Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge Law Enforcement officer checks for compliance of fishing license. Photo provided by USFWS.

The uptick in numbers is a welcome addition to agencies facing more and more challenges. Hunting and fishing license fees make up the vast majority of state fish and wildlife agency budgets which fund the folks in charge of maintaining fish and wildlife as a public trust for all of us. In addition to license funds  being dedicated to the management of fish and wildlife, sportsmen and women have had the foresight to tax themselves to promote conservation through the purchase of the gear they use. This comes in the form of excise taxes on guns, ammunition, bows and arrows, and fishing equipment.

One of NWF’s first achievements was the passage of the Wildlife Restoration Act in 1937, commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Act. This Act established the first excise taxes to be collected into the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Fund and distributed to states based on population and acreage.  Since its inception, the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Fund has provided more than $14 billion to support fish and wildlife restoration and management. Not only does the purchase of equipment help stimulate our economy, it also helps pay for conservation and restoration efforts to insure our traditions continue.

Another ascending number to note in the Survey is the number of participants in wildlife watching.  Last year this group of 72 million Americans contributed $55 billion to our nation’s economy. Yes, this population includes some hunters and anglers, but it is an independently growing recreational activity.  While all three categories are based on sustainable habitats, one big difference between the hunting/angling and wildlife-watching communities is wildlife-watchers have not yet taxed their gear to contribute to conservation and don’t pay license fees to watch wildlife.  Attempts have been made to place excise taxes similar to those on guns and ammunition to binoculars, cameras, backpacks, etc.- but to no avail. I have high hopes in the American people that these attempts are not over.

For now, let us celebrate this good news, revel in it, and plot and scheme for the future!

Are you a wildlife watcher?

South Florida Rainbow Snake: © JD Willson, 2006, Discoverlife.org

The south Florida rainbow snake and Florida fairy shrimp may have names that sound magical, but the magic may have run out for both of them. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both species are probably extinct.

These two freshwater animals were in the long, long line for federal protection, but they never made it onto the Endangered Species list. The Florida fairy shrimp lived in a single pond just a few miles south of Gainesville. Its home, like the tiny creature, is gone now, destroyed by development. The south Florida rainbow snake was known to live in Fish Eating Creek, which flows into Lake Okeechobee.

There are hundreds of candidates waiting for Endangered Species Act protection, including several from the Sunshine State. Hopefully for them, things won’t go dark before they get the help they need to survive.

Click here to protect wildlife for future generations.

The pipeline that burst during the Enbridge tar sands oil spill in Michigan - July 2010

Around this time last year, I made an emergency trip home to Battle Creek, Mich., after hearing reports of a major oil spill in the Kalamazoo River. The oil disaster gushed nearly 1 million gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River watershed.

In the weeks following, I saw lives get turned upside down: families lost their homes, and many people fell ill from exposure to toxic benzene. I saw oil-soaked wildlife struggling to survive and wide-spread habitat destruction.

Now, a year later, I wanted to see whether Enbridge Oil had made any progress in cleaning up its oil spill—one that has turned out to be one of the worst ever in the Midwest. Unfortunately, the realities of a tar sands oil spill have proven that there’s a long way to go in the effort to restore the Kalamazoo River watershed for people and wildlife.

Tar sands oil on the Kalamazoo River, one year after the Enbridge oil spill. (Photo taken on July 18th, 2011 - by NWF's Beth Wallace)

On July 19, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed the findings from its spring river assessment. The agency quickly confirmed my worst fear: The impacted waterways are in much worse shape than anyone had thought due to tar sands oil sinking into the riverbed. The EPA has identified over 200 acres of submerged toxic tar sands oil that has spread, unseen, throughout 40 miles of waterway.

The EPA explained that they have identified locations of “heavily contaminated” sediment: Talmadge Creek, Ceresco, Mill Pond, and Marrow Lake (to name a few). Most shocking is Marrow Lake. Until now, it has been reported that little to no oil ever reached Marrow Lake. Now, it’s believed that large amounts of submerged tar sands oil contaminated the lake, under the surface of the water and undetected for nearly a year.

