Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Mary Beth Beetham, Director of Legislative Affairs

Wildlife faces escalating criminal threats both domestically and internationally, including illicit trade, unlawful commercial exploitation, illegal destruction of habitat and industrial hazards. Illegal wildlife trade is also related to our national security, with a well-documented link between wildlife smuggling and both organized crime and drug trafficking. Wildlife trade ranks third in monetary importance, just after drug and arms trade. The U.S. supports one of the largest markets after China for both legal and illegal wildlife and wildlife products, including tigers, caviar, coral, snakes, timber, elephant ivory, sea turtles, live birds and numerous species native to the U.S.

An inspector checks a shipment of dried frogs coming into the country. (Credit: Bill Butcher/USFWS)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Office of Law Enforcement maintains a thin green line of protection for wildlife, both here at home and globally. The office investigates wildlife crimes, enforces regulation of wildlife trade, helps citizens comply with the law and works with other international and U.S. government entities to carry out its mission through wildlife inspectors, special agents and a forensics laboratory. If destructive funding cuts are triggered by the fiscal cliff or an overall budget agreement, all this protection could vanish.

On the Front Line at Ports
The office’s 143 wildlife inspectors are the front line of defense in nearly 40 ports of entry around the country, including in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Texas and Washington. In 2011, they processed about 179,000 declared shipments of wildlife and wildlife products worth more than $2.8 billion, making sure that the shipments did not contain any animals or products that are protected against trade. Even with current funding, the number of inspectors is inadequate to provide full 24-hour coverage at ports, and can only inspect samples of larger mail shipments, or randomly select particular shipments for inspection. This means that many shipments go through with no inspection at all.

Wildlife Investigators
The 222 special agents that work for the Office of Law Enforcement are expert investigators that work, sometimes even going undercover, to break up smuggling rings, stop commercial exploitation of protected U.S. species, and work with states to protect U.S. game species from poaching, which steals both state income and hunting and fishing opportunities. In 2011, special agents investigated more than 13,000 cases.

Evidence gathered during Operation Crash. (Credit: USFWS)

CSI Wildlife
The Office of Law Enforcement also oversees the FWS Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, a real life “CSI Wildlife,” and the only such laboratory in the world dedicated to solving wildlife crimes. Before the lab was established in 1988, law enforcement officers had little or no ability to receive expert wildlife laboratory services in pursuing criminals. Now the lab identifies the species or parts of the animals being exploited, determines the cause of death, decides if a crime has occurred, and uses the evidence to link suspect, victim and crime scene.

Once a crime against wildlife is verified, the FWS Office of Law Enforcement works with other federal agencies, such as the Department of Justice and sometimes state agencies, to pursue it in court. Here are just a few examples of cases that the office has investigated and prosecuted in recent years — crimes that could otherwise have gone unpunished:

• “Operation Crash” was a nationwide Fish and Wildlife Service crackdown on those involved in the black market trade of endangered rhino horns — more than 450 rhinos have been killed this year alone.
• Agents seized one ton of smuggled elephant ivory from a Philadelphia art store — one of the largest seizures of elephant ivory on record.
• In Washington State, the office investigated the destruction of more than 400 bank swallow nests and over 3,000 eggs during the 2010 nesting season.
• In Texas, they looked into the illegal harvest of alligator gar, an important sport fish, which was then being sold in Japan.
• The office prosecuted the largest deer poaching case in Kansas history, an operation that led up to 60 clients to illegally kill about 160 deer.
• The office intervened when bald and golden eagles were being killed and sold in Washington — during their investigation, agents seized 57 bald and golden eagle tails and 52 golden eagle wings.
• An inquiry found that endangered pallid sturgeon were being illegally harvested for caviar in the Mississippi, Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.
• The office undertook a multi-year undercover investigation of unlawful international trafficking in sea turtle parts and products.
• Agents uncovered more than 40 tons of endangered coral being smuggled into the port of Portland, Oregon.
• An investigation found that jaguar skins were being smuggled and sold in Florida, Texas and elsewhere by e-commerce.
• Work of the agents and the forensics lab resulted in successful prosecution and sentencing for the intentional killing of an endangered Florida panther.
• They discovered that wild-caught turtles were being illegally shipped to China from Florida.
• A three-year investigation uncovered the unlawful trafficking of Arizona state-protected reptiles.

