We’re glad y’all are here. Now let’s get to it!

Okefenokee joins World Heritage Site list

We’re still gushing over the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge officially becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Georgia’s “Wild Heart” joins the list of landmarks including the Galapagos Islands, Taj Mahal, and Machu Picchu with this incredible recognition. It’s also the first National Wildlife Refuge to make the list. Congratulations to the amazing folks at Okefenokee Swamp Park and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge who made this inscription possible (check out Okefenokee Swamp Park’s Instagram for more celebrations).

Virginia’s coast targeted for private seabed mining

After a call from the Trump administration to open up our coasts to extractive industries, the coast of Virginia is now a target for commercial seabed mining – a first for our Atlantic shoreline.

The Virginia coast is home to bottlenose dolphins, sea turtles, whales, and diverse fish and shellfish populations. Its commercial fisheries land hundreds of millions of pounds of fish, crab, oysters, clams, and scallops each year with a dockside value exceeding $266 million annually. The broader seafood supply chain generates over $1 billion in economic activity for the Commonwealth. This proposal would enrich private companies at the expense of unnecessarily threatening our natural resources and local economies.

Seabed mining uses industrial-scale dredging of the ocean floor using heavy machinery designed to break up and remove enormous volumes of sediment and seafloor materials. Noise and light from mining could disrupt feeding, reproduction, and navigation behavior of marine wildlife. A Florida company has already requested to lease more than 2,500 square miles of seabed just north of Chesapeake Bay.

One of the many frustrating aspects of this proposal is the lack of details, which keep us all in the dark about the project’s true impact.

North Carolina funds wildlife crossings

The recently passed North Carolina budget included a landmark provision for wildlife: a recurring pot of funds that comes out to more than $5 million a year for wildlife crossings--or more specifically, funds “to plan and construct highway crossings to improve safety and support wildlife connectivity.”

This is a huge step forward in a state that has already taken important steps to improve our wildlife crossing practices.

A couple of years ago, NC Department of Transportation and NC Wildlife Resources Commission inked a deal committing the agencies to work together on projects to enhance habitat connectivity for the benefit of animals and people alike. The past few years have also seen impressive undertakings at the local level--for example, the great, collaborative work being done to enhance wildlife passage through Pigeon River Gorge post-Hurricane Helene, and the amazing Wildlife Crossings Study developed by Durham’s Triangle West Transportation Planning Organization.

This new state funding for wildlife crossings marks an exciting new chapter to build on North Carolina’s momentum over the past few years. This is an important step towards making wildlife passage the rule, rather than the exception.

Here’s a great article from our colleagues at the North Carolina Wildlife Federation: Crossings: Habitat Connectivity and A Historic Investment in North Carolina Wildlife Crossings

What we’re reading

Speaking of funding, Benji Jones at Vox does an extraordinary job explaining why the extinction crisis stakes are so high in Alabama:

“According to a Vox analysis of government data, Alabama has more federally endangered and threatened animal species than any other state aside from California, which is three times larger by area… What makes it even more problematic, however, is that Alabama doesn’t have enough money to help these animals that are most at risk.”

This article really gets at both some of the biodiversity highlights of our region, and the fundamental flaws with how much of the U.S. approaches conservation for rare species. It’s a shame because state wildlife agencies are the “boots on the ground” experts on species and their threats, but they often don’t have the resources they need. This is why creative policy solutions, like those previously advanced in Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) could make a real impact. Not only would something like RAWA get much needed funding to state and local wildlife managers, but it would also help conserve species before they need emergency room style triage like what the Endangered Species Act is designed to provide.

Southern wildlife at Climate Week NYC

Ramona here, with an exciting update: I am thrilled to share that I’m headed to Climate Week in New York next month. I’m hosting a panel that will not only showcase the Southern Appalachians’ breathtaking biodiversity, but how communities are responding to ensure wildlife and people can thrive together in a changing climate. This region was once thought of as a climate haven, but recent history has sadly proven the Southern Appalachians are not immune to more intense storms and rising temperatures. Spoiler alert: many of the same solutions that help wildlife adapt to a climate-changed world can help people too.

The folks joining me for this conversation are creative, smart, and truly passionate about the work they do conserving wildlife across the South. Our panelists include:

• Ben Prater, Southeast Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife.

• Jessica Roberts, PhD: a Principal Associate for the Pew Charitable Trusts leading U.S. Conservation for the Southern Appalachian Region.

• Lindsey Liles, an Asheville-based journalist who reports for Garden and Gun magazine.

• Dalton George, mayor of an Appalachian town in North Carolina.

What I really love about this conversation is that you don’t have to be a Southerner to get something out of it. We’ll be discussing wildlife connectivity and climate resilience solutions that any community can draw inspiration from.

