Federal agency
Appears in 8 stories
Tightening wildlife reviews, creating another bottleneck for wind and solar
Courts have now ordered the freeze lifted three times: in December, April and August. The standoff drags on anyway — the Justice Department says 110 wind projects still haven't heard from the Pentagon since a judge ordered reviews to resume, and senators accuse Interior of demanding paperwork the courts barred.
Updated 7 days ago
Co-leads the binational Mexican wolf recovery program
In the 1970s, federal agents captured the last wild Mexican gray wolves in northern Mexico, seven animals that became the founders of a captive breeding program. Fifty years later, two packs descended from those wolves were released into Durango's Sierra Madre Occidental, their first wild home in Mexico since the subspecies vanished there.
Updated Sep 25
Transferring 715 acres of refuge land to SpaceX
A federal judge in South Texas cleared the way Sept. 21 for SpaceX to take title to 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In exchange, the company gives the government 683 acres of private land, expanding Elon Musk's rocket test facility near Starbase.
Updated Sep 21
Issued the September 14 memo and rescinded the 'harm' definition
A logging company can now cut a tree holding endangered bats, and a ship can strike an endangered whale, without breaking US law, as long as the animal wasn't the deliberate target. The US Fish and Wildlife Service told its field offices on September 14 to apply the Endangered Species Act's (ESA) ban on "taking" protected wildlife only to intentional acts directed at a particular animal.
Updated Sep 20
Leads federal recovery program; listed species as endangered in 2014
The Poweshiek skipperling butterfly was down to nine known individuals in the United States in 2022. After captive breeding programs released more than 1,300 butterflies in 2025, surveyors this summer counted over 100 on a single walk at Michigan restoration sites.
Updated Sep 11
Defendant in both lawsuits
Habitat destruction that kills endangered wildlife no longer counts as 'harm' under a July federal rule change. Twenty-one states filed two lawsuits Wednesday to overturn it, arguing the rewrite strips the law of its primary habitat protection tool.
Updated Sep 10
Manages the Red Wolf Recovery Program and monitored the foster
Three American Red Wolf pups born at the Saint Louis Zoo are now living with a wild pack in North Carolina. Trail cameras confirmed the wild mother accepted all three into her litter, a rare success for a species with fewer than 40 individuals left in the wild.
Updated Sep 9
Will implement any delisting determination
President Trump signed an executive order Sept. 4 directing the Interior Department to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican gray wolves have recovered enough to lose Endangered Species Act protections. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has 90 days to decide whether to begin delisting the animals, a process that would shift wolf management from federal to state control.
Updated Sep 7
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