Photo by Mike Dunn
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THE CRISIS AT HAND From his first moments in office in January 2025, President Donald Trump began rescinding many of America's environmental and natural resources protection programs and funding. Since then the cascade of funding terminations and even eliminations of entire federal environmental protection and conservation programs have been unending: this is the worst catastrophe for America's programs to safeguard environmental and public health in history. In the second Trump administration the President and his people are meaner and more dismissive of the laws and norms of governing-- eliminating or refusing to comply with environmental protection and conservation laws and rules. The protection of our nation's clean air and water, public lands, and wildlife has been eviscerated. Wildlife and the Endangered Species Act are targeted. Public lands and the federal employees who manage and safeguard them are imperiled. The Trump Administration is doubling down on fossil fuels extraction, giving immunity to air and water polluters, abandoning climate and environmental pollution science, and accelerating the climate emergency. President Trump and his appointees have unleashed oil and gas drilling, closed or downsized national monuments, targeted and ceased funding for climate change resilience and pollution abatement enforcement, removed public health and environmental regulations, excised environmental justice protections, and embarked upon mass layoffs at the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture agencies, and more. Many public interest and environmental and conservation organizations are mounting defenses, chronicling the rollbacks, cutbacks, policy revisions and, the gathering climate crisis. Resist we must! Resistance takes many forms. WE THANK THOSE WHO VOTE AND COMMUNICATE WITH ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES AS IF THE FUTURE LIVES AND HEALTH OF OUR LOVED ONES, COMMUNITY, COUNTRY, AND THE EARTH DEPENDED ON IT ! We are deeply concerned about erosion of safeguards for our nation's public lands and waters. While Americans are divided on many issues, we believe our mutual love for our nation's wild lands and natural places is a common cause that unites us. Protecting our public lands and natural heritage assets is not a "blue" or "red" issue. We think the vast majority of Americans support the conservation of America's environmental resources and natural heritage. We firmly believe that the twin crises of Climate Change and Destruction of Natural Resources must be addressed for the sake of humanity, all of nature, and the continued health of our nation and planet. |
**ALERT June 9, 2025 The recently released Trump FY26 budget proposes to dismantle the overwhelmingly bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act and attempts to eviscerate the law by diverting nearly half of the funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) -- America’s best conservation and recreation program -- further threatening our National Parks, forests, and wildlife areas and jeopardizing projects in all fifty states and recreation access for all. To combat this assault on LWCF and our public lands, the LWCF Coalition is preparing to send a group letter to Congress requesting they reject any diversion, cut, or amendment to undermine LWCF. Your voice and support is vital to ensuring the future success of conservation and recreation projects across the nation. CLICK HERE to view the text of the letter and add your organization/business to the signatures. All who are concerned for environmental protection and survival of our natural and cultural heritage must stand to defend the integrity of our legal system and the bedrock environmental laws that protect our communities and environmental assets. |
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CODE RED FOR HUMANITY! Changing Climate Realities and Threats Demand Urgent Response and Mitigation Attempts
Extreme heat, droughts, wildfires, melting ice caps, sea level rise, species extinction and potential collapse of ecosystems and ocean currents are all real threats and are worsening due to human-caused heating of the global climate. Urgent and immediate mitigating action is demanded to counter these threats and to reduce emissions of carbon, methane, and other fossil-fuels causing catastrophic climate changes. Steadily rising heat is inevitable for Earth’s lands and seas. If remediation actions are not taken NOW, our civilizations, human health and welfare, and natural ecosystems are all in immediate jeopardy. This Washington Post article about potential action pathways for Climate Change--"We looked at 1,200 possibilities for the planet’s future. These options are our best hope"--is troubling, in that the world has probably run out of easy options to stay under 1.5 degrees C — or have a low overshoot. But the Trump Administration’s proposed budget eliminates the Ecosystems Mission Area of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – a move that would terminate science centers across the country, including the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC). If this part of the proposed budget is adopted by Congress, the Southeastern US Climate Adaption Science Center – and others like it across the country – will be terminated. The regional approach to the Climate Adaptation Science Center network strengthens rapid knowledge transfer, increasing the efficiency and capacity of local efforts. Eliminating the CASC network would undermine our nation’s ability to proactively address coastal erosion, invasive species, and the collapse of natural assets that millions of Americans depend on for clean water, food security, recreation, and cultural heritage. The proposed elimination of the mission area would:
