On August 18, Donald Trump’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officially proposed eliminating the national Roadless Rule. If finalized, the repeal would strip protections from 44.7 million acres of wild intact forest. The rule, passed in 2001, protects in total 58 million acres of forest from road building, logging, fossil fuel extraction, and other development.
Source
In late April 2025, after 41-year-old farmer Oussama Farhat was discharged from the hospital, two pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his body, he hurried to check on an injured red fox. In his southern Lebanon village of Meiss el-Jabal, Farhat, a volunteer with the environmental organization Green Southerners, had helped rescue the cub from beneath the rubble of ongoing Israeli air strikes — the…
Source
A cancer-linked pesticide banned in more than 60 countries around the world contaminates an estimated 25% of river and stream miles in the lower 48 US states, including many waterways used for drinking water, according to a new analysis. The analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity builds on evidence that atrazine — which is commonly used to grow corn, soybeans…
Source
The Endangered Species Act has stood as a pillar of conservation in the United States since 1973, bringing animals like bald eagles, manatees, and humpback whales back from the brink of extinction. But now, the Trump administration has taken its boldest step yet in an effort to strip legal protections for endangered species. Starting this week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that it…
Source
“Yet again, the Trump administration has sold out our endangered wildlife to the highest bidder,” said one biodiversity advocate after the US Department of Interior, in a Friday news dump, issued two new policy changes that would weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and make it easier for corporate polluters to prioritize their own bottom lines over habitat protection. The US Fish and…
Source
Just a few days before Tehran and Washington signed a now-defunct ceasefire agreement, local media in Iran reported that 25 goitered gazelles were killed in U.S. airstrikes on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf. The small coral island is a key terminal for Iran’s oil exports and its unique wildlife includes white-headed seagulls, hawksbill sea turtles, and ospreys. It also hosts the ruins…
Source