The Office of Law Enforcement is already severely underfunded, making it a challenge to meet the rapidly escalating threats to wildlife in the U.S. and around the world. Any further cuts will hinder these crucial enforcement efforts even more. Please tell your members of Congress that you support a balanced approach to address the budget deficit — one that does not include further cuts to important and beneficial wildlife conservation programs.

Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada (Credit: Jerry Pierce)

Mary Beth Beetham, Director of Legislative Affairs

Cabeza Prieta. Laguna Atacosa. Kenai. Montezuma. Pelican Island. What do these names have in common? Each is a national wildlife refuge — special places where wildlife comes first, strung like a lattice of fine jewels across America, places as beautiful as the names that describe them. If important conservation programs go off the fiscal cliff or are subject to further budget cuts, they could be downsized or eliminated completely, to the detriment of hundreds of species of wildlife. Last week, we talked about one of these: the Endangered Species Program. This week, we’re taking a look at the National Wildlife Refuge System, part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Birdwatchers at Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge

With 560 refuges on approximately 150 million acres, the National Wildlife Refuge System is the largest network of lands and waters in the world dedicated to wildlife conservation. Refuges are home to more than 700 bird species, 220 kinds of mammals, 250 reptiles and amphibians, 1,000 species of fish and nearly 300 threatened or endangered species. The Refuge System forms the backbone of our nation’s efforts to protect our unique and irreplaceable wildlife heritage. And while wildlife comes first on refuges, they are for people, too. There is a refuge in every state and territory, and within an hour’s drive of most major American cities, and the millions of Americans who visit them each year not only enjoy their experiences at the refuge, but also contribute to the local economies of nearby communities.

How does the FWS manage this valuable national asset? The Refuge System’s work is divided into five areas: Wildlife and Habitat Management; Refuge Visitor Services; Refuge Law Enforcement; Conservation Planning and Refuge Maintenance.

Putting Wildlife First
The Wildlife and Habitat Management program is where the actual hands-on work to protect wildlife and habitats gets done. This work includes inventorying and monitoring animal populations and habitat quality; restoring wetlands, forests, grasslands and ocean areas; controlling invasive species; conducting prescribed burns and addressing wildlife disease outbreaks. For instance, this program restored wetlands and streams in a mine-damaged part of Nevada’s Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and reintroduced the speckled dace, a tiny fish that had been extinct there since the 1950s.

Including People Too
Our wildlife heritage belongs to all present and future generations of Americans, and the Visitor Services program works to provide magnificent recreational and educational experiences to about 45 million wildlife enthusiasts each year, whose spending generates more than $4.2 billion and nearly 35,000 private sector jobs in local economies. People visit refuges to hunt, fish, photograph nature, observe wildlife and learn about the environment. The Visitor Services program staffs visitor centers and other facilities, and provides interpretive signs and brochures, tours and structured classroom or outdoor activities. They also manage the network of 40,000 volunteers that do 20 percent of the work across the Refuge System.

National Wildlife Refuge Law Enforcement Officers (Credit: Stefania Moehring)

Protecting ‘Em All
The Refuge Law Enforcement program is staffed with professional law enforcement officers who work to protect not only wildlife and habitats, but also Refuge System facilities and the people who come to enjoy them. Funding goes to emergency managers, field officers, regional law enforcement chiefs, training, equipment and supplies, all of which go to prevent damage or destruction of habitats and facilities, drug trafficking, burglary and other crimes. These workers play an important role in places like Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, located along Arizona’s border with Mexico, which has been heavily impacted by smugglers of both people and drugs. The current law enforcement force for the entire refuge system is just 287, but an analysis by the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommended a total of 845 full-time law enforcement officers.

Getting Conservation Right
Conservation Planning may sound boring, but this program is where the FWS develops Comprehensive Conservation Plans that ensure refuges are managed in a balanced, efficient and coordinated way. Refuge managers and planners work closely with the public, states, tribes, private landowners and other stakeholders to develop the plans for each refuge, which must be revised and updated every 15 years.

A walkway at Oregon’s Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

Keeping it Running
The Maintenance program takes care of the Refuge System’s physical infrastructure — assets that are valued at $26.5 billion. These facilities include a fleet of vehicles and heavy equipment, visitor centers, storage buildings, observation platforms, walkways, roads, bridges, trails, fencing and water management structures, and maintaining such a varied array of assets is an important part of conservation work. For instance, this program maintains and repairs heavy equipment needed to remove thick swaths of invasive plants at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in California.

If funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System is cut further, it will have disastrous consequences for all these essential programs. The Refuge System already operates on a shoestring budget of only $3.24 per acre — just about half of what is needed!

Defenders is a member of a coalition of groups called the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE), which released a report this week called Fiscal Cliff Dwellers: America’s Wildlife Refuges on the Edge. This report describes the top 10 impacts that the fiscal cliff or additional funding cuts will have on the Refuge System:

• Visitor centers and even entire refuges will be forced to close.
• Opportunities for hunting and fishing will be lost.
• Without staff to coordinate them or resources to do the work, volunteers will be turned away.
• Local economies that rely on income from refuge visitors will lose revenue.
• Without enough people to enforce laws protecting refuges, their wildlife and their visitors, we will see an increase of poaching, vandalism and drug smuggling on refuges.
• People who enjoy birding and watching wildlife will lose the opportunity to do so.
• Without the staff or equipment needed to remove them, invasive species will spread.
• Habitat restoration and fire management will be halted.
• Responses to devastation caused by natural disasters will be delayed.
• The newly-initiated inventory and monitoring program, which tracks the size and health of wildlife populations and habitat, and can help alert refuge managers to potential problems, could be terminated.

The report calls on Congress to abandon these draconian funding cuts and instead, fully fund the Refuge System. Remember, the many species of wildlife that rely on these refuges for survival cannot speak for themselves — we need to be their voice. Please contact your members of Congress and ask them not to cut funding for national wildlife refuge and other programs that wildlife need.

Mary Beth Beetham, Director of Legislative Affairs

You’ve probably heard a lot lately about the upcoming fiscal cliff — draconian automatic funding cuts to federal programs that will harm America’s wildlife and habitats, scheduled to take effect in early January in the absence of a larger budget agreement. But whether these automatic cuts occur or not, the shrinking federal budget will ensure that funding for wildlife and habitat conservation will continue to be in a precarious state for at least the next several years.

Bald eagles are one of many species that owe their recovery to the Endangered Species Act and the USFWS Endangered Species Program (Credit: Wes Gibson)

It’s my job to go to Capitol Hill and make the case for wildlife conservation funding — but it is more important than ever that you lend your help as well. Representatives and Senators need to hear from you, their constituents, that these programs are important and worth funding. To help you understand what’s at stake here, we’re going to spend some time each week explaining what these programs do to uphold our nation’s wildlife laws and protect endangered species, migratory birds and other key animals and habitats. Today, we’re focusing on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Endangered Species Program.

The Endangered Species Act, one of the most visionary conservation laws ever passed, is our nation’s cornerstone of wildlife conservation. For nearly 40 years, it has been tremendously successful in preventing the extinction of our wildlife treasures, including bald eagles, California condors, Florida panthers, gray wolves, grizzly bears and manatees — all achieved despite severe and chronic funding shortfalls.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is one of two federal agencies responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act, and it has jurisdiction over the lion’s share of the more than 1,400 protected U.S. plants and animals. The Service’s program is divided into four smaller programs that follow the different sections of the law: 1) Listing; 2) Candidate Conservation; 3) Recovery; and 4) Consultation.

Protecting New Species
First, FWS biologists and other staff analyze the best scientific information to identify species that may be in need of protection. Listing a species is a rigorous procedure. The FWS must develop, propose and finalize regulations that include information on the species population, range, habitat needs, evaluation of threats, examples of conservation efforts, and actions that may be prohibited if listing occurs. The listing process requires painstaking analysis of both scientific information and comments by the public, and can often take several years. Then, once a species is listed, the FWS has to designate habitat critical to the species’ survival and recovery.

The Pacific walrus is one of nearly 200 candidate species waiting for full Endangered Species Act protections (Credit: Joel Garlich-Miller)

Safeguarding Unprotected Species
If a plant or an animal faces severe enough threats to justify listing, but the FWS lacks funding to list the species immediately, it becomes a candidate species. While candidates await protection, Service personnel work with partners on the ground to put conservation measures in place and remove threats to these species. There are currently 193 candidate species, including the American wolverine, red knot, Pacific fisher, Pacific walrus, mountain yellow-legged frog, yellow-billed loon, New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and the lesser prairie chicken. Because FWS funding for listing is already inadequate, many candidates have been awaiting listing for years.