Climate change and its impacts will not slow anytime soon. Record-breaking wildfires, floods, heat waves, and other impacts increasingly threaten our health and wellbeing. Americans, governments, and organizations need to adapt to build resilience, and climate adaptation science protects lives and livelihoods. However, Trump-era's U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and White House are working to eliminate many programs that protect our fish, wildlife, lands, waters, and people and that prepare our nation for the growing stresses on ecosystems now and in the future. The USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) are on the chopping block. Now is the time to call or write your members of Congress. In particular, House Interior Appropriations Chair Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Senate Interior Appropriations Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) need to hear about the value of the CASC network. As Science magazine recently reported this spring, the executive branch plans to eliminate the entirety of the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, under which the CASCs reside. This FY26 budget proposal would eliminate all work of the CASCs, including that of its USGS staff and nine regional, university-led consortia. In addition, based on past executive actions in other science agencies, USGS staff with the CASCs are in imminent danger of being fired preemptively under the FY25 budget. This action would ensure that the national CASC office and all nine regional CASCs are illegally disbanded soon despite having current funding appropriated by Congress. The CASCs have already been heavily impacted by executive actions. About 25 percent of the USGS experts working on the CASC mission have left federal service early in the Trump Administration with the remaining staff being threatened with firing through a DOI-wide reduction-in-force. Three CASCs (Northeast, Pacific Islands, and South Central) are at the end of their current “hosting agreement” and, although USGS has finished scientific review of the openly competitive rebid proposals, DOI has halted the process of selecting and funding the next consortia of these CASCs. This action leaves many employees of universities, tribes, and other organizations without jobs within a few months. DOI also abruptly moved $15M from this year’s CASC budget to unrelated programs, cutting short current research projects, halting new projects, and leaving graduate students without funding. If you care deeply about conserving ecosystems and you understand the value of forging lasting partnerships between researchers and managers to protect water, land, wildlife, fish, and people. Over the past 15 years, the work of the CASCs has been central to these efforts—and so much more (see PDF attachment). The CASCs have trained hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows, and early career managers, many of whom have become leaders in the field of climate adaptation. And the CASCs have organized scores of workshops, working groups, symposia, webinars, and other events to help build vibrant regional climate adaptation science communities across the nation. The CASCs develop and deliver climate adaptation science to those who need it most. Recent events have illustrated the importance of public opposition in curbing executive actions. Please stand with science, stay informed, and help raise awareness about the executive branch’s plans to dismantle the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers. Call your members of Congress or write letters on behalf of the CASC network. Share this message widely and speak out in ways that feel right to you. Your voice matters at this crucial moment! The extremity of the changed climate situation is articulated in a 2022 article from Earth.org, which analyzed findings from the UN’s Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES):
Collaborating for landscape impact: Insights and reflections [from national Network for Landscape Conservation; May 2025 Landscape Conservation Bulletin ] The practice of landscape conservation and stewardship is predicated in collaboration, as we strive to work across jurisdictions, sectors, and issues to advance a better future for the places (and people) that we care about. In doing this work, we are continually called upon to advance our collaborative practice so that we can more effectively deliver just, equitable, and impactful outcomes. A suite of new resources are aimed at deepening our capacity to be effective collaborators. First, our colleagues at the Institute for Conservation Leadership have penned a “how to” chapter on collaboration in the recently released book, Tools to Save Our Home Planet: A Changemaker’s Guidebook. The chapter aims to share insight on effective collaboration methods for leading change and accelerating environmental progress, and distills out seven foundational tips for building and stewarding collaboration. Over the course of the last month, ICL has been spotlighting the seven tips at the heart of the chapter via its BLOG. As ICL acknowledges in the chapter, collaboratives don’t magically make conflict disappear but rather offer a space for working through conflict. A recent blogpost from the Environmental Dispute Resolution program at the University of Utah offers added depth here, reflecting on how a focus on interests rather than positions can be critical in navigating conflict and allowing us to avoid polarization and divisiveness to instead find effective paths forward. Elsewhere, a recent podcast hosted by the Collective Impact Forum featured an in-depth conversation on the unique role that backbone coordinators play in leading collaboratives—exploring how these practitioners, despite lacking formal authority or decision-making power, often wield influence and build alignment in driving progress towards its shared goals. The discussion surfaces core competencies that enable backbone coordinators to activate