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Scared of ghosts, goblins, and jack-o-lanterns? None of those are on theSanta Fe Reporter's list of the top five environmental horrors. But human overpopulation is. "Apocalypse Soon: Today's Environmental Horrors Could Lead to a Scary Sci-Fi Future" interviews Center for Biological Diversity director Kierán Suckling. Click below to read the whole article. Here are few excerpts:
ROAM FREE! 
Volunteers deserve enormous credit for making the Badger Ball happen, especially Bob Strayer, who rearranged his schedule to be there, set up, cleaned up and donated his professional photography to the auction! This is in addition to repainting the BCA office, and having served on our board for many years, not to mention his other volunteer commitments and responsibilities as a granddad. Bob is a dedicated person with a deep passion for the environment, who has blessed BCA with his labor and expertise for more than a decade. Native wildlife can't thank Bob for helping, but we can. On behalf of staff, members and board: thank you, Bob! You make a great difference. For more information about volunteer opportunities with BCA, please email sarah@....
On Saturday, September 19, BCA celebrated our Badger Ball and Annual Meeting at the Train Depot in Laramie, Wyoming. The keynote speaker, Dan Luecke, Ph.D., a hydrologist and environmental scientist, addressed many problems with the proposed Million Water Pipeline Project. The project would divert 250,000 acre feet of water annually from the Flaming Gorge and Green River and deliver this water to Colorado's Front Range communities. Dr. Luecke's address established that there is no need and very little support for this project in Colorado and that such a serious draw down of water from the reservoir and river would have disastrous results for the four species of endangered fish and the trout and salmon fishery.
Memberships, dinners and the silent auction raised $2,400 for wildlife and wilderness protection!
aramie Digital Photo Center, Lincoln Printing, Linda Lillegraven, The Lodge Casino, The Mandarin Restaurant, Carmi McLean, Erik Molvar, Mary Lou Morrison, Fran Myers, Nails Tech, North Ridge Discount Liquors, Pansy's Parlor, The Pet Pantry, Kenneth Peterson, Chip Rawlins, Saratoga Inn, Duane Short, Rebekah Simon-Peter, Staples, Bob Strayer, Sweet Melissa's Vegetarian Cafe, Tommy Jack's Cajun Restaurant, VDR Volvo, Vee Bar Guest Ranch, Visions Hair Salon, and Winger's.
Early this morning, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Arizona Game and Fish Department to prevent it from capturing or killing any more endangered jaguars. The suit seeks to prevent another tragedy like the killing this spring of Macho B, the last known American jaguar. Arizona Game and Fish illegally set up mountain lion snares in the canyon Macho B was known to use without seeking a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Macho B was subsequently snared, almost certainly on purpose, and later killed. In a callous response, Game and Fish not only claimed the lion-trapping study had a valid permit, it said it also has a permit to purposefully capture and collar jaguars. It does not. 
Last week Brightstar Energy listened to the detailed opposition of the Center for Biological Diversity's lawyers and scientists -- and thousands of supporters like you who sent emails -- and withdrew its plans for a controversial solar-energy project that would have taken up some 5,000 acres of pristine, ecologically critical California lands on their way toward national monument status. 
Though nothing is final till it's final, it appears that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has lost her attempt to attach a rider to the EPA budget bill prohibiting the agency from using the Clean Air Act to rein in greenhouse gas pollution from coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities. Buried under an avalanche of protests -- including thousands of letters from Center for Biological Diversity members and supporters -- the Senate has agreed not to allow the Murkowski amendment.JScottAltenbach_MDDeptOfNaturalResources.jpg)
Responding to calls from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has drafted a plan to address the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome. Over the past three winters, the mysterious syndrome has killed about 1.5 million bats in the eastern United States, spreading from New York to Tennessee with devastating speed. Earlier this month, the Center wrote to the Fish and Wildlife Service requesting faster, more coordinated action on the crisis; we've also contacted the Department of the Interior and Congress -- with not a little help from our supporters. The final plan should provide specific guidance for state wildlife agencies on how to respond to white-nose syndrome, as well as measures to help the recovery of stricken bat species.
