Congress is moving to nullify land resource management plans that have guided federal policy by using a bill never applied in such a manner. If passed into law, the decision to nullify these plans could create uncertainty for communities, wildlife and industries relying on those lands.
Since its passage in 1996, the Congressional Review Act (CRA) has allowed Congress to overturn rules that federal agencies created. Both the Senate and House of Representatives need to vote to overturn the rule within 60 congressional days of the rule’s publication.
So far, the CRA has not been applied to federal land management plans. However, this changed in June 2025, when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report in response to the BLM’s Miles City Field Office Record of Decision and Approved Resource Plan Amendment.
The GAO’s report stated that the Miles City Resource Management Plan (RMP) amendment can be subject to the CRA, even though RMPs have previously been exempt from the CRA. Congress, via a series of joint resolutions, then voted to nullify three Bureau of Land Management resource management plans through the CRA:
Land management plans decide what can happen, where and how on public lands, representing a balance of uses, access and protection. Changes to land management plans can reshape what resources are protected, what activities (e.g. mineral extraction, cattle grazing, energy infrastructure development, recreational access) are permitted, and how ecosystems are managed. If the joint resolutions are passed into law, the BLM must revert to managing the affected lands using older RMPs. Some of these previous plans are more than 30 years old.
Collectively, the updated RMPs addressed issues such as mineral extraction, specifically coal, sensitive wildlife habitat and subsistence of Indigenous groups. The Central Yukon RMP was developed with significant collaboration from 20 Tribes. Indigenous knowledge, data and research were central to shaping a plan aimed at protecting the land and preserving natural resources, sparking reported concern and frustration from those involved.
Under the CRA, Congress can only approve or reject a rule in full and cannot modify it. Additionally, the administrating agency is barred from issuing “substantially the same” rules in the future without new legislative authorization. There is little guidance on what “substantially the same” means in practice. This approach could significantly constrain BLM’s ability to modernize land management and limit their flexibility for addressing future resource management challenges.
The majority of the world’s bird populations are now in decline, while other species have crept closer to extinction. The latest update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List now covers 172,620 species, including 48,646 threatened with extinction. Marine mammals have been hit hard due to climate change—the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) is now considered “endangered,” and the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) are listed as “near threatened.” Climate change causes sea ice loss, which disrupts these species’ ability to breed, feed and rest.
Additionally, overall bird populations continue to decline, with 61% of species decreasing worldwide, signaling an urgent need for conservation. Habitat loss from deforestation, agriculture and logging is the main cause.
The update also lists six species as “extinct,” including the Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura), the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), several Australian mammals and a Hawaiian plant.
The IUCN noted some good news—the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has improved from “endangered” to “least concern” thanks to decades of conservation, including protecting nests and reducing bycatch.
The IUCN Red List update calls for stronger global conservation efforts, habitat protection, and urgent climate action to halt biodiversity loss and support species recovery worldwide.
The U.S. government has cut $14 million in funding to environmental groups that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their strategic plans, action items or websites. Even groups that included land acknowledgments, formal statements recognizing Indigenous nations as the original stewards of the land, faced cuts.
But removing DEI and land acknowledgements does not seem to assuage the cuts. Even those that have rethought or shifted their perspective on DEI have had their funding rescinded. California Trout, Inc. had numerous awards cut. The organization previously affirmed DEI on its website, though it wiped the endorsement from its site in September 2024. “Over the past three years, our organization has grown and evolved, deepening our understanding of what it means to meaningfully uphold these commitments,” the group states on its website in reference to the removal. They affirmed that the rescission had nothing to do with governmental actions.
The Wildlife Society has launched a new podcast bringing listeners into the heart of wildlife conservation. Each episode of the show, released weekly, will share stories from wildlife professionals around the world.
“Our Wild Lives” is hosted by Katie Perkins, digital content manager for TWS, and Ed Arnett, TWS CEO. They will interview leading experts and emerging voices, uncovering the wild lives of diverse species and the scientists who study them—and unpack the urgent issues facing wildlife conservation today.