The EPA has given Enbridge until August 31 to address the areas identified in the spring assessment. After that date, the EPA will re-evaluate the extent of contamination from the submerged oil and what action needs to be taken. Meanwhile, Enbridge is collecting the toxic oil on the bottom of the river by dredging, aerating, and racking the river – then placing oil-collecting booms downriver to capture any oil that resurfaces.

With the resurfacing and mixing of oil comes continued disruption and devastation to wildlife habitat and wildlife. The Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) reported that since the start of 2011, an additional 287 oiled turtles have been captured and cleaned, while 47 turtles remain in care.

To add insult to injury, the heavy and toxic metals that are found in tar sands are starting to be detected along sections of the impacted Kalamazoo River, as reported by Todd A. Heywood (7-20-2011) with the American Independent:

In late August, 2010 EPA officials confirmed water samples were producing slight detection of both mercury and nickel — common heavy metal contaminates of tar sands oil. EPA said then the levels were nothing to be concerned about.

On Tuesday, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced it had been detecting several heavy metals and other contaminates at levels above what are considered safe.

“What we do see are elevated levels in areas of contamination that exceed some of the state’s criteria for groundwater and surface water criteria,” said a MDEQ official whose name was not clear in a recording of the press call with federal and state officials updating about the oil spill recovery work.

With the new discovery of vast quantities of submerged oil and elevated samples of heavy and toxic metals, doubts are arising about whether Enbridge Energy low-balled the size of the oil spill. The EPA is punting that question to Enbridge and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the cause of the pipeline spill - completing of that investigation is expected later this year or early 2012.

Talmadge Creek, One year after the Enrbidge tar sands oil spill

New details about the Enbridge oil disaster come as the nation grapples with two other high-profile pipeline failures near Yellowstone National Park and in Alaska. Yet, it amazes me that congressional leaders in Michigan, whose districts were personally impacted by this spill, are promoting tar sands and pipeline expansion before pipeline safety. The impacted communities of Michigan are in a unique position to pass along these lessons learned and demand change, yet our leaders continue to ignore the facts and side with big oil.

Before any other pipeline or tar sands projects gain approval, there needs to be environmental and human health impact studies to fully understand the impacts of a tar sands oil spill. Congress also needs to require a study on the impacts of transporting this more corrosive and toxic tar sands oil through our pipelines, which are not built for its corrosive nature and high pressures.

Before any pipeline project gains approval, like the Keystone XL, we need to fully understand what happened with Enbridge tar sands pipeline, line 6B, and the dozens of other pipeline spills that have happened in the last year. Congress needs to focus on increased pipeline safety to ensure that our communities, natural resources and wildlife will never face another oil spill disaster like the one in the Kalamazoo River.

Please reach out to our Congressional leaders and demand that we protect communities, wildlife and our natural resources before rushing dangerous tar sands pipeline projects, like the Keystone XL.

Pacific Fisher: WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently announced that it has resolved a host of lawsuits concerning deadlines it missed to protect wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

As someone working to defend and strengthen our nation’s premier wildlife protection law, I am pleased by this news.

Moving Endangered Species Out of Purgatory

For many years, hundreds of species – species like the Pacific fisher (see right), a beautiful weasel-like carnivore inhabiting the Western U.S. - have sat in the purgatory known as the “candidate species list.” The USFWS designates certain wildlife as “candidates” for listing when it finds that, despite their imperiled condition, it has higher priorities.

As a result, species that need extra attention and protection do not make it onto the ESA list.

The absence of Endangered Species Act safeguards for these creatures means habitat destruction continues unabated, the costs and difficulties of recovery continue to grow, and the possibility of extinction in our lifetimes becomes even more real.

USFWS to Decide on Fate of 250 Candidate Species in Six Years

As part of the settlement, the USFWS commits to clearing up the entire backlog of more than 250 candidate species within six years.

This means that for most of these species, action under the Endangered Species Act will finally be taken to rescue them from extinction.

It also means that the expert biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be working on protecting species rather than wasting precious resources defending the agency’s failure to meet its court deadlines.