Helping Declining or Protected Species
Once a species is under the Act’s protection, it moves into the Recovery program, where Service staff develop and implement a plan to stop the species decline, and bring it back to the point where it can survive on its own. Developing a sound recovery plan can be another painstaking process, and involves working with scientists and stakeholders to spell out the research and management actions necessary for recovery. Once the plan is finished (and even while it is being developed), FWS leads the efforts to actually carry out the required activities on the ground, working with private landowners, state, local and other federal agencies, tribes and other partners. This part of the program includes efforts like:

• Restoring Florida panther habitat
• Monitoring and taking inventories of Canada lynx
• Installing wildlife crossings for ocelots in Texas
• Marking and maintaining boat speed zones for manatees
• Captive breeding and reintroduction of black-footed ferrets

As part of their recovery program, the USFWS has reintroduced endangered black-footed ferrets into their native habitat. (Credit: Ryan Moehring/USFWS)

Reducing Harm to Listed Species
While a species is protected, FWS staff works under the Consultation program to make sure outside projects don’t significantly harm protected species. There are literally tens of thousands of projects every year in all parts of the country that require consultation to reduce harm to endangered species, creating a crushing workload for agency personnel. This part of the program does things like:

• Work with the Coast Guard to reduce harm to manatees and sea turtles during events like regattas, boat races and fishing tournaments
• Work with the Army Corps of Engineers and other entities to reduce harm to the pallid sturgeon from navigation operations on the Upper Mississippi River
• Work with the Department of Defense to reduce harm to more than 100 species in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands from expanded use of larger munitions
• Work with the Bureau of Land Management, renewable energy companies and others so that wind turbines, solar arrays, and transmission lines can be sited and built while reducing harm to species like bats, golden eagles, whooping cranes and desert tortoise

All these pieces of the Endangered Species Program are vital to prevent the extinction of dozens of species, and to encourage the recovery of hundreds more. Further cuts to the program’s budget will delay or stop listing of species, undermine work to identify and conserve candidates and recover listed species, and slow or stop consultation, which would lead to a delay in projects and greater controversy surrounding the Endangered Species Act.

Keeping federal conservation laws and programs strong is essential to much of the work that Defenders does to protect wildlife and habitat. But these federal efforts are often only as good as the funding that supports them. The animals that benefit from these programs have no voice in politics. To prevent these cuts and keep these programs running, we have to take the message to Congress ourselves. Please, contact your elected officials and speak out on behalf of wildlife.

Stop the war on wolves! Tell President Obama to protect Wyoming’s wolves until the state comes up with a better management plan.

When a species is removed from the endangered species list, it should be a cause for celebration. It should mean that success has been achieved, and a species that was once on the brink of being wiped out is now stable enough to live in balance with the environment. It should mean that the organizations and agencies whose responsibility it has been to nurture and protect that species have a plan in place to ensure that that species will not be pushed to the edge of extinction again. Sadly, when it comes to wolves, reality has little to do with what should be.

Wolves have only been delisted for a little over a year in Montana, Idaho, and parts of other northern Rockies states. Yet those states have already started to unravel one of the greatest conservation successes of all time by aggressively targeting wolves.

Without federal protection, wolves have been made more vulnerable to those who would kill them to protect their livestock. Defenders is working hard to show people that there is an easier way. Our projects teach ranchers and other property owners how to coexist with wolves by using nonlethal methods of keeping them away from livestock. It is slow going, trying to change the mindset that has existed in this region for decades, but we’re getting there.

Unfortunately, others have used managed hunts as a means to aggressively reduce wolf populations — something they wouldn’t do for other wildlife species. Since they were delisted in 2011, more than 500 wolves have been killed by hunters and trappers in Idaho and Montana. We’ve known for some time that once Wyoming’s wolves got booted off the endangered species list, the state would be poised to implement an aggressive, wolf-killing agenda. Now it looks like that might happen. Any day now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to remove wolves from the endangered species list in Wyoming, which means that the state’s plans could be set in motion very soon.

Wolves are being persecuted as unwanted vermin rather than being treated like the valuable native wildlife they are.

Wyoming’s current “management” plan could result in more than 100 wolves being killed through a combination of hunting and shoot-on-sight predator control outside Yellowstone National Park. That means more than a third of the state’s current wolf population could be eliminated. Only 100 wolves in a state with tens of thousands of square miles of suitable habitat. Though the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has approved this management plan, there is no scientific justification for cutting wolves down to such low numbers. In fact, no other native wildlife species are managed to a biological minimum in this way. Only wolves.