“There has never been a more critical time to share the stories of TWS members,” said Perkins. “We hope this podcast will connect our members and the public, to share entertaining and informative content about wildlife conservation.”
The podcast was born out of a desire to provide a forum to have relaxed, informal conversations like you might have at a conference or with a mentor. Early episodes tackle topics like “Field Work 101,” answering questions about what to wear and how to plan your first field expeditions. Other topics include engaging community members in urban wildlife and tracking songbirds through Wyoming’s sagebrush.
Arnett has been wanting to start a podcast since he joined TWS staff almost four years ago. “It’s another way for TWS to reach broader audiences and communicate the importance of conservation and science-based wildlife management,” he said. While “Our Wild Lives” will largely feature TWS members and their work, it will also highlight the efforts of partner organizations, landowners and other groups working to better understand and manage wildlife around the world. The show will also include conversations with legislators and policy specialists as the hosts dig into current issues facing wildlife conservation.
Florida has expanded a key section of its wildlife corridor, vital for species like the eastern indigo snake and red-cockaded woodpecker, by granting easement funds to a working cattle ranch, allowing the land to be conserved while remaining in agricultural use.
The 7,514-acre Kenansville Ranch, located within the Florida Wildlife Corridor in Osceola County south of Orlando, supports a range of rare and endangered species, including the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi), Florida burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia floridana), red-cockaded woodpecker (Leuconotopicus borealis), and sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis). The easement helps the land to remain in agricultural use, maintaining its role as a working cattle ranch. The easement comes with the condition that landowners must follow best management practices that protect water quality and promote environmental stewardship. The easement conserves critical habitat and enhances landscape connectivity by linking other nearby conservation easements.
“Conservation easements preserve Florida’s landscapes while keeping working lands productive,” said DEP Secretary Alexis Lambert.
This protection effort is part of Florida Forever, one of the nation’s largest conservation programs, which has invested $3.8 billion since 2001 to help conserve over 1 million acres across the state.
Massachusetts and California intend to join the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They would be the first U.S. states to do so. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll made the announcement at the same time the 2025 World Conservation Congress was taking place from Oct. 9-15 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. “Massachusetts is leading the way to a future where people and nature thrive. As the first states to announce our intention to join the IUCN, Massachusetts and California are standing firm by our commitments to lead the nation on biodiversity conservation,” saidHealey. “The value of this work is undeniable—this will help us protect wildlife, strengthen our local economies and really preserve what makes Massachusetts so special.” The two states would become official members in 2026.
Images of a hybrid bird have swept across the internet, with birdwatchers and scientists alike marveling at what some are trendily calling a “grue jay.” But beneath the viral fascination lies a deeper ecological story, one potentially shaped by the impacts of climate change and food subsidies on range dynamics.
Historically, geography and climate separated the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) and the green jay (Cyanocorax yncas). Scientists previously thought the hybridization observed in Texas and published in Ecology and Evolution was improbable. However, scientists have witnessed them hybridizing in captivity.
“The possibility of the green jay and the blue jay occurring naturally together during the breeding season is remote, so that hybrids are not to be expected in the wild,” wrote scientists who documented captive interbreeding of the two species in 1965 at Fort Worth Zoo.
The tropical green jay’s range stretches from the northern Andes through Central and South America, reaching its northernmost point in the United States, exclusively in Texas. Texas is the most southern part of the range for the blue jay. However, recent warming has led to the expansion of tropical climate zones northward. This has brought tropical species like the green jay into closer and more sustained contact with temperate ones, such as the blue jay. Now both can be found feeding on artificial food sources, like backyard feeders, which may also be playing a role in the range overlap.
The discovery highlights a growing pattern of novel species hybridizations that are forming in response to anthropogenic pressures. Predicting new species interactions and hybridizations is difficult, highlighting the need for ongoing documentation to understand ecology in its dynamic form as ranges continue to change due to anthropogenic impacts.