Ultimately, it will be exciting to see what we as a nation can accomplish in restoring these and other crucial parts of our natural heritage once the tools and resources of the Endangered Species Act become available for all imperiled species.

Read More

• About the Endangered Species Act
• What is the National Wildlife Federation Doing to Protect and Strengthen the Endangered Species Act?

In honor of 75 years of conservation and protecting wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation is holding its annual Workday for Wildlife on April 16^th at Patuxent Research Center and Refuge in Laurel, Maryland. I was lucky enough to spend a day sneaking a peek at what’s in store for volunteers this weekend.

J.N. "Ding" Darling

The origins of both NWF and Patuxent lie in the mastermind of conservation icon J.N. “Ding” Darling. On a crusade for action, Darling helped found NWF in 1936 and was elected its first president, establishing principles and strategies to protect and restore wildlife, reconnect people to nature, and confront pollution and its unforeseen consequences and environmental challenges.

Just a year earlier, as chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). Darling envisioned a research center to study wildlife-habitat relationships and lobbied Congress to establish a national wildlife research center.

Just a hop, skip, and a jump outside our nation’s capital, the USFWS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center on the USGS Patuxent Research Refuge is now 4,700 acres of nature oasis. Home to whooping cranes, diving ducks, screech owls, masked bobwhites, sandhill cranes and other critically endangered wildlife, scientists carefully monitor these breeding stocks to ensure future preservation in the wild.

Though the majority of the land is natural habitat, the landscape still needs active management to create the safest home sweet home for the wildlife, and there’s plenty to be done.

Work to be done

Volunteers will take part in a wide variety of essential restoration activities, such as:

• Removing invasive species (such as wisteria, multiflora rose and others)
• Planting native plants and flowers in wildlife habitat
• Cleaning research pens for cranes and ducks
• Conducting citizen science investigations for bees, frogs, and other species
• Installing conservation trail

Want to join us and lend a hand to give wildlife a better place to live? All are welcome, and you can register here.

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the wildlife you might bump into while getting your hands dirty.

Walruses deserve protection (Photo Credit: NWF)

Extinction doesn’t wait, but the Pacific walrus will have to wait to receive federal protection.

In a disappointing turn of events, this animal will not be joining its Arctic neighbor, the polar bear, on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledges the walrus deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act, but does not consider the animal a high priority compared to other threatened plants and animals.  Unfortunately, the Pacific walrus waits in a long line of over 250 species that are also candidates for federal protection – essentially, stuck in endangered species limbo.

Warmer temperatures are melting the sea ice Pacific walruses rely on for breeding, foraging, and protection from predators.  As a result, these animals are forced to go on land more often, increasing competition for food, overcrowding, and the likelihood of young walruses being crushed in stampedes.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski balked at the idea of the Pacific walrus receiving protection as an endangered species. The lawmaker is siding with oil companies and other commercial interests in criticizing any federal protections for the animal.  Similar complaints were also made when the polar bear was listed as an endangered species in 2008. The debate about federal protections pits oil companies and their supporters against people and wildlife: declining walrus populations could also hurt local economies where communities depend on them for food and other subsistence needs.  Tourism dollars associated with wildlife viewing are also in jeopardy.

Even though the Pacific walrus has been waitlisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it can’t wait out the devastating effects of climate change in the Arctic.

Find out more about the impact of global climate change and what you can do to fight for wildlife >>

1. The Great Gulf Turtle Rescue

In April we saw the beginning of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.  By the time it was contained, more than 200 million gallons of oil had poured out and coated hundreds of square miles.  The toll on wildlife of all species and sizes was profound as evidenced from these National Wildlife Federation maps. Certainly one of the most inspiring events around the Gulf disaster was the relocation of thousands of sea turtle hatchlings from the sands of Gulf beaches to the sands of the Atlantic with the help of effective organizations such as  the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

2. The Amazing New Census of Marine Life

The Census was released in 2010.  It is a collaboration among 80 nations over 10 years.  Thousands of new species were discovered and cataloged.  Take a look at the  gallery of unbelievable and brilliant deep sea life: http://bit.ly/hkyJpj

3. The Sad Tale of Little Brown Bats

A devastating bat plague called white nose syndrome still stymies animal researchers as millions of bats have succumbed to a fungal attack that restricts their ability breathe.  Bat caves in the East have been closed to visitors and there are signs the plague is moving to the West:  http://bit.ly/a5i1T9

4. Moving Tigers From the Brink of Extinction

In the past few decades the number of wild tigers shrunk from 100,000 animals to some 3,000.  A recent international conference hosted in Russia came out with a plan to double their numbers.  http://bit.ly/gXOIZ5 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio personally made a $1 million gift to help jump-start the plan’s implementation.

