posted on November 26, 2018 | No Comments
    Tejon Ranch Centennial Specific Plan (or Centennial) is a massive planned city in a unique, rare, fire-prone wilderness of grasslands and mountains, a residential and commercial development in LA County. Nick Jensen from the California Native Plant Society, and Jack Eidt from Wild Heritage Planners and SoCal 350, discuss the dangers to urban sustainability, fiscal health of LA County and the impacts on wild and endangered plants and animals with host Jessica Aldridge.

    Continue Reading...

  • Facing a major Coastal Commission decision, Newport Banning Ranch developers should adopt staff's recommendation that all environmentally sensitive habitat should be protected and could be integrated in a vision for a small-scale visitor-serving development through Regenerative Design.

    Using Regenerative Design to Revitalize Newport Banning Ranch

    Posted on September 6, 2016 | 1 Comment
    Facing a major Coastal Commission decision, Newport Banning Ranch developers should adopt staff's recommendation that all environmentally sensitive habitat should be protected and could be integrated in a vision for a small-scale visitor-serving development through Regenerative Design.

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  • Washington State's move to extirpate an entire pack of wolves near the Canadian border for the infraction of killing a few alien domestic cattle grazing public lands is reprehensible. That wildlife agencies would kill any wolves to benefit the profit margin of private businesses utilizing public resources is an outrage. George Wuerthner writes how the tragedy of this slaughter of wild predators repeats itself over and over throughout the West.

    Killing Washington’s Protected Wolves for Rancher’s Bottom Line

    Posted on August 28, 2016 | No Comments
    Washington State's move to extirpate an entire pack of wolves near the Canadian border for the infraction of killing a few alien domestic cattle grazing public lands is reprehensible. That wildlife agencies would kill any wolves to benefit the profit margin of private businesses utilizing public resources is an outrage. George Wuerthner writes how the tragedy of this slaughter of wild predators repeats itself over and over throughout the West.

    Continue Reading...

  • Wild bison will be allowed to migrate out of Yellowstone National Park and stay in parts of Montana year-round under a move by Gov. Steve Bullock. The decision won't end the slaughter of some bison that roam outside of the park, yet pushes against the collusion between cattle ranching interests and wildlife managers using the threat of brucellosis to justify private property and development rights over the spirit of the wild.

    Wild Yellowstone Bison Conflict with Cattle Ranchers, Lose

    Posted on December 11, 2015 | No Comments
    Wild bison will be allowed to migrate out of Yellowstone National Park and stay in parts of Montana year-round under a move by Gov. Steve Bullock. The decision won't end the slaughter of some bison that roam outside of the park, yet pushes against the collusion between cattle ranching interests and wildlife managers using the threat of brucellosis to justify private property and development rights over the spirit of the wild.

    Continue Reading...

  • Cuba may have been restricted politically and economically for the past 50 years, but its borders have remained open to wildlife for which Cuba’s undeveloped islands are an irresistible draw.

    Wild Cuba: Accidental Eden, Endangered

    Posted on November 30, 2015 | No Comments
    Cuba may have been restricted politically and economically for the past 50 years, but its borders have remained open to wildlife for which Cuba’s undeveloped islands are an irresistible draw.

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  • While stopping short of full endangered species protections for the Greater Sage-Grouse, the Obama-era Fish and Wildlife Service implemented land use plans to restrict energy development and grazing in the expanse of northwestern U.S. desert called the Sagebrush Sea, depicted in a 2015 documentary. The Trump Interior Department attempted to amend that plan to open up more commercial activities. We feature here an essay on Wyoming's core plan attempts to salvage the state's last populations in a landscape dominated by energy development.

    Protecting the Sage-Grouse in a Sea of Natural Gas

    Posted on September 15, 2015 | No Comments
    While stopping short of full endangered species protections for the Greater Sage-Grouse, the Obama-era Fish and Wildlife Service implemented land use plans to restrict energy development and grazing in the expanse of northwestern U.S. desert called the Sagebrush Sea, depicted in a 2015 documentary. The Trump Interior Department attempted to amend that plan to open up more commercial activities. We feature here an essay on Wyoming's core plan attempts to salvage the state's last populations in a landscape dominated by energy development.

    Continue Reading...

  • The murder of 26-year-old sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora in late May exposed cracks in Costa Rica's international environmental image, and proved that protecting nature sometimes has a terrible cost. Official corruption, lax regulations, and drug trafficking threaten the environmental bounty of Central America's most visited country.

    Costa Rica: Conservationists Face Corruption and Drug Trafficking

    Posted on July 15, 2013 | 3 Comments
    The murder of 26-year-old sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora in late May exposed cracks in Costa Rica's international environmental image, and proved that protecting nature sometimes has a terrible cost. Official corruption, lax regulations, and drug trafficking threaten the environmental bounty of Central America's most visited country.

    Continue Reading...

  • President Obama's Department of the Interior announced the national delisting of all wolves except the Mexican wolf. Prominent conservationists argue this is wrong-headed because (1) the wolf isn’t really recovered, and (2) Existing state management is so bad that the “recovered” population will soon decline to nothing but a tiny token population.

    Wolves Forsaken By Wildlife Agencies, Hunters and Ranchers

    Posted on June 11, 2013 | 3 Comments
    President Obama's Department of the Interior announced the national delisting of all wolves except the Mexican wolf. Prominent conservationists argue this is wrong-headed because (1) the wolf isn’t really recovered, and (2) Existing state management is so bad that the “recovered” population will soon decline to nothing but a tiny token population.

    Continue Reading...

