Positive Wildlife News 2022

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Federal Judge Reinstates Obama-Era Coal Leasing Moratorium on Federal Lands

“This is an important victory for wildlife, communities and for our nation’s climate future. We urge the Biden Administration to move swiftly toward ending BLM’s coal leasing program in order to protect wildlife, our public lands, and our climate.”

- Defenders of Wildlife’s Managing Attorney, McCrystie Adams

A federal judge in Montana District Court ruled today to reinstate a moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands, halting all coal leasing on federal lands until the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) completes a more sufficient environmental analysis. Defenders of Wildlife is one of several plaintiffs on this case.

The original moratorium set by the Obama administration in 2016 was overturned by Trump's Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, in 2017. The Biden administration revoked the Zinke order last year, but did not reinstate the moratorium.

Judge Reinstates Obama-Era Coal Leasing Moratorium on Federal Lands
 
1,260 acres at Waiea is newest Natural Area Reserve, the first on Hawaiʻi Island in 35 years

A roughly 1,260-acre parcel in Waiea, on Hawai‘i island has been designated as part of the State Natural Area Reserve System managed by the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

The Waiea NAR contains moist koa and ‘ōhi‘a dominated forests on the western flank of Mauna Loa within the South Kona district. State officials say it is great habitat for rare forest birds and plants. In fact, wild ʻalalā (Hawaiian crow) were last observed in this district.

1,260 acres at Waiea is newest Natural Area Reserve, the first on Hawaiʻi Island in 35 years | Maui Now
 
Conservation Area in Ecuador, Expanded by more than 109,000 Acres

The Loja Municipal Conservation and Sustainable Use Area in the Ecuadorian Andes, originally declared in late 2020 with AAF support, was expanded on June 14, 2022 to include an additional 109,279 acres, bringing the area’s total to 182,980 acres.

Located on the southeastern slopes of the Andes, the Loja Municipal Conservation and Sustainable Use Area encompasses cloud and montane forests and paramo grasslands. Its vast landscape is home to thousands of species, from large mammals like the Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus) to small birds such as the blue-throated hillstar hummingbird (Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus). The area boasts high levels of biodiversity including numerous endemic species, meaning those found only in this specific region.

Conservation Area in Ecuador, Expanded by more than 109,000 Acres - Andes Amazon Fund
 
A Win For Birds: Court Upholds Bird-Friendly Building Ordinance In Wisconsin

The ordinance, which went into effect in 2020, survived a challenge by a group of Wisconsin-area developers

Today the Dane County Circuit Court ruled in favor of birds and upheld Madison, Wisconsin's bird-friendly building ordinance, the first ever adopted in the state. The ordinance, which went into effect in 2020 and requires new large construction and expansion projects to use modern bird-safe strategies and materials, was challenged by a group of Wisconsin-area developers in 2021.

“It's hard for us to believe that this case was brought in the first place, since it's possible to design beautiful, affordable buildings that also protect birds,” said Mike Parr, President of American Bird Conservancy (ABC). “We feel like the court did the right thing in light of significant bird declines — taking steps to protect birds from one of the largest threats they face is the right thing to do.”

A Win for Birds: Court Upholds Bird-Friendly Building Ordinance in Wisconsin
 
From 300,000 rabbits to none: a Southern Ocean island is reborn

Invasive species on islands: Macquarie Island, a Unesco world heritage site, was being eaten alive until an ambitious eradication programme restored it.

On a world map, Macquarie Island is a speck in the Southern Ocean, but for ecologists it is a beacon, illuminating a future for grand-scale environmental recovery projects.

Melissa Houghton first set foot on the 34km-long green streak as a dog handler in late 2011. Rabbits, cats, rats and mice had been introduced by sealers in the 1800s and were wreaking havoc on the world heritage site. At their peak, there were approximately 300,000 European rabbits and an untold number of black rats and house mice.

During their trip, Houghton and a labrador named Wags found what would prove to be the last vertebrate pests left on the island: an adult rabbit and her young. In 2014, Macquarie was declared pest free, the largest island to successfully eliminate rabbits to date.

Ten years after Wags sniffed out the last rabbit, the island has sprung back to life, and Houghton has stuck around to witness the change. She gave up dog handling, became a scientist and completed her PhD as part of the research team monitoring the island’s resurgence.