5. The Loss of a U.S. wildlife hero

In 2010 we saw the untimely death of Sam Hamilton (54) the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Sam was a respected 30-year professional dedicated to species protection. http://wapo.st/dEpzZ0

6. Discovery of 1,200 New Amazon Species

Our colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund demonstrated to people everywhere how much there is to learn about our natural world when they released their report on the discovery of over one thousands new species in the Amazon via a decade of study: http://bit.ly/cWnBFH

7. Wolf Protection Debate in the Northern Rockies

The Department of the Interior and the States of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been in extensive discussions in a quite heated political setting over whether wolves reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in the mid 1990s still merit endangered species protection:  http://bit.ly/iangkb

8. The Continuing Struggle Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

The battle continued in 2010 to cut down on wildlife poaching and trade in endangered animals.  There were increases in the number of apprehensions and arrests but, as the smugglers become more devious and the poachers become more aggressive, the overall signs are not good.  Wildlife smuggling seems to be on the rise and is an international black market rivaling illegal drug imports.   http://bit.ly/hauD9j

9. Polar Bears Stuck on Shore

This year polar bears in the Arctic region were delayed several weeks from making their winter trip out onto the Arctic Sea ice for their annual seal hunting.  Warm weather caused to ice to be late in forming and the bears were stuck on land, some in emaciated condition.

10. Walrus Exodus Onto Land

A mass Alaskan exodus of 10,000 to 20,000 walruses to land was an highly unusual event this Fall that also reflects the loss of sea ice in the arctic.   This mass exodus was a new one on the Chukchi sea coast and wildlife experts see it as a sign of global climate change:  http://bit.ly/aTmljY

11. Japanese Whale Hunt in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary

As summer begins in the southern hemisphere, Japanese whalers and environmentalists are converging again in Antarctic waters for another stand-off and possible battle over their intense differences concerning the legality of whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.  Both whale and human lives will be on the line: http://bit.ly/et6pzK

12. Mountain Gorillas Making a Comeback

Ending on a more promising note, 30 years ago the mountain gorilla population was down to 250.  This year 782 were counted between two locations. http://aol.it/h7A1Ix

Bottom line: Wildlife conservation has unbelievable and daunting challenges ahead but, despite the overwhelming odds there are may glimmers of hope that remind us that staying with the fight to protect species, habitats and stop global warming are more important than ever.

The result has been that even in our largest wild places, like Yellowstone National Park’s 2.2 million acres, wildlife populations are becoming isolated from one another, shutting off their ability to move from place to place, as ecology may demand, while turning them into genetically isolated groups.

Studies show that even our largest parks may not be able to sustain populations of large mammals much beyond the next century.

The solution to this isolation, as discussed in a current National Wildlife magazine story, is wildlife corridors, also known as greenways, linkages and passageways. These tracts of habitat link two or more larger core wildlife areas.

Some are naturally occurring, such as the Milk River and its tributaries, along which pronghorn migrate between Canada and Montana, while others are made by humans, like 42 culverts recently installed under stretches of U.S. Highway 93 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, making the roadway permeable to wildlife.

Now in its 75th year of wildlife advocacy, National Wildlife Federation has a long history of seeking protection for wildlife habitat. Here are four corridor projects you should know about that are supported by NWF and/or its affiliates.

4 Wildlife Corridor Projects We’re Working On

1. The Staying Connected Initiative

National Wildlife Federation’s Northeastern Regional Center in Montpelier, Vermont, is working with The Nature Conservancy and some 20 other private and public entities to create a vast habitat  corridor that will connect six wildlife-rich landscapes in the Northern Appalachians and span a total of 80 million acres across New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and two Canadian provinces.