A blue jay (a), hybrid jay (b) and green jay (c) side by side, displaying the blend of morphological characteristics that occur with this unique hybrid. Credit: Stokes and Keitt, 2025
In an unprecedented partnership, 21 Indigenous governments, the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories and private donors are investing $375 million in Indigenous-led conservation, stewardship and economic development across the Northwest Territories.
The Northwest Territories, a region of significant ecological value, hosts one of the largest and most intact forest ecosystems around the globe, along with two of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and the eighth largest river. These lands and waters support an abundance of animals, including migratory birds and arctic mammals, including caribou (Rangifer tarandus), grizzly bears (Ursus arctos), polar bears (Ursus maritimus), wolves (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx canadensis) and wolverines (Gulo gulo).
Through the “Our Land for the Future” initiative, the partners involved aim to build community capacity by supporting the Indigenous Guardians program, which is a stewardship program that includes trained experts who manage lands and waters on behalf of their Nations. The funding will support training and career development of Indigenous people that will then monitor the ecosystems and cultural sites as part of the program. The money that the “Our Land for the Future” initiative receives will also advance climate action, support new and existing protected areas and promote sustainable, conservation-based Indigenous economies, which is key in the Arctic region.
“We belong to the land, and the land belongs to us,” said Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, Dehcho First Nations. “The investment announced today will help us steward our sacred responsibilities.”
By using a regional, community-driven approach, those involved in the initiative hope to help identify ecologically and culturally significant areas, provide greater clarity for industry and streamline conservation planning while protecting this vital landscape for future generations.
“It’s not just about the future of the [Northwest Territories] and empowering our communities; it’s about playing our part in addressing the challenges of climate change and loss of biodiversity for the world,” the website states.
In the Mexican city of Morelia, three generations of sightings have revealed that fireflies don’t light up the night sky like they used to.
“We don’t know if we’re talking about a local extinction or just a displacement of fireflies,” said Cisteil Pérez-Hernández, a postdoctoral researcher and entomologist at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia, Mexico. “But we do know that little by little, fireflies are disappearing from Morelia.”
Through conducting 112 interviews and surveys, Pérez-Hernández found that most Morelians still knew what fireflies were—but the number of firefly sightings and their general abundance were decreasing over time. She also found that younger generations of Morelians are losing touch with this culturally important species. While every elder surveyed reported having seen fireflies in nature, only two of every 10 respondents under the age of 25 reported having seen them.
Traveling back in time
Pérez-Hernández came to Morelia for a postdoctoral research position to study beetles. One night, a colleague invited her to sample for fireflies in the city. “This really caught my attention because I had always gone out to the countryside or conservation areas to look for fireflies, but I had not considered looking in urban areas,” she said.
A few years later, she started a project on fireflies, hoping to understand how different levels of urbanization affected firefly distribution across the city—the capital of the central-western Mexican state of Michoacán, Morelia is home to around 800,000 people and continues to grow.
Biology student Danna Rivera conducts a survey on firefly perceptions and memories at the urban park Bosque Cuauhtémoc in Morelia during a science fair run by the local university. Credit: Cisteil Pérez-Hernández
For a new study published in PeerJ Life & Environment, Pérez-Hernández started out by making a list of fireflies in the city based on where they were found on a gradient from highly urbanized to rural. But the deeper she dove into the literature—databases, entomological records and specialized literature—the less information she found. She only found two species recorded within the city through entomological records. “In many European countries, they have information dating back centuries. But in most of Latin America, we don’t have those sources of information,” she said. Scientists have more thoroughly studied certain areas in the country, like the state of Veracruz. “But in many regions, the studies are scarce.”
Pérez-Hernández turned to iNaturalist, a user-sourced citizen science platform where anyone can upload observations of flora and fauna. She found around 15 different species of fireflies documented throughout the city. “So, we started asking people, ‘Hey, where have you seen them?’”
