Join Jay Petrequin to hear the wildlife news from September 2024.
Transcript:
Critical habitat for Florida manatees. Highs and lows for Colorado Wolves. And short-sighted attacks on essential acts.
I’m Jay Petrequin and this is your Wildlife News for September 2024. Good news coming from Florida where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a revised plan that would protect nearly 2 million acres of critical habitat for the Florida Manatee. The proposed rule highlights the importance of natural warm-water sites and ample seagrass to forage – especially in the wake of an ongoing unusual mortality event. More than 130 manatee calves have died to date in 2024, putting the animals on track to double the five-year average for deaths of recently born manatees.
Heading out west where news of gray wolves is reaching new highs and lows. Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently announced that up to 15 more wolves will be reintroduced to the state this winter. This welcome news comes on the heels of the removal and relocation of the Copper Creek Pack, the first breeding pair and litter of the 2023 reintroduction. Three of the ten wolves reintroduced in 2023 have died, including the Copper Creek breeding male. And landing in D.C. where a pair of bad bills seeks to rollback protections for wildlife and the environment.
More than 80 conservation groups representing millions of Americans are calling on members of Congress to oppose the “ESA Amendments Act of 2024” proposed by House Committee on Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman. The bill seeks to gut the Endangered Species Act by decreasing protections for threatened and endangered species and rewriting key portions of the bedrock conservation law. Westerman’s draft National Environmental Policy Act also drastically undercuts the existing act by avoiding environmental reviews, forbidding agencies from considering new scientific research, and in some cases allowing projects to ignore the Act entirely.
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Defenders Of Wildlife works on the ground, in the courts, and on Capitol Hill to protect and restore imperiled wildlife and habitats across North America.
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