Defenders' Experts
Wildlife Docket
Defenders seeks the most effective legal strategies to protect and conserve America's imperiled wildlife. This includes vigorously enforcing the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
Polar Bear Litigation
Defenders has provided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with notice that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act with the issuance of the rule accompanying the federal listing of the polar bear as threatened on May 15, 2008.
El Lobo: Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery
Defenders challenges the US Fish and Wildlife Service's 2003 decision to cede responsibility of Mexican Wolf recovery to an Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, and challenges Standard Operating Procedure 13, which requires the removal of wolves known or suspected to have killed livestock on three separate occasions during a one-year span regardless of their genetic value to the species, the leading cause of wolf removals from the wild.
Northern Rockies Gray Wolf- Delisting Challenge
Challenge against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's decision to delist the northern Rockies wolf population, thus removing their protections under the Endangered Species Act and relinquishing management to the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Northern Rockies Gray Wolf- Management Challenge
Challenge to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's updated regulation for the management of gray wolves in the northern Rockies that significantly reduces the protections for gray wolves in the region.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Lawsuit to compel the National Park Service to manage beach driving responsibly at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to protect the threatened piping plover, threatened and endangered sea turtles, other species of waterbirds and shorebirds, and their habitat.
Woodland Caribou & Snowmobiles
Snowmobile use in the Selkirk Mountains, particularly the caribou Recovery Area, has increased rapidly over the past several years, and is expected to continue. As more (and more powerful) snowmobiles press further into caribou habitat, the potential increases for caribou to be directly harmed and displaced from key areas.
Alaska Wolf
Lawsuit challenging Alaska's predator control plans which permit the aerial hunting of wolves in areas across the state
Red Knot Emergency Listing
Lawsuit challenging the Fish and Wildlife Service's failure to emergency list the red knot, a shorebird that has suffered a 90% decline in total population over the last ten years.
North Atlantic Right Whale
Lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries and the Coast Guard for failure to protect North Atlantic right whales from collisions with ships.
African Antelope
Challenge to a Fish and Wildlife Service rule that creates a legal market through which three species of highly endangered African antelope, trophy hunted on American ranches, may be traded
Wolf Downlisting Challenge
Challenge to FWS's plan in 2003 to lessen federal protections for wolves throughout the lower 48 States despite the species need for additional protections.
Yellowstone Gray Wolf Reintroduction
10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns lower court's ruling that Yellowstone and Idaho wolf reintroductions were illegal.