Across the northern Rockies, we’re seeing wolves being persecuted as unwanted vermin rather than being treated like the valuable native wildlife they are. It’s the same approach that led to the eradication of wolves from the region nearly a century ago, and it is still a persistent threat to wolves today.

With Wyoming getting ready to add its name to the ranks of states willing to wage war on a species just recently brought back from the brink, Defenders is saying enough is enough. We’re going to the top of the ladder and reaching out to President Obama to keep Wyoming from delisting wolves without a proper management plan in place. You can add your voice to the thousands of others in support of Wyoming wolves by sending your own letter to the president. Help us tell him that the goal of delisting a species should be to help the population continue to recover, not put it on life support.

Don’t forget to check back next week to learn more about wolves in Wyoming, and what the state’s management plan will mean for them.

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge shelters tens of thousands of shorebirds and waterfowl, including the threatened Steller's eider.

Located on the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is internationally recognized as an important wetland, protected as a wildlife refuge and designated as a Wilderness Area.

It’s one of Alaska’s most ecologically diverse refuges, with lagoons, tundra and stunning mountain peaks. This incredible habitat is home to brown bears, wolverines, caribou and other wildlife.

Tens of thousands of waterfowl, seabirds and shorebirds rely on the Izembek for nesting and feeding. In fact, each fall the refuge shelters nearly the entire population of Pacific black brant and emperor geese.

But federal officials are under pressure to move forward with a plan to build a road through the heart of this amazing place.

Please speak out now to urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service NOT to allow a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

There are so many things wrong with the proposed road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

• It would slice through the ecological heart of this amazing place, devastating fragile habitat and the wildlife that lives there.
• It would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
• It would also set a terrible precedent, threatening other refuges and Wilderness Areas.
• It is unnecessary—faster transportation alternatives already exist for the area.

The deadline for public comments is Friday, May 18th so please take action today.

Drilling in the Arctic Ocean poses grave threats to America's vanishing polar bears. Photo courtesy USFWS

America’s polar bears are struggling to survive — with biologists predicting they could disappear in just a few short decades. But Big Oil uses your tax dollars to drill in key polar bear habitat.

Sea turtles, dolphins and other Gulf Coast wildlife paid the price of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster. Yet Big Oil still spends your tax dollars on pursuing more risky drilling in the Gulf and other coastal waters.

Today, the U.S. Senate could vote to end the $4 billion in taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil – but we need your voice to make it happen.

Please call your U.S. Senators today at the numbers below to urge them to support the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act — and end billions of dollars in Big Oil giveaways. 

Just deliver this quick message:

“My name is (NAME) and I live in (STATE) and I’m calling to urge my Senator to support the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act (S. 2204) being voted on today. I want my tax dollars to be invested in clean, renewable energy — and not be used to prop up polluters’ profits.”

Then please tell us about your call. This important step will help track responses from across the country so we can follow up with your lawmakers.

A vote could come as soon as TODAY – Please call now!

Gulf Coast wildlife paid the price of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster.

From 2001 to 2011, the top five Big Oil companies raked in more than $1 trillion in profits. But these companies continue to receive $4 billion each year in taxpayer subsidies. With rising gas prices and a fragile economy, why should American taxpayers prop up polluters’ profits? 

Tell your Senators enough is enough! Call now to urge them to end the $4 billion in wasteful taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil.

It seems simple: Instead of putting our polar bears, sea turtles and other wildlife at risk, our tax dollars should be used to invest in long-term, clean energy solutions that will end our dependence on dirty fossil fuels — and put us on a course toward a cleaner, safer energy future.

But as much as this legislation makes sense, passing this bill will not be easy. The oil industry has already shown its reach in this Congress, slipping harmful measures into legislation that would hand over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, our coastal waters and other natural treasures to Big Oil’s dirty drills.

Please call today and deliver a loud, clear message to your Senators: It’s time to end Big Oil’s subsidies — and invest in a cleaner energy future.

One quick call can make a big difference for our wildlife and wild places.

Learn more:

Read what Defenders’ president Jamie Rappaport Clark has to say about Big Oil subsidies and what Congress should do to redirect this country to a more sustainable energy future on National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts Blog.