Wildlife in the area—which harbors alpine vegetation, old-growth forest and large blocks of unfragmented forest—includes such locally at-risk creatures as lynx, moose, black bear, pine marten and fisher.

Funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Staying Connected Initiative seeks to protect habitat from fragmentation and climate change and to restore landscape connections.

“We approach this goal in five ways,” says George Gay, NWF senior Safeguards Program manager:

1. Working to make roads safer and more permeable to wildlife, an objective that also  improves human safety on roads;
2. Applying conservation science, such as mapping, to determine a baseline for regional wildlife habitat and restoration;
3. Assisting towns with “development in the right areas and protection of sensitive natural resources”;
4. Helping private landowners manage backyard habitats–an important factor in Vermont, where 80 percent of all land is in private hands, Gay says; and
5. Partnering with land trusts for permanent wildlife habitat protection.

The initiative seeks to increase awareness of wildlife and its needs so that towns and private landowners will incorporate wildlife into planning and management.

“We want to empower local groups and citizens through education and outreach,’” Gay says. “It works out really nicely from the National Wildlife Federation’s point of view, because it’s grassroots advocacy.”

2. Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y)

The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) involves a project area of 8,000 square miles and more than 200 cooperating agencies, organizations and businesses, making Y2Y the largest landscape-scale conservation effort in North America. The initiative identifies critical core habitats and threats to wildlife connectivity and partners with citizens’ groups, municipalities and industry in order to manage the use of motorized vehicles in backcountry areas, to make dumpsters bear-proof so grizzlies don’t get into trouble and have to be killed, and to convince mining, logging and energy companies to fragment less habitat.

3. Florida Wildlife Corridor

The Florida Wildlife Federation is working to protect a greenway called the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which would allow animals to move freely from the Everglades, at the southern end of the state, into Georgia at the northern end.

4. South Coast Wildlands Project

The South Coast Wildlands Project is working to protect 15 critical linkages and wildlife-compatible surrounding lands in coastal southern California, one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.

Developing new corridors and protecting existing linkages are two keys to ensuring the survival of viable populations of large animals and of animals that need a lot of elbow room, such as pronghorn, Florida panthers, lynx, wolves and grizzlies.

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As climate changes, some environments are becoming hostile to the flora and fauna that long nurtured them. Species that can migrate have begun to move into regions where temperatures and humidity are more hospitable. And that can prove a conundrum for officials charged with halting the invasion of non-native species

In some ways, this resembles the discussion about what makes a plant a ‘weed’ in an urban environment, where actual native plants are usually nowhere to be found.

One problem: What’s native? Species move at will as conditions change. What’s native in one century may be gone five generations later. Newly arrived species, meanwhile, may be environmental refugees.

Questions like this have taken on heightened importance with the dawning realization that some of the consequences of climate change are here now, and changing the idea of what makes a species suitable for a given environment.

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis:

“Policies that are currently in place view those [immigrants] as exotics,” Jarvis says — invading homesteaders that should, at all costs, be evicted. But such species may be on the move simply “because this is their last refuge,” he points out. “So we have to rethink that policy and how we respond to new species that are coming into our parks.”

Of course, it is not advisable to simply ‘welcome’ all wild climate refugee. An influx of new, non-native species can be expected to send ripples through an environment in countless ways, many impossible to foresee. Science News points out just a few possible consequences of this under-discussed global warming effect: new species in a habitat could bring “new predators and parasites, altering soil nutrients and porosity, even changing the amount of moisture and sunlight that reaches ground dwellers. And most of these changes can’t be fully anticipated in advance.”

Jarvis was driving down the southern rim of Grand Canyon National Park, a few months ago, when a group of piglike peccaries — also known as javelinas — crossed the road  in front of him. The park’s superintendent volunteered to Jarvis that “javelinas didn’t used to be here.” Although an American native, these animals are moving into novel, more northerly locations, Jarvis observes. “And I think this is going to be true for a lot of species.”