multiple layers of influence towards advancing shared vision. Finally, a recent article in The Revelator acknowledges the propensity for environmental advocates to experience burnout. The work of advancing collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship is complex and challenging work, and can be draining. In the current context, such work is getting even more challenging—even as it has never been more important; a practice of self-care is critical to navigating this space effectively, and the article points to some suggestions and insights in this space. Major threat to Endangered Species Act (ESA) now unfolding The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service under the new administration have proposed a rule that would dramatically weaken how the ESA protects wildlife. Specifically, the agencies aim to repeal a longstanding regulation—dating back to 1975—that defines “harm” to include the destruction or degradation of essential habitat. Under the ESA, actions that “take” a listed species are prohibited, and for decades, that has included harming species by damaging the habitat they depend on. The proposed change would narrow the definition of “harm” so drastically that only directly killing an animal would count as a violation—stripping away habitat protections critical for survival and recovery. This proposed change threatens to undermine decades of conservation progress and endanger species already on the brink. “It is simply absurd to work to accomplish wildlife conservation without focusing on habitat,” said NC Wildlife Federation CEO Tim Gestwicki. “This ill-conceived proposal undermines not only the credibility of those making them, but fully handcuffs any realistic means to keep declining species from becoming endangered or losing valuable wildlife ecosystems.” STAY TUNED AND VIGILANT! The Trump administration has announced another major attack on the Endangered Species Act, proposing new rules that would limit the law’s effectiveness. The Trump administration’s proposal would: 1. eliminate the automatic protections that species receive when they are listed as threatened. 2. limit habitat protections to the area where each species lives now, ignoring its historic range. 3. allow agencies to fast-track harmful projects like logging or drilling. 4. Prioritize corporate finances over science in decisions about species' survival. With weakened regulations, the Trump administration can allow extractive industries to proceed on projects that harm imperiled species and the places where they live. Read more about threats to the Endangered Species Act. READ MORE Promising News for Endangered Red Wolves The Center for Biological Diversity reported in late December 2024 that funds have been successfully raised to leverage $25 million from the Federal Highway Administration to construct thirteen wildlife highway crossings across US highway 64 which bisects the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in the Dare County peninsula in coastal North Carolina, where the last beleaguered population of the critically endangered Red Wolf survives. A dozen wolves have been struck and killed by vehicles while attempting to cross the highway in recent months. In just a few months, the Center and partners raised $2 million in matching funds for a total of $4 million to build wildlife crossings in red wolves' only remaining wild home in North Carolina. These funds were essential to winning a $25 million federal grant that was just announced by the Federal Highway Administration. Stay involved in the Center's work to save red wolves in the wild on the Center's SaveRedWolves.org website. Congressional Legislation Supporting Migratory Birds in 2024 Became Law In April 2024 by a rare demonstration of bipartisan Congressional action, both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House passed and President Biden signed into law the Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act. The legislation reauthorizes funding and enhances accessibility for partners to participate in the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act program, which has funded more than 700 projects in 43 countries, conserving 350 species that nest in the U.S. and Canada, and winter in Latin America and the Caribbean. By passing the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act, Congress reauthorized vital funding for the health of wetlands and other habitats across North America, places that millions of birds call home and that millions of Americans enjoy. Read more and More info here. But Congress needs to fully fund this program. Read more. US Supreme Court Majority Maimed Wetlands Protection The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 handed down a 5-4 vote outrageous decision that puts our clean water and communities at risk! Ignoring scientific consensus and decades of established law defining the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Sackett v US EPA decision drastically limits the law’s protections for wetlands by restricting the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. This ruling jeopardizes drinking water supplies for millions of people and threatens the health of our nation’s streams and wetlands. For more than 50 years, federal law has been the backbone of wetland protections in our states. The Supreme Court majority's ruling drastically reduces the scope of the Clean Water Act and discards protection of wetlands (on its 50th year anniversary) at a time when they are desperately needed. The Court's ruling puts nearly half of America's remaining wetlands in peril of destruction. "At least half of the nation's wetlands could lose protection under this ruling, which provides an even narrower definition of 'protected waters' than the Trump administration had sought" (New York Times). In the South, we know the value of wetlands. From salt marshes to Carolina bays to mountain bogs, wetlands