This month, California's Kern County Planning Commission gave its blessing to Tejon Mountain Village, a sprawling city planned for the state's beautiful and biodiverse Tejon Ranch. The proposed 26,417-acre project would build 3,450 homes and up to 160,000 square feet of commercial development smack in the middle of federally protected habitat for the endangered California condor. Some environmental groups have agreed to allow the destructive project in exchange for leaving other parts of the ranch undeveloped. But the Center for Biological Diversity is standing up for the condor and the irreplaceable Tejon lands it calls home. We've challenged the ranch's request for a permit to build the city without adequate environmental review, and we won the disclosure of documents on the condor's fate on the ranch, which the ranch was keeping secret. Eight of the country's most prominent condor experts agree that a sprawling development won't fly in condor habitat.
This Monday the Center for Biological Diversity and allies submitted a letter countering a proposed rule that would encourage clearcutting as good for the climate -- instead of the very obvious opposite. One provision of the rule, up for adoption by the California Air Resources Board later this month, appears intended to let forest clearcutting qualify as a greenhouse gas reduction method and earn carbon credits. Of course, a forest clearcut is about as beneficial to the climate as a new coal-fired power plant, considering the ample greenhouse gases emitted in the clearcutting process -- plus the fact that clearcutting removes precious CO2-absorbing trees.
This Tuesday during Climate Week -- the precursor to the United Nations' upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen -- President Barack Obama said he's willing to work to help the UN secure a strong international climate change pact. Obama called for world leaders to draft a response to global warming by the end of the year, citing his own administration's attempts to address the crisis, including House passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The Center for Biological Diversity congratulates Obama on promising to "boldly, swiftly" help the world confront climate change. But we'll have to do a lot better than the inadequate House-passed bill -- we must get to work now, both nationally and internationally, to reduce our atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm or below. 
Last June marked the tragic passing of Luke Cole, one of the most influential figures in the environmental justice community. Founder and director of the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, Cole was also a board member for the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. His work was among the first to highlight global warming as an environmental justice issue of massive proportions. 
According to a sobering recent study, rattlesnake-killing contests have dangerously reduced populations of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes in the Southeast. "Rattlesnake roundups" are contests in which hunters bring in as many snakes as they can catch in a year to be milked for venom, butchered, and sold for meat and skin. The study, by Dr. Bruce Means, analyzed the number and size of snakes turned in at the roundups and found that both the total number of snakes and the size of each snake turned in have declined in the past 50 years. Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, once a common species, are now being pushed toward extinction by hunting, habitat loss, and road mortality.
With several thousand votes in, global warming denier Senator James Inhofe is leading the pack to win the 2009 Rubber Dodo Award for the individual who has done most to drive endangered species extinct. Close behind are Michael Winer, who is trying to put up a massive housing development in essential condor habitat at Tejon Ranch, and Idaho Governor Leroy "Butch" Otter, who salivates at the thought of shooting wolves.
In an interview in today's 
Fulfilling a court order won by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday formally put the Great Lakes wolf back on the endangered species list. This marks the third time the Center has overturned premature decisions to declare the Great Lakes wolf "recovered" and allow state agencies to kill them.
To save the endangered Florida panther from a sea of encroaching sprawl, the Center for Biological Diversity today submitted a scientific petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking the designation of 3 million acres of protected critical habitat. 
In a historic step toward cleaner energy, this Tuesday two federal agencies announced details of the first national plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars, light trucks, and SUVs under the Clean Air Act -- in fact, the first national plan to regulate these emissions period. Together, those three classes of vehicles emit almost 60 percent of U.S. transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions; according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the new plan would reduce greenhouse gases by 950 million metric tons and save some 1.8 billion barrels of oil over these vehicles' lifetime. The plan also increases the vehicles' national gas-mileage standards by about 5 percent per year, with the standard reaching 35.5 mpg for model year 2016. The move comes after the Center for Biological Diversity and allies won a landmark 2007 court victory overturning the Bush administration's ridiculously lax fuel-economy standards for model years 2008-2011. Still, the standards proposed by the new plan fall far short of what Europe, Japan, and China have in place already.
Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, this Monday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a massive land trade that would have turned 11,000 acres of public land over to the infamous Asarco corporation to mine without regard for federal environmental laws.
Thanks to opposition by the Center for Biological Diversity and more than 23,000 of you supporters, the Bureau of Land Management last Friday paused its plan to move 1,000-plus endangered desert tortoises. Hundreds of tortoises died during a relocation effort last year to make way for the expansion of the Fort Irwin Army base. The Center stopped last year's project with a lawsuit, but this year was able to save the tortoises by mobilizing thousands of people to protest. Thanks to all of you who wrote emails and made calls.
As we approach the upcoming United Nations meeting in Copenhagen to strike an international climate treaty, some of the world's most prominent scientists are warning that current climate bills are insufficient to stop runaway global warming. Setting a goal of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 450 or 550 parts per million, as the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would do, will have catastrophic impacts. We need to decrease the level to 350 ppm or less. It's currently at about 385 ppm.
Verizon Wireless has finally responded to the Center for Biological Diversity and CREDO's massive mobilization campaign calling on the company to withdraw its sponsorship of the Labor Day rally supporting mountaintop-removal coal mining, denying global warming, and attacking environmentalists as "extremists."
Facing a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit and 250-plus species languishing without protection, the Obama administration has finally promised to put the "candidate list" backlog on the front burner. Essentially a waiting list for species in need of Endangered Species Act protection, the candidate list contains species that have been found to merit protection but were punted aside due to "higher priority" federal actions. Nearly 100 species have been on the list for more than a decade and 73 have been waiting for more than a quarter-century. A Center report shows that between 1974 and 1994, systematic delays -- including lengthy waits on the candidate list -- contributed to the extinction of 83 plants and animals. To prevent the extinction of more, in 2005 the Center sued the Bush administration to protect 283 candidate species. 
Responding to a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit, this week the National Marine Fisheries Service finalized protection for 840,472 acres of watery habitat for the endangered smalltooth sawfish in southwestern Florida. The fish, a shark and ray relative with a cool-looking, saw-like snout, has declined by 95 percent due to historic overharvesting, entanglement in fishing gear (eased by its line-snagging proboscis), and now, the worst threat of all: extensive habitat loss. The fish earned a place on the endangered species list back in 2003 but was never given species-saving protected habitat, so we sued the Bush administration. The new habitat-protection rule, to take effect this October, means that federal agencies must consult with the Fisheries Service before approving any activity that could damage the protected area.
Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed protected habitat for California's rare San Diego ambrosia. The tenacious blue-gray herb, threatened by urban sprawl, agricultural expansion, off-road vehicle use, and other activities, was first protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2002 after a petition by the Center and allies. But due to political interference with endangered species decisions that ran rampant under the Bush administration, the plant was never granted federally protected habitat. Now, the Service has proposed to set aside 802 acres for the plant.
Last Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spared the Middle Fork pack of Mexican gray wolves from trapping or shooting, despite accounts that the wolves killed five cattle on the Gila National Forest. The pack consists of two three-legged adult wolves, who each lost a leg in privately set leg-hold traps, plus a yearling and four pups. These wolves live in a severely grazed area where five previous wolf families were trapped and shot by the feds to placate the livestock industry -- and where carcasses of cattle killed by non-wolf causes dot the landscape, tempting wolves and acclimating them to scavenging near grazing cows. This spring, Center for Biological Diversity volunteers found 16 dead cattle, none showing signs of wolf predation, within a few miles of the Middle Fork's den site. 