“Seeing it rebound, knowing it’s got a long way to go, and that we don’t know what else is going to happen, it’s so exciting,” Houghton says.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...e-species-macquarie-island-southern-ocean-aoe
 
A new hope for Montagu’s Harrier in Portugal

This July, the release of 21 juvenile Montagu’s harriers took place in Castro Verde (Alentejo, southern Portugal) under the Emergency Plan for the Recovery of the Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus). This is a migratory species that nests in Portugal, and the Alentejo region is one of the most important for its reproduction. Here, the Special Protection Area (SPA) for Birds of Castro Verde still shelters a few dozen of pairs of the Montagu’s harrier.

A new hope for Montagu’s Harrier in Portugal - Conservation Optimism
 
In Victory for Wildlife, Florida Department of Transportation Shelves Last M-CORES Toll Road

After three years of overwhelming public opposition, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) shelved the third and final proposed toll road of the Multi-Use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance (M-CORES) program. Defenders of Wildlife and our allies throughout the state never wavered in our opposition. Floridians have achieved a significant victory in stopping these unnecessary and destructive highways that posed unprecedented risks to many imperiled and iconic species.

The M-CORES law, enacted by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on May 17, 2019, required FDOT to plan, develop and fund three new toll highways and utility corridors in the western half of the Florida peninsula from the Everglades to the Florida-Georgia line. If realized, this massive highway expansion project would have irreversibly transformed landscapes across Florida and would have been the largest highway expansion in Florida since the creation of the Interstate System in the 1950s.

The three proposed toll roads from north to south were the Suncoast Connector, the Northern Turnpike Connector and the Southwest-Central Florida Connector. As proposed, these new transportation corridors would have created over 330 miles of new and expanded highways, feeder roads and associated sprawling residential and commercial development. These massive new corridors would have destroyed and fragmented farms, ranches, forests and wildlife habitat for the endangered Florida panther and threatened manatee, as well as black bear, gopher tortoise and many other species in some of the state’s most rural landscapes.

In Victory for Wildlife, Florida Department of Transportation Shelves Last M-CORES Toll Road
 
Sea turtles crawl to new nesting record on Georgia coast

Rare sea turtles that spend summers laying eggs on Southern beaches have crawled to a new state record in Georgia.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday that more than 3,960 loggerhead sea turtle nests have been counted since May along the Georgia coast.

That’s 10 more nests than the previous state record set in 2019, and the number will likely grow. The nesting season typically continues through August.

https://www.wabe.org/sea-turtles-crawl-to-new-nesting-record-on-georgia-coast/
 
Myanmar designates two new protected public forest area

Myanmar has recently designated two new protected public forest areas in the western state of Chin’s Paletwa Township and in the west-central region of Magway’s Gangaw Township.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation on Monday designated the land of 4,988 acres in Paletwa Township as Kayat protected public forest area and the land of 8,400 acres in Gangaw Township as Pawle-Watchipa protected public forest area.

Myanmar designates two new protected public forest areas » Borneo Bulletin Online
 
Centre notifies India’s 31st elephant reserve in Tamil Nadu

The new reserve will be spread over an area of 1,197 square kilometres in Agasthiyamalai

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, announced the notification of one more elephant reserve (ER) in the country in Tamil Nadu during a programme in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctury in Kerala August 12, 2022.

The new reserve will be spread over an area of 1,197 square kilometres in Agasthiyamalai. This will be the 31st ER in the country after Singphan ER in Nagaland was notified in 2018.

Centre notifies India’s 31st elephant reserve in Tamil Nadu
 
Ospreys: Chicks born to county's first recorded breeding pair

The establishment of the first breeding pair of ospreys in Yorkshire for hundreds of years "is nothing short of a miracle", a conservationist has said.

The young adult pair, at the Bolton Castle Estate, near Leyburn, in North Yorkshire, have produced two chicks - a male and a female.

Ospreys have never been recorded as breeding in the county since records began in 1800.

It follows a reintroduction programme at the site.

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject..../uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-62436432.amp
 
Large blue butterfly numbers soar in Britain

Endangered species enjoys best summer in 150 years thanks to habitat restoration scheme.

The large blue butterfly has enjoyed its best summer for 150 years in Britain thanks to targeted restoration work, which is also benefiting other rare insects including the rugged oil beetle and the shrill carder bee.