  • Western environmental groups oppose the anti-scientific "political" Endangered Species delisting of gray wolves across the U.S. by Fish and Wildlife Service. Reduced wolf numbers will reduce positive ecological effects of these top predators and permit barbaric hunting methods.

    Wolf Wars: Anti-Science Haters Propose Ending All US Protections

    Posted on March 27, 2013 | 1 Comment
    Western environmental groups oppose the anti-scientific "political" Endangered Species delisting of gray wolves across the U.S. by Fish and Wildlife Service. Reduced wolf numbers will reduce positive ecological effects of these top predators and permit barbaric hunting methods.

    Continue Reading...

  • The California Condor Recovery Program has defied the odds to rescue from oblivion the last of the prehistorics and icon of Native Californian cosmology. Threats such as lead ammunition, microtrash, and sprawling land development threaten these impressive gains of an endangered species. The film "The Condor's Shadow" documents this struggle.

    California Condor: Overcoming Extinction, A Symbol of Renewal

    Posted on March 6, 2013 | 2 Comments
    The California Condor Recovery Program has defied the odds to rescue from oblivion the last of the prehistorics and icon of Native Californian cosmology. Threats such as lead ammunition, microtrash, and sprawling land development threaten these impressive gains of an endangered species. The film "The Condor's Shadow" documents this struggle.

    Continue Reading...

  • Wildlife Agencies advocate hunting helps grizzly recovery. The best available science, however, suggests predators including bears, wolves, mountain lion and coyotes have intricate social interactions that are disrupted or damaged by indiscriminate killing from hunters and trappers. Habitat protection is the main way to protect the fledgling population of grizzly bears as well as avoid human-bear conflicts.

    George Wuerthner: Habitat Conservation, Not Hunting, Saves Grizzly Bears

    Posted on January 4, 2013 | 1 Comment
    Wildlife Agencies advocate hunting helps grizzly recovery. The best available science, however, suggests predators including bears, wolves, mountain lion and coyotes have intricate social interactions that are disrupted or damaged by indiscriminate killing from hunters and trappers. Habitat protection is the main way to protect the fledgling population of grizzly bears as well as avoid human-bear conflicts.

    Continue Reading...

  • Forest fragmentation and destruction is imperiling the Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis), according to a new paper published in PLoS ONE. Using satellite collars to track the pachyderms for the first time in the Malaysian state of Sabah, scientists found elephants sensitive to habitat fragmentation from palm oil plantations and logging.

    Elephants in Borneo: Need Lowland Forest Range

    Posted on March 9, 2012 | 3 Comments
    Forest fragmentation and destruction is imperiling the Bornean elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis), according to a new paper published in PLoS ONE. Using satellite collars to track the pachyderms for the first time in the Malaysian state of Sabah, scientists found elephants sensitive to habitat fragmentation from palm oil plantations and logging.

    Continue Reading...

  • Since the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the people of the United States have worked to tame the Bitteroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana, but the rushing rivers and wandering wolves still retain the air of the wild.

    Idaho: Wolves and Wilderness Persist in the Bitterroot Mountains

    Posted on February 15, 2012 | 3 Comments
    Since the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the people of the United States have worked to tame the Bitteroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana, but the rushing rivers and wandering wolves still retain the air of the wild.

    Continue Reading...

  • After centuries of fear and superstition, research has given the wolf a new image as a social creature with an indispensible role in ecosystems. Unfortunately, wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains have been removed from the endangered species list. The Druid Pack of Yellowstone National Park symbolizes the rise and fall of this much maligned predator.

    Yellowstone Druids: The Last Valley of the Wolves?

    Posted on July 19, 2011 | 2 Comments
    After centuries of fear and superstition, research has given the wolf a new image as a social creature with an indispensible role in ecosystems. Unfortunately, wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains have been removed from the endangered species list. The Druid Pack of Yellowstone National Park symbolizes the rise and fall of this much maligned predator.

    Continue Reading...

  • Assemblywoman D. Harkey (73rd District-California), accomplished equestrian and beach lover, informed her constituents she could not support Assembly Bill 376 banning shark fin soup from CA restaurants, a "delicacy" that requires amputation of the fin from a live shark at sea, leaving it helpless to drown.

    Shark Fin Soup’s On in the California Assembly

    Posted on June 26, 2011 | No Comments
    Assemblywoman D. Harkey (73rd District-California), accomplished equestrian and beach lover, informed her constituents she could not support Assembly Bill 376 banning shark fin soup from CA restaurants, a "delicacy" that requires amputation of the fin from a live shark at sea, leaving it helpless to drown.

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  • After nearly a decade of work and nearly $369,000 in state spending, a steelhead restoration effort in San Diego County has been canceled, raising questions about whether larger and more complex initiatives will succeed.

    Marines Doom Steelhead Recovery Program

    Posted on February 1, 2011 | No Comments
    After nearly a decade of work and nearly $369,000 in state spending, a steelhead restoration effort in San Diego County has been canceled, raising questions about whether larger and more complex initiatives will succeed.

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  • Fifteen years have passed since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and the results are in. The controversial experiment has been a stellar success. Essay by Chip Ward.

    Wolf Howls Yellowstone Back to Health – By Chip Ward

    Posted on September 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
    Fifteen years have passed since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and the results are in. The controversial experiment has been a stellar success. Essay by Chip Ward.

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  • Montana and Idaho wildlife officials are seeking to resume "conservation hunt" alternatives on the gray wolves despite the packs being relisted for protections under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

    Montana and Idaho Plan Wolf Attacks – By Jack Eidt

    Posted on September 2, 2010 | 7 Comments
    Montana and Idaho wildlife officials are seeking to resume "conservation hunt" alternatives on the gray wolves despite the packs being relisted for protections under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

    Continue Reading...