The Environmental Protection Agency has taken a new step to use the Clean Air Act against climate change, proposing a rule that will spell out permitting thresholds for stationary greenhouse gas sources -- like coal-fired power plants -- under the Act. A proposal to reduce pollution from cars and trucks under the law is expected shortly, and should be finalized by March 2010. These proposals are yet more proof of the Clean Air Act's critical value and effectiveness in fighting global warming -- and the necessity of keeping its warming-fighting capabilities intact in any new climate legislation. To that end, the Center for Biological Diversity has now gathered the signatures of almost 350 groups on a letter to maintain existing Clean Air Act protections in the new climate bill being considered by the Senate. This week, community members will hand-deliver the letter to senators across the country.
With bat extinctions looming and 1.5 million bats already dead from white-nose syndrome, last week the Center for Biological Diversity requested immediate action from the new director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The mysterious syndrome, unknown to science before it popped up two winters ago in New York, now occurs in nine states and is still spreading swiftly; it could soon hit Kentucky and Tennessee, which house some of the largest bat colonies in the world. Many affected bat populations in New England and New York have already been reduced to 10 percent of their former numbers -- including the federally endangered Indiana bat. Our letter to the Service's director calls for a national white-nose syndrome plan that includes research priorities, a system for interagency coordination, a budget, and a plan for protecting bats (whether they're already known to be infected or not).
Last Thursday the Center for Biological Diversity, Preserve Wild Santee, and the Endangered Habitats League renewed a legal challenge to a sprawling development proposed for Fanita Ranch, located on the northern edge of Santee, California. A San Diego court scrapped plans for the 2,600-acre, 1,400-home project after our first lawsuit in 2008, finding that the city of Santee hadn't adequately considered the development's fire-safety risk when it approved the project. Now the city has approved the developer's "revised" plan, though it's hardly different from the first one. Luckily for human, plant, and wildlife communities near the Fanita Ranch site -- including populations of the federally protected Quino checkerspot butterfly and California gnatcatcher -- the development is also facing fiscal glitches and may not be feasible anyway. Still, we don't take chances when it comes to preventing catastrophic wildfire and habitat destruction.
To save a wildlife refuge from becoming another concrete jungle, last week the Center for Biological Diversity went to court to oppose development on California's March Stephen's Kangaroo Rat Preserve. Government documents show that the preserve is critical to the survival of the endangered Stephen's kangaroo rat, but in 2006 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to allow commercial and industrial development on the site in exchange for granting partial protection to other local lands. It's an unequal trade and will cause more harm than good, destroying essential habitat and wildlife linkages and ultimately threatening the integrity of a network of preserves in Riverside County.
According to a sweeping study published in the journal PLoS One, the burgeoning human population could soon be swimming -- and fishing -- in shark-depleted waters (also barracuda-depleted, grouper-depleted, and depleted of most other large, predatory fish). The study, by researcher Chris Stallings of Florida State University, documents in detail the disturbing declines of marine predators on Caribbean coral reefs that occur alongside human population growth, jeopardizing the region's marine food web and ultimately its reefs and fisheries. It's not hard to grasp why: Stallings found that nations with more people have reefs with fewer large fish because, as the number of people increases, so does demand for seafood -- and bigger fish are usually fished first. Given that half the world's populations live near coastlines and those populations are growing faster than ever, demands for seafood will increase far beyond reefs' capacities unless we tackle the problem through multiple tactics -- including confronting overpopulation with family-planning strategies.
Lynx - photo: USFWS 
Wyoming State Governor Dave Freudenthal has taken an uncharacteristically strong stand for sage grouse conservation in the context of wind energy development. While wind energy development is perfectly appropriate for many areas in the state, Freudenthal deserves a pat on the back for saying "no" in sage grouse core areas. Sage grouse abandon habitat where tall structures are present, be they oil and gas infrastructure, transmission poles, or wind turbines. More than five million acres of our state are great for wind energy, according to BCA's ground-breaking report, "Wind Power in Wyoming: Doing it Smart from the Start," but sage grouse core areas are not. Governor Dave has demonstrated that a backbone is better than a wishbone when it comes to protecting our natural resources.
