Photo credit: Sam Parks
Species conservation – protecting western wildlife
Wildlife
The American West is home to an incredible diversity of life, from delicate checkerspot butterflies in the mountains of New Mexico, to silvery minnows in the waters of the iconic Rio Grande, to majestic grizzly bears roaming the valleys in and around Yellowstone National Park. Each of these species belongs in, and to, the Western landscape. Each has an unalienable right to exist and thrive. We have a duty to protect that right.
And the wildlife of the West badly need protection. These species face a barrage of threats, most of them human-caused: disappearing habitat, climate change, traps, poisons, intolerance. We already have tools to conserve the West’s diversity and protect its life—the most powerful of these being the Endangered Species Act—yet many of these tools remain underused, and many are under threat, even as many species march toward extinction.
We must shift the paradigm of wildlife management from persecution to protection. For wildlife’s sake, we are relentless advocates, reformers, and voices for the vulnerable.
Wildlife Program Work
WildEarth Guardians’ Wildlife program is focusing our energy on seven key campaigns, ranging from protecting endangered species to fundamentally reforming the federal wildlife-killing agency Wildlife Services.
Endangered Species Act Defense
Defending the Endangered Species Act, America’s most powerful environmental law
Endangered Species Act Protections
Ushering imperiled species onto the protections of the legal arc of the Endangered Species Act and using its full powers to ensure their survival and recovery
End the War on Wildlife
Fundamentally reforming the federal wildlife-killing agency, Wildlife Services, ending its use of cruel and indiscriminate weapons, and adopting a coexistence mandate
Defend Native Carnivores
Fighting for bears, wolves, lynx, and other key ecosystem engineers of the West
End Cruel Trapping
Organizing against the vicious practice of trapping, which threatens native wildlife, humans, and companion animals
Safeguard the Sagebrush Sea
Protecting the sagebrush ecosystem between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and its resident wildlife, including sage grouse
Protect Prairie Dog Empires
Ending the persecution and extermination of prairie dogs; engendering coexistence with these key ecosystem engineers
How You Can Help
Help protect the incredible, vulnerable wildlife of the West! Be a guardian for the wild by joining the conversation, learning about current issues, and making your voice heard. Together, we're a powerful force for nature.
Recent Stories From Wildlife
“Huge step backward” for greater sage grouse
Interior Secretary to slash protections in 7 western states
Equilibrium
This piece appeared in Michael P. Berman’s book, “Gila: Radical Visions/The Enduring Silence,” published in 2012
Why the Endangered Species Act matters
The Endangered Species Act, passed nearly unanimously in 1973, is one of our nation’s most important and successful laws. Here are a few reasons why.
Wildlife Press
Time for Game and Fish to dump trapping
“Take a child hunting, fishing or trapping.” Hunting and angling – when done right and informed by the best available science – are fair-chase pursuits of food and learning. Trapping is, at best, a financial net-zero activity that perpetuates cruelty, privatizes a public resource, and endangers the safety of people, companion animals and imperiled species.
Read more >Group says devices kill non-target wildlife, including pets
Federal wildlife workers kill coyotes in Montana with an arsenal of lethal approaches. They shoot them from helicopters. They shoot them from airplanes. They employ leghold traps. They set snares. And they use M-44 devices that, once triggered, spray sodium cyanide into the carnivores’ mouths, where it mixes with moisture to form deadly cyanide gas.
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