Older Morelians started sharing stories of seeing fireflies as children. “I was left with the feeling that people have a lot to say,” Pérez-Hernández said, so she created a formal study that would use oral histories to document firefly abundance in Morelia throughout the past five decades.
Reversing the decline
The team found a total of 116 sites where fireflies had been documented in Morelia through interviews, iNaturalist sightings, sampling and entomological records. A total of six genera and 19 species of nocturnal fireflies were recorded in the city and its surrounding areas.
Firefly sightings from 2016 to 2022 were associated with green areas in urban zones with vegetation, high soil moisture and low light pollution. These factors likely helped firefly populations maintain a foothold through time.
Fireflies are highly sensitive to changes in the environment and can serve as bioindicators for urban ecosystems more broadly. The areas where elders reported seeing fireflies in the past but not in the present coincided with environmental changes like urbanization and loss of green space, which fireflies rely on. “Through the oral histories, we saw that the most relevant factors that have caused the loss of fireflies in Morelia are the increase in light pollution and the loss of green spaces,” she said.
Light pollution is a main threat to fireflies in Morelia. Credit: David Gracia
Possibly, other factors like the use of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides—which are driving insect loss more broadly in the country—could also be behind the loss of the fireflies. But the team didn’t examine causes in this study.
Fireflies need clean bodies of water, green areas where they can find food, and very low levels of pollution—both chemical and light pollution. “All of these conditions are what humans require to have a good quality of life, too,” she said. “In some way, the loss of fireflies indicates that the quality of life we now have in those places is lower.”
Many Morelians reported last seeing fireflies years ago. “It was beautiful to witness them going back in their memories and recounting what they experienced,” she said. “But then they suddenly realized that [the fireflies] are no longer there, and their feelings changed from excitement to sadness.”
Collective amnesia
Pérez-Hernández said it was hard for respondents to believe that their children hadn’t seen any fireflies because they were common even up until about 20 years ago in the city.
This loss of collective memory, where a younger generation is brought up in a city without fireflies, might be the early stages of the societal extinction of Morelia’s fireflies. Societal extinction refers to the phenomenon of “gradual fading of cultural knowledge and collective memory of a species.”
Cisteil Pérez-Hernández studies why insects are on the decline in Mexico and what we can do to help them. Credit: Cisteil Pérez-Hernández
Societal extinction can lead to another dangerous phenomenon called shifting baseline syndrome, where new generations accept a degraded environment as normal, natural or the default. When a society has assumed a species has blinked out or forgotten it was ever there in the first place, it can make it hard for conservationists to rally public support to save the species.
“When people are not aware of a loss of nature, it is more difficult for them to get involved in conservation strategies or even to alert their leaders that something needs to be done,” Pérez-Hernández said. At least in this case, the older generation was still concerned after they realized the bioluminescent insects were blinking out. “Practically everyone would then ask, what can we do to make them shine again?”
The braiding of Indigenous knowledge with Western science can improve the outcomes and success of wildlife management across the continent.
“Sometimes we get bogged down in the path and the perspectives,” said Allyson Menzies, an assistant professor in biological sciences at the University of Calgary, during the plenary presentation at The Wildlife Society’s 32nd Annual Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. But, “we gain leverage when we work together.”
To kick off the plenary, TWS CEO Ed Arnett said that defending the integrity of wildlife science and Indigenous knowledge is a “cornerstone” of wildlife management. “We are bigger and better than the politics that sometimes drive us,” he said.
Francis Whiskeyjack, a Saddle Lake Cree elder, asked attendees to join him in a Cree prayer—“The Way of the Spirit”—as a traditional invocation before the rest of the talks.