That’s it for now, fellow critter lovers. Until next time,

- Ramona and Terah

Folks who know me well know that I’m an optimist at heart. But the Trump administration’s elimination of longstanding, common sense habitat protections is putting my inherent optimism to the test. When this rule change goes into effect in mid-September, it could be particularly painful here in the southeastern U.S.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries removed the definition of “harm” from the agencies’ ESA rules. Getting rid of a definition may sound simple and innocuous, but the decades-old definition of harm made clear that unauthorized habitat destruction that kills or injures a listed species is prohibited under the ESA. In the regulatory process, the agencies were explicit that removing the definition will allow that sort of habitat destruction.

This change will hurt not just rare species but also send common species on a path toward endangerment and population declines.

To state the obvious, animals can’t live without their homes. Our best resource to protect wildlife from extinction (and protect common species from declines) is to make sure they have habitat. Roughly 85% of listed species rely on habitat protection for their survival and recovery. Additionally, two-thirds of federally listed species rely on habitat on non-federal lands.

The importance of habitat permeates the statutory language of the ESA, including where Congress proclaimed that the first purpose of the Act is “to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved.” This is no simple word change. Attempting to remove habitat protection is an attempt to debilitate the ESA—and by extension, put more species on the road to extinction.

One of the more frustrating aspects of this change is that it’s completely unnecessary. The ESA rarely stops projects to begin with; rather the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service work with developers to design a project that reduces harm to imperiled wildlife. The ESA has worked historically to protect important habitats while still allowing projects to proceed with adequate safeguards. This rescission throws those meaningful safeguards out the window, and would allow industries to bulldoze, mine, log, or drill through sensitive ecosystems more rapidly and without needed protective measures.

The U.S. South’s incredible biodiversity is already under increased strain because of the climate crisis and rapidly increasing development pressures. Iconic Southern habitats, like our long-leaf pine savannahs, may be some of the first places to feel the blow of this rule change. And this is a threat not just to rare or federally protected wildlife, but common species as well. For example, our pine forests are home to imperiled species like red-cockaded woodpeckers, indigo snakes, and gopher tortoises—as well as species like bobwhite quail, which are considered common but have been facing their own population declines. A wide span of rare and common species will also suffer with unfettered habitat destruction.

This rule change is not just unconscionable, it’s illegal. The agencies have not met several obligations necessary to change a long-standing rule of this magnitude, including a reasoned justification for the change. That’s why my organization, the Southern Environmental Law Center, has already sued Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation and several of its affiliates across the South and as far away as Hawai’i.

Adding insult to injury, this was just one of several devastating proposals waiting in the wings that will have far reaching impacts to the ESA (and the species that depend on the law’s protections). Last Friday the Department of Interior announced another round of rules including the removal of default threatened species protections, and rollbacks to critical habitat.

Environmental attacks from this administration can feel like a flood that won’t crest. Even a consummate optimist like myself has moments of doubt and discouragement when staring down the challenges we are facing. But I am heartened by the determination of not just my SELC colleagues, but my colleagues across this movement. When this rule was finalized, countless smart, passionate people were ready to step up to stop another illegal attack. That breadth and depth of opposition is helping to reinvigorate my optimism—and I hope it helps fuel your optimism too.

We’re glad y’all are here. Now let’s get to it!

Conservation deal is a huge win for Alabama’s ‘most elusive resident’

The Red Hills salamander is a rock star in the amphibian world. It’s lungless (breathing through its skin) but spends its life in hillside burrows, not ponds or streams. It’s also a federally protected species only found in six Alabama counties.

Thanks to a land deal through The Conservation Fund, more than 4,000 acres of forested land in the heart of Red Hills salamander country is now protected. The property will be transferred to Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and become a brand-new wildlife management area.

It’s not just a sweet set up for this imperiled sallie, but for people who want to hike, birdwatch or hunt on this new public land. The Conservation Fund has already protected nearly 23,000 acres to conserve habitat for the Red Hills salamander.

‘God squad’ continues to threaten the Gulf as other ESA rollbacks loom on the horizon

You likely already know that in a meeting that lasted less than 20 minutes, a handful of Trump administration officials took the unprecedented step of allowing all oil and gas activities in the Gulf to bypass legal protections for endangered species. One of the most frustrating aspects of this illegal and reckless exemption is that it’s completely unnecessary. The Endangered Species Act does not obstruct oil and gas activities in the Gulf. For decades, the oil and gas industry has thrived while also being required to follow important ESA procedures that protect wildlife, as well as habitats and communities across the Gulf.

While this Endangered Species Committee (AKA “God Squad”) exemption has clear ramifications for species and habitat across the Gulf, the question we should be asking as a nation is, “where will they try this next?”

