Center for Biological Diversity | Lawsuit Against Trump for Endangered Species

North America’s Center for Biological Diversity works “to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive”. Protecting endangered animals and plants is their core mission. “From miniscule, nearly invisible fairy shrimp to gray whales and towering redwoods” the Center believes that all species have an intrinsic right to live.

Their Endangered Species program has:

• Submitted the largest petition ever filed targeting imperiled U.S. amphibians and reptiles, seeking Endangered Species Act protection for 53 of the rarest and most sensitive species on the planet.

• Overturned improper decisions that robbed dozens of imperiled species of critical habitat protections — winning millions of acres of new or additional critical habitat protections for numerous species, including more than 25 million acres for the Canada lynx and 1.6 million acres for the California red-legged frog.

• Gained first-time protection, through listing petitions and litigation, for more than 700 species under the Endangered Species Act — more than all other U.S. conservation groups combined.

• Secured hundreds of millions of acres of critical habitat for endangered species, including 120 million acres of protected habitat for the polar bear — the largest critical habitat designation in Endangered Species Act history.

• Published groundbreaking scientific articles and comprehensive reports on subjects such as species recovery and the unparalleled success of the Endangered Species Act.

As the CBD reports, “A program known as “Wildlife Services,” a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has long operated secretively for a reason: Its actions are incredibly, unacceptably and illegally brutal and inhumane to animals, from familiar wildlife to endangered species“. This program has been killing more than a million native animals every year — including coyotes, bears, beavers, wolves, otters, foxes, prairie dogs, mountain lions and birds — without any oversight, accountability or requirement to disclose its activities to the public.

And now they are suing President Trump for illegally ordering federal agencies to harm wildlife.

Alasaka Wolf, Doug Brown (Flickr)

On Tuesday the Center for Biological Diversity launched a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for illegally ordering federal agencies to harm wildlife. No other president has used executive powers to incite others to violate environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act — so we’ve taken unprecedented action.

Our suit challenges Trump’s recent executive order directing all federal agencies to exploit the Endangered Species Act’s emergency provisions to rubber-stamp the approval of fossil fuel pipelines, oil and gas drilling, and other routine infrastructure projects.

“Inciting federal agencies to violate the Act is part of a pattern Trump’s displayed throughout his presidency,” said Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director. “He’s encouraging officials to ignore the rules and obey his whims. But he’s not above the law.”

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