Save Our Texas Treasures Factsheet

Named for its rolling hills, the Hill Country’s landscape is shaped by aquifers and springs that channel groundwater. These essential waters are home to several

Congress Launches New Attacks on Endangered Species Act

On April 30, 2014, the Natural Resources Committee approved four bills pulled directly from a slanted and biased anti-Endangered Species Act report. These bills would severely curtail the ESA’s ability to protect the nation’s most imperiled species.

A Guide to the Farm Bill Conservation Programs

This report provides an overview of the 2014 conservation programs and reviews their changes, challenges and opportunities within the context of the 2014 Farm Bill. Defenders of Wildlife provides recommendations on how to best address conservation needs through these programs.

Targeting of Farm Bill Program Funding to Advance Conservation Priorities

This paper evaluates the potential conservation impacts of the 2014 Farm Bill and gives recommendations on the best ways to target agricultural programs to yield the best wildlife outcomes.

Aiming to Succeed: Targeting funds to enhance endangered species recovery

The available funding to recover threatened and endangered species will likely continue to be limited. Given this harsh reality, explicit prioritization of recovery actions is increasingly necessary. FWS, BLM and other federal agencies can begin making smarter decisions about their funding through modest forms of prioritization. This paper describes three recent examples of programs that use explicit criteria to decide which competing conservation actions to fund. The paper concludes with recommendations on how agencies can improve and expand on these systems.

Principles to Guide Assessments of Ecosystem Service Values

Guiding principles to encourage interdisciplinary approaches to assessing the social, ecological, and economic benefits of ecosystems and biodiversity, and their interdependent relationships. Reports developed at a workshop held in July 2013 at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

In the Red: How Proposed Conservation Plans Fail to Protect Greater Sage-Grouse

In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that it will consider listing the sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2015. This pending deadline prompted federal agencies to initiate the National Greater Sage-Grouse Planning Strategy, an effort to update land-use plans with new measures to conserve sage-grouse and potentially preclude the need to list the species.

Defenders of Wildlife Strategic Growth Policy Comments

Defenders of Wildlife's comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's draft “Strategic Growth Policy” for the National Wildlife Refuge System. The draft policy is intended to guide how the Fish and Wildlife Service will add lands and new wildlife refuges to the Refuge System.

Climate Adaptation Testimony by Noah Matson, Defenders of Wildlife

Testimony of Defenders' Vice President for Landscape Conservation and Climate Adaptation before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at a hearing titled "Natural Resources Adaptation: Protecting ecosystems and economies" held February 25, 2014. In the testimony, Defenders highlights the need to maintain and restore ecosystems to prepare society for the impacts of climate change, and to provide more resources and policy direction to land and wildlife managers to assist them in coping with climate change. The testimony recommends enacting the SAFE Act [LINK to OUR GOV REL PAGES], implementing the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, and conserving large, connected landscapes.

Mutually Insured Destruction: How Unchecked Crop Insurance Subsidies Harm the Environment

United States agricultural policy has huge impacts upon wildlife and its habitats. Historically, subsidy payments were tied to requirements that farmers take basic conservation measures
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