Scientists will have to figure out how to deal with these new species, many of which will have no other place to go. Will they go so far as to move or resettle some species to more appropriate habitats, sort of a M.A.S.H. operation for climate-victimized wildlife and plants? If they do, what about species like the giant sequoias, which, as Jarvis says, are “feeling the heat and not liking it” yet obviously not able to be relocated?

Even those species not expelled from their habitats may find their homestead moving beneath their feet (or roots): A study from Carnegie Institution for Science late last year found global warming is causing climate belts to shift toward the poles and to higher elevations, forcing ecosystems to move by as much as a quarter mile each year to stay in an acceptable temperature area. Sometimes this puts less adaptable plant and animal species in jeopardy.

“Expressed as velocities, climate-change projections connect directly to survival prospects for plants and animals.  These are the conditions that will set the stage, whether species move or cope in place,” says study co-author Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology.

…

Can the planet’s ecosystems keep up? Plants and animals that can tolerate a wide range of temperatures may not need to move.  But for the others, survival becomes a race. After the glaciers of the last Ice Age retreated, forests may have spread northward as quickly as a kilometer a year.  But current ecosystems are unlikely to match that feat, the researchers say. Nearly a third of the habitats in the study have velocities higher than even the most optimistic plant migration estimates. Even more problematic is the extensive fragmentation of natural habitats by human development, which will leave many species with “nowhere to go,” regardless of their migration rates.

We’re already pretty familiar with the projected impacts of climate change on human communities—some estimate that so-called ‘climate refugees’ could number more than 150 million over the next 40 years, and many populations are now actively preparing for the moves they may need to make.

Javelina ( flickr | SearchNetMedia )

Wildlife are a part of this too. Studies earlier this decade found that some animals may lose the ability to adapt quickly to the effects of climate change because those same effects could cause unexpected shifts in their genetic diversity–-”climate change can isolate different groups of animals by affecting the habitats in which they live, in much the same way that the direct destruction of natural land can create ecosystem islands.” In Alaska, shifting climate and loss of tundra could decimate the marmot population and let reed canary grass overwhelm the state in the near future. The pika, furry poster-child for the consequences of worsening climate change, is famously threatened by diminished snowpack and other effects in the American West.

In September, the Fish and Wildlife Service released a new strategic plan (PDF) that calls for federal agencies, states and conservation groups to work together to  ramp up research and response to global warming as part of efforts to conserve threatened species and habitat. This is now priority number one–well, close to it, anyway–and it’s been a long time coming.

So that's why this condor looks so happy.

In 1987, the last 22 condors remaining in the wild were captured for a captive breeding program. The program, run jointly by the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, began slowly; scientists were frustrated by the birds’ unusually slow reproductive habits (see below). But eventually the condors began to reproduce reliably, and in 1991, the first juveniles were reintroduced to the wild. Since then, young birds have been released each fall, and a handful of chicks have also hatched naturally in wild nests.

Small populations of the birds also survive in the southwestern U.S. and in Baja California, but scientists estimate that the entire population, wild and captive, remains below 400.

Anyone who has ever seen a condor knows that these are extraordinary birds. They’re huge, with the largest wingspan of any North American bird: more than 9 feet. Their heads and necks are nearly featherless. Condors can soar for miles without flapping their wings, which gives them a grace in flight that is at odds with their reputation as homely birds.

These long-lived scavengers are picky about their mates (as befits any animal that mates for life and lives as long as 50 years) and do not breed until the relatively advanced age of six, making them especially prone to population loss. Throughout the 20th Century, condors suffered terribly from various human-related causes: lead poisoning (from consuming animals contaminated with lead shot), DDT poisoning, poaching and the destruction of their habitat.

By the 1960s, fewer than 100 condors survived in the state, making this week’s announcement very good news for anyone who wants to see condors once again become a significant part of the ecosystem of the American West.

How Our Work Helps the Condor

The National Wildlife Federation works to strengthen and defend the Endangered Species Act, the law which has helped protect the California condor. Our California affiliate, the Planning and Conservation League, also works to protect important habitat for the condor, including the establishment of the Tejon Preserve.