The butterfly, which became extinct in Britain in 1979 but was reintroduced via caterpillars from Sweden four years later, flew in its greatest numbers in June this year since records began.

South-west England now supports the world’s greatest known concentration of large blues, which are listed as one of Europe’s most endangered insect species.

Up to a third of its British population is found on 12 new sites which a conservation partnership has restored to flower-rich meadows from arable fields, failed conifer plantations, railway banks or degraded downland.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp.../large-blue-butterfly-numbers-soar-in-britain
 
News from The Nature Conservancy's magazine:

1. Federal Funds on the Way for Illinois Conservation
2. Women on Pate Island are Helping Restore Kenya's Coastal Forests
3. Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers are at 10 breeding pairs in TNC's Disney Wilderness Preserve, an are where they were once driven out
 
Secretary Haaland Announces Expansion of National Wildlife Refuge System with Lost Trail Conservation Area in Montana

Conservation easement ensures public access, recreation and sustainable timber harvest will continue on lands in Northwest Montana

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today announced the establishment of the Lost Trail Conservation Area in Northwest Montana as the 568th and newest unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This expansion – the first unit for the Refuge System under Secretary Haaland’s leadership – is the culmination of a 20-year locally-led effort to conserve important big game corridors and recreational areas in the region and a model for the Biden-Harris administration’s ongoing efforts to conserve and restore our nation’s lands and waters.

“The Lost Trail Conservation Area will help guarantee that future generations have access to the same woods and waters as we enjoy today for hunting, fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing,” said Secretary Haaland. “National wildlife refuges are one of the most important ways that we can connect all Americans to public lands with little to no entry fees. I am grateful to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners for the locally led collaboration that led to this important milestone.” .

Secretary Haaland Announces Lost Trail Conservation Area in Montana | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
 
Cheetah Released onto Newly Established KZN Game Reserve in Conservation Milestone for the Species

Earlier this month, as part of the newly established Babanango Game Reserve rewilding journey, two male cheetah were released onto the 19 000 hectare property in a conservation milestone for the species and the reserve. This is the first time in approximately 200 years that this iconic predator would have roamed the spectacular landscape of
Babanango Game Reserve – an area steeped in historic significance and nestled in the heart of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

https://www-sapeople-com.cdn.amppro...n-conservation-milestone-for-the-species/amp/
 
Blue-throated macaws are making a slow, but hopeful, comeback

The Asociación Armonía and the Rainforest Trust report progress in protecting one of the world's rarest birds.

A new report from The Rainforest Trust and Asociación Armonía (Rainforest Trust’s partner in Bolivia) shows that conservation efforts to protect the habitat of one of the world’s most beloved and endangered birds may be working. Once thought to be extinct, a population of nearly 50 blue-throated macaws was rediscovered in northeastern Bolivia in 1992, and thanks to conservation efforts, there are an estimated 200-300 of them living in the wild today.

https://www-popsci-com.cdn.ampproje...-endangered-blue-throated-macaw-comeback/?amp
 
Bringing Back the Birds: Conservation Program Returns Crested Ibis to Skies over Sado

The last wild crested ibis in Japan died in 2003, but a breeding and conservation program has reestablished the species on Sado in Niigata Prefecture using birds brought over from China. Agriculture, once the bane of the crested ibis, has been central to the so-called Sado model promoting a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.

Turning Back the Clock

Floating in the Sea of Japan, the island of Sado in Niigata Prefecture is the only place in Japan where crested ibises live in the wild. Designated a special natural monument, the birds, known as
toki in Japanese, tragically died out in Japan several decades ago. However, dedicated conservation work has returned the crested ibis to Sado’s picturesque forests and fields.

https://www-nippon-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g02153/amp/
 
Domogred Protected Area – Valea Cernei National Park Increases from 56% to 75% – The Romania Journal

The heavily protected area of the Domogred-Valea Cerney National Park will increase from its current 56% to at least 75% of the park’s total area.

This exquisite national park has some of Europe’s most representative primeval beech forests.
Domogled – Cerna Valley National Park.

It is a protected area in the administrative divisions of Karas-Severin and Mehedinti counties in southwestern Romania.

Domogred Protected Area – Valea Cernei National Park Increases from 56% to 75% – The Romania Journal - Worldakkam
 
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