Meanwhile, there are several other proposed Endangered Species Act rollbacks on the horizon that could have far-reaching impacts, if implemented. Three recently moved through a regulatory review step that may mean they will be finalized soon.

• Proposal to rescind the ESA’s definition of “harm”: Protecting threatened and endangered species’ habitat is central to how the ESA protects and recovers species. For decades, the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have understood prohibited “harm” to endangered species to include habitat destruction and alteration that kills or injures protected wildlife. But this rule change seeks to remove those essential protections for the habitat of endangered species. This change could accelerate destruction of habitat, which is the leading cause of species decline—and in doing so, the change could also harm common species that benefit from habitat protections, including iconic southern wildlife like the bobwhite quail and brook trout.

• Proposed removal of default threatened species protections: This proposed change would deprive newly listed threatened animal species under the purview of FWS from automatically receiving protections from killing, trapping, and other forms of prohibited “take” under the ESA. FWS has long extended these default protections to threatened species to both ensure adequate protections for species and be efficient with the agency’s rulemaking processes. This would make it even more difficult for federal wildlife agencies to protect imperiled species and habitats after staff have already experienced overwhelming layoffs and funding cuts.

• Proposed rollback to critical habitat: Another proposal waiting in the wings would give industry interests — such as logging, mining, and oil companies — significant influence over whether critical habitat for a species receives formal ESA protections. The rule would hamstring FWS’s ability to designate critical habitat by elevating the importance of industry concerns and requiring areas to be excluded from critical habitat designations more frequently.

What we’re listening to

Our friends at The Wild Idea had a great conversation with Dalton George, mayor of Boone, North Carolina and the national organizing director for the Endangered Species Coalition. Dalton talks about his community organizing roots, as well as housing justice, voting rights, wildlife advocacy, and one of our favorite critters — Eastern hellbenders.

Dalton also talks about the ESA Amendments Act, a U.S. House Bill that would gut critical Endangered Species Act protections for thousands of threatened and endangered species.

Invasives down South

We’re excited to share a fun story published for the Southern Environmental Law Center about two of Terah’s favorite things – wine and fishing – and why invasive species are giving both these industries a tough time.

You don’t have to be a wildlife expert to hold the line against invasive species. State wildlife managers have some amazing online resources (find Georgia’s here) to help you identify problem species and learn more about ways humans spread these nuisance critters. And if you want to host more native plants and create precious habitat for wildlife, like pollinators and migratory birds, our friends at the National Wildlife Federation have this amazing guide where you can put in your zip code and find your natives.

That’s it for now, fellow critter lovers. We’ll see y’all next time.

Ramona and Terah

Our region is home to some of the nation’s most biodiverse ecosystems. The ancient ranges of the Southern Appalachians Mountains are home to globally significant varieties and numbers of salamanders. Alabama’s Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, widely known as North America’s “Amazon,” is home to a stunning array of plants and animals, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. And the North American Coastal Plain, which stretches across the South Atlantic coast, is the most recently recognized global biodiversity hotspot—and only the second such hotspot named in the United States.

While the Southeastern United States is teeming with wildlife, wild places, and a diverse culture intertwined with both, the region has inherited or created some of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today. The South plays an outsized role in pollution and development activities that are contributing to the climate crisis. That means stronger storms, more intense flooding, and rising temperatures, putting incredible pressure on both the people and wildlife that call this place home.

But the South is also on the vanguard of creative solutions that will protect our species and natural resources for generations to come. Southerners are connecting and conserving landscapes not just to preserve our amazing natural resources, but also to make communities more resilient to a changing climate. We’re developing meaningful policy solutions, and legal wins on wildlife issues that are important here, regardless of political affiliation.

At a time when common sense and science-based regulations are falling by the wayside to curry favor with extractive and polluting industries, we want to create a place that not only brings the South into the solutions conversation but examines how lessons learned here can support others working in the wildlife conservation space.

I’m Ramona McGee, a senior attorney & Wildlife Program Leader at the Southern Environmental Law Center. I’ve been with SELC for more than a decade, working alongside my brilliant colleagues on a variety of legal and policy matters—but the wildlife work has always had a special place in my heart. My legal work includes defending the endangered wild red wolf population in North Carolina, sea turtles and sturgeon in southern harbors, and important bird habitat (among other projects).

With the help of my colleague Terah Boyd, a former journalist who works alongside me at SELC educating the public about Southern species through storytelling, we’ll bring you news and analysis on Southern wildlife, habitat, and what it means for environmental and conservation advocacy across the country. We’ll also share stories about solutions happening across our region and introduce you to the amazing people who are leading the movement in creative and inspiring ways.

We look forward to you joining that conversation.

Ramona