Francis Whiskeyjack, a Saddle Lake Cree elder, kicks off the plenary with a Cree prayer. Credit: Katie Perkins/TWS
Menzies, who is of mixed Métis and settler ancestry, then talked about her work with moose (Alces alces) in Treaty 2 territory in southern Manitoba. “I didn’t necessarily choose to study moose,” she said. “I’d say that moose chose me.”
While moose used to be more abundant in the area, the species has become rarer over Menzies’ lifetime. While the Métis used to hunt moose in the area, and it was a common staple of her diet, Menzies said that she rarely eats the large ungulate anymore.
This shift from relative abundance to scarcity has led to conflict over harvesting rights between Métis and other First Nations, as well as Western scientists who dispute the best way to manage the population. “We’re all left fighting for crumbs in a world full of scarcity right now,” she said.
But by working across more systems of knowledge—both Western science and Indigenous—stakeholders may find better ways to improve the management of the species. “Conflict happens when values clash,” she said. Meanwhile, “populations continue declining while we argue over what decisions we should be making.”
Allyson Menzies, who is of mixed Métis and settler ancestry, discusses her work with moose. Credit: Katie Perkins/TWS
At the end of the day, all stakeholders want the same thing, though—healthy moose for the future. This common ground should be the focus of shared efforts, she said.
In her talk, Julie Thorstenson, executive director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, spoke about the braid being a “significant symbol” in many Indigenous cultures. It’s present in basket weaving, hairstyles, sweetgrass braiding and even the umbilical cord.
She stressed the importance of meaningful collaborations in wildlife management between Indigenous people and Western scientists—bad collaborations can sometimes be just as bad as no collaboration at all. This is especially true when organizations or scientists look to partner with Indigenous groups to push their agenda rather than really collaborate. In these unsuccessful collaborations, the groups often just speak instead of listening.
Building good working relationships takes time to build trust. “Communication is literally the make or break of partnerships,” said Thorstenson, Lakota on her maternal side.
Julie Thorstenson stresses the importance of the symbol of the braid. Credit: Katie Perkins/TWS
Remington Bracher, a Nêhiyaw (Cree) member of Muskoday First Nation, spoke about the struggle it takes to reconnect with cultural roots under the legacy of a cultural system that tried for so long to oppress Indigenous ways of life. Many people with Indigenous heritage struggle to reconnect with their identity due to the “extirpation of culture” caused by the residential school systems in North America.
This extirpation of culture was combined with the extirpation in many areas of buffalo (Bison bison), a cornerstone of various Indigenous cultures in western North America. But Indigenous people are working hard to restore buffalo to the landscape while restoring cultural identity into society. “For many of us, reclaiming and reliving that identity is an act of resistance in itself,” said Bracher, a wildlife biologist, hunter, angler, trapper and graduate student at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
He echoed the problems caused by the failure of Western scientists to take Indigenous knowledge seriously. But he lauded efforts that TWS made to include Métis dancers to kick off the keynote event on Sunday, Oct. 5; the use of Indigenous art on the conference logo; and inviting elders like Whiskeyjack to invoke an Indigenous prayer as the “meaningful acceptance” of Indigenous culture and knowledge.
To wrap up the plenary speech, Luis Antonio Tarango Arámbula, president of the Mexico Chapter of TWS and a professor at the Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus San Luis Potosí, spoke about the great diversity of his country’s wildlife. Despite this richness, he noted that there was a mismatch in investment between the richer central and northern regions of Mexico versus the poorer south. This mismatch is unfortunately matched by the proportion of Indigenous land in the country, whereby the south has a much higher Indigenous demographic than the north.
To wrap up the plenary speech, Luis Antonio Tarango Arámbula, president of the Mexico Chapter of TWS speaks about the great diversity of his country’s wildlife. Credit: Katie Perkins/TWS
However, he pointed to the example of an Indigenous-led project spearheading the conservation of the uninhabited nature reserve home to an endemic subspecies of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus sheldoni) on Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California. The Seri people of the area administer the island, managing the hunting of introduced bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) there in partnership with the Mexican federal government.