provide essential habitat for wildlife, filter pollution, and absorb floodwaters that threaten our communities with increasing frequency. Wetlands are essential to healthy streams, rivers, and fisheries. This decision is a gift to big polluters and industry interests to strip the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect our health and our waters. The decision will allow more pollution to flow into our streams and rivers and for developers to destroy wetlands’ ability to absorb floodwaters. “For 50 years the Clean Water Act has been instrumental in revitalizing and safeguarding drinking water sources for people and wildlife, wetlands for flood control, and habitats that sustain our wildlife heritage,” said Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation. “Federal protections that don’t depend on local politics or regional polluter influence are essential to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities nationwide. The court’s ruling removes these vital protections from important streams and wetlands in every state.” And even worse, Republican-majority controlled state legislatures --including in North Carolina -- immediately passed legislation reducing the scope of wetlands protection within states. With the Court’s ruling as a major blow, the fight to defend clean water and protect vital wetlands has never been more urgent. Although the Supreme Court’s decision is significant and disappointing, it will not stop defenders of the environment from fighting to protect wetland ecosystems, clean water and applying place-based knowledge and expertise. We must not stop efforts to protect wetlands in the South and the communities that depend on them. Too much is at stake. We must continue to work at the local, state, and federal level to build protections for wetlands and to defend our natural communities from rampant wetland destruction. We will have to fight in our courts, state legislatures, in Congress, and in local governments to protect our waterways and wetlands. |
Photo by Mike Dunn
Defenders of natural resource conservation and environmental protection programs must be vigilant and register their concerns with their congressional representatives if we are to ensure continuation of federal funding for important environmental protection and natural resource conservation programs. 
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MANY PERILS DEMAND RESPONSEOur Earth: Underwater The Union of Concerned Scientists' “Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for U.S. Coastal Real Estate," is a detailed analysis of future flood risk that seeks to put the true peril of coastal real estate into perspective. “Underwater” predicts that 300,000 residential and commercial properties will likely face chronic and disruptive flooding by 2045, threatening $135 billion in property damage and forcing 280,000 Americans to adapt or relocate. If you think U.S. cities struggle with high housing costs now, and the sprawl that often results from high housing costs, imagine decades in the future, when wave after wave of climate-displaced Americans arrive searching for work and an affordable place to live. Southern Environmental Law Center leads efforts to defend the environment SELC continues to serve as a lead defender of environmental resources and health in our region. A recording of SELC legal action updates, "Power Plants to Public Lands: Key Decisions Shaping Our Future" is now available to stream. LAUNCH WEBINAR Okefenokee Defense Successful! Next Step--Expand the National Wildlife Refuge In June 2025 The Conservation Fund succeeded in defending the magnificent Okefenokee swamp in southern Georgia (when state leaders had failed to act) and, with financial assistance from several major foundations, convinced a corporation to withdraw its application for state permits to strip mine the sand ridge on the eastern flank of the swamp (its "bathtub rim") for low-grade titanium mining. The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, in Georgia, is home to one of the world's largest pristine freshwater swamps. The Okefenokee is North America's largest blackwater swamp. More than 700,000 people visit every year to see the swamp’s tea-colored waters, towering cypress trees, longleaf pine forests, and abundant wildlife. The Southern Environmental Law Center, Center for Biological Diversity, and other allies had long worked to stop titanium mining from destroying nearly 8,000 acres right next to the Okefenokee. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed adding 22,000 acres to the 100,000-acre refuge as additions become available from willing sellers — a lifeline that could help safeguard this precious place from mining, reduce wildfire risk, preserve regional wildlife corridors, and conserve habitat for imperiled species like red-cockaded woodpecker, eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise, sandhill crane, and many other native and migratory wildlife species. A June 20, 2025 announcement explained that Twin Pines Minerals had finally agreed to give up its dangerous mining plan along the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. See this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The land is being purchased by The Conservation Fund for just under $60 million, to be added to the National Wildlife Refuge. This great news came after six years of dogged work by untold numbers of people from all around Georgia and the nation — who persistently spoke out against the project and the mining company and for the swamp. Also see this Opinion piece. Responsible Offshore Wind Can Benefit Birds and Communities The National Audubon Society's new report, Offshore Wind and Birds: Developing the Offshore Wind that Birds Need, highlights the potential of offshore wind to combat climate change while benefiting both wildlife and communities. The report advocates for rapidly adopting offshore