We’re working to pass the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act, legislation that provides the funding and coordination of government agencies needed to connect fractured habitats.
We share our planet with countless incredible creatures, from the grizzly on the ridgeline to the bee in the meadow, from the wolf in the forest to the butterfly in our backyard. Many are on the brink of extinction. It’s up to us to protect endangered species and the habitats they call home.
Endangered species lost protections when they need them most
A United Nations report from 2019 warns that 1 million plant and animal species worldwide could go extinct within decades — due largely to human activity.
We need a wide range of tools to protect vulnerable species and their habitats. The best tool in the United States is the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has a 99 percent success rate in keeping species under its protection from becoming extinct. The ESA has brought back from the brink of extinction the bald eagle, grizzly bear, California condor, American alligator, humpback whale, Florida manatee and more.
But four years of short-sighted executive orders from the Trump administration weakened the ESA and targeted animals’ habitats with expanded drilling in the Arctic, logging in the Tongass National Forest, and more.
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There’s much more to be done to protect wildlife
As a first step, we’re working to bring the Endangered Species Act back to full strength. We are calling on the Biden administration and Congress to restore the Act.
In the long-term, we need to strengthen the ESA to include protections that kick in when a species’ numbers begin to fall, rather than waiting until their very survival is threatened to act.
And beyond the ESA, we need to reconnect natural areas that have been disconnected by roads, fences and other man-made obstacles. Specifically, we need to promote the expansion of wildlife corridors through our support of the bipartisan Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act. We must also stop proposals that threaten America’s wild places, which are not only worth protecting for their own sake but are also important habitats. That’s why we’re working to stop plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where polar bears and caribou roam, and block plans to log the untamed roadless areas of the Tongass National Forest, home to trees older than America.
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Together, we can protect our natural world
At a time when we’re running short on nature, we need to do everything we can to protect it. The call of a bird in the wild or the rustling of an antelope in the brush is priceless — worth far more than the minerals we could extract or the high-rise condo we could develop.
We need to protect our natural world. We can accomplish all of this by convincing our fellow Americans that we should no longer tolerate sacrificing nature for a little more oil, timber or other economic productions.