wind to combat the climate crisis while protecting birds, supporting coastal communities, and addressing the growing demand from manufacturing and technologies. Read the report to learn how this clean energy source can be a win for wildlife, climate, and the U.S. economy. Everyone deserves access to the outdoors where they live Many Americans, particularly those living in urban and low-income areas, lack access to outdoor green spaces that give them the ability to experience the beauty of nature close to home. The newly enacted (January 4, 2025) federal legislation: Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences (EXPLORE) Act serves to raise the profile and quality of outdoor recreation in the nation. On December 19, 2024, after a decade of work from the outdoor recreation community, the EXPLORE Act passed the U.S. Senate and was signed into law by the President on January 4, 2025. This bipartisan recreation policy package takes important steps to expand and improve outdoor recreation opportunities. This is a big win for outdoor recreation. The EXPLORE Act includes several pieces of legislation including the Outdoors for All Act, which expands outdoor recreational opportunities in low-income communities across the nation. TRUMP 2X Administration Reversing & Rescinding Federal Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Conservation Programs and Funding President Donald Trump since taking office on Jan. 20, 2025, has issued an unprecedented number of executive orders and other administrative actions that touch on almost every part of the federal government. These directives will also impact state and local governments, companies, nonprofit organizations and individuals across the country, though in what ways and to what degree is not yet clear. Among other consequences, his administration's actions have created real and potentially long-lasting uncertainty and challenges for natural resources conservation, public and environmental health.
Photo by Mike Dunn
Photo by Brenda Stein
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DEFENSE
ONE MILLION OF EARTH'S SPECIES HURTLING TOWARD EXTINCTION
At least 1 million of the Earth's species will be extinct within the next few decades without immediate human intervention, according to the United Nations report released in 2019, which was authored and researched by an international panel of over 450 premiere conservation biologists who composed the Intergovernmental Science-Polity Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This horrendous rate of extinction is due to a combination of human-caused land uses, pollution, climate change, population growth, and overfishing. The scientific assessment concludes that to slow this loss of the Earth's biodiversity and ecosystems, "transformational change" to the way society operates is demanded to put us back on course to meet global sustainable development targets. Species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past--all due to humans. But it’s not too late to fix the problem, the report said. Accelerating losses of Earth’s biodiversity is well documented. The Nature Conservancy states that from 1970 to 2016 there was a nearly 70% average decline in populations of birds, amphibians, mammals, fish, and reptiles. Research suggests that by 2070, the Earth could lose another third or more of its species if immediate steps are not to taken to stop the extinctions. Human survival too is dependent on such action. The United Nations report relied heavily on research by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is composed of biologists who maintain a list of threatened species. The IUCN calculated in 2019 that 27,159 species are threatened, endangered, or extinct in the wild out of nearly 100,000 species biologists examined in depth. That includes 1,223 mammal species, 1,492 bird species and 2,341 fish species. Nearly half the threatened species are plants. But scientists have only examined a small fraction of the estimated 8 million species on Earth. The big picture: The IPBES findings are a first-ever global report on the state of nature, and is aimed at getting policy-makers, activists and others to understand that biodiversity must be a high global priority.
 Photo by Mike Dunn
Thousands of Species Depend on the Endangered Species Act for Survival (from Center for Biological Diversity) The Endangered Species Act has been severely underfunded for decades and desperately needs more funding to combat the climate crisis, habitat loss, wildlife exploitation and pollution, which are pushing more animal and plant species to the brink. We call on Congress to double its funding for endangered species conservation to $592 million per year. We can't curb the extinction crisis without giving every species what it needs. One million animal and plant species face extinction in the coming decades — and there simply isn't enough budgeted for their survival. The Endangered Species Act saves 99% of the species that are granted its powerful protection. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hundreds of endangered animals and plants receive less than $1,000 a year for their recovery. Many species receive no funding at all. Our proposal calls for every species listed under the Act to receive a minimum of $50,000 per year for recovery. Humanity Will Wipe Out More Than A Quarter Of Earth’s Biodiversity Scientists predict what species will likely disappear in the next century due to humanity's impact on the planet. Read in Forbes. Over the past 50 years the Earth has lost an extraordinary number of its wildlife species and their populations, including loss of an estimated 3 billion birds in North America alone since 1970. It is critically urgent to take action to combat dual crises of biodiversity and habitat losses and the deleterious effects of climate change. 
Photo by Walker Golder
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