Plan finalized for utility-scale solar projects on western public lands

January 17, 2025 by Kelly O’Connor

A final Bureau of Land Management plan for utility-scale solar development will designate almost 32 million acres of public lands across 11 western states as priority areas for utility-scale solar development while excluding some areas critical to wildlife

The BLM released the Record of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments for the updated Western Solar Plan in December 2024. This concludes a multi-year process to inform how the agency manages project proposals and applications for solar energy development across its managed lands in the western United States.

Updates to the 2012 Western Solar Plan were initiated in response to Executive Order 14008 (“Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad) and the Energy Act of 2020, which emphasized the need for enhanced renewable energy infrastructure to combat the global climate crisis. Originally limited to BLM lands in six states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah—the final plan includes additional lands in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

The process of soliciting public input on the plan began with a scoping period in late 2022. TWS collaborated with other organizations to produce detailed recommendations for the eventual updates to the plan, emphasizing the need to site projects in a way that limits their impacts on fish, wildlife and their habitats. When the BLM released the draft plan for public comment in early 2025, TWS collaborated with several chapters, sections and working groups to produce comments highlighting our members’ expertise and urging the BLM to consider the needs of wildlife in the final plan.

The final plan makes more than 31 million acres of public lands across the 11 states included in the planning area available for application for solar development, although the agency estimates only 700,000 of those acres are likely to be developed by 2045.

TWS and other organizations recommended a more conservative alternative during the review of the draft plan, which would have made approximately 8 million acres available for development while still meeting clean energy demands. The final plan prioritizes project applications within 15 miles of existing or proposed transmission lines and at a greater distance on previously disturbed lands. It also excludes development in areas where there is a high likelihood of conflict with resources like sensitive wildlife and critical wildlife habitats.

TWS CEO Ed Arnett joins committee for Public Lands Rule

January 16, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

TWS CEO Ed Arnett will join 14 other members and 11 alternate members to form a committee that will vote on decisions concerning the implementation of the agency’s Public Lands Rule.

The Public Lands Rule—also known as the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule—makes public land conservation a top priority for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The rule, which the BLM has enacted since June 2024, puts conservation on equal footing with other types of land usage, like livestock grazing, oil and gas drilling, mining on BLM lands and recreation.

The Wildlife Society’s Rangeland Wildlife Working Group, with assistance from TWS’ Habitat Restoration Working Group, submitted comments in support of the rule in June 2023 when it was proposed.

Participants of the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the BLM Public Lands Rule will offer feedback and recommendations for the Secretary of the Interior and the BLM director about the execution of the Public Lands Rule as well as public outreach and engagement associated with it.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland selected Arnett as part of the committee to represent the science community. Other members will represent Tribal governments, the public at large, nongovernmental organizations, energy or mineral development, federal grazing permit holders and commercial recreation activities. “Committee members are citizens from diverse backgrounds who share an interest in public lands,” the BLM said in a press release.

According to the BLM, the rule will help the agency protect the most intact and functional landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and use science, data and Indigenous knowledge as the foundation for management decisions.

The committee members will serve two-year terms. Its inaugural meeting will occur virtually on Feb. 19, 2025.

Whether the Public Lands Rule—and the committee—continues after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is uncertain. Trump plans to add more oil and gas leasing and mining activity on federal lands during his term and could potentially abandon the rule.

USFWS rejects states’ petitions to delist grizzlies

January 16, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected petitions to delist grizzly bears in Wyoming and Montana. The two states had proposed that grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) be considered a distinct population segment in places where population numbers were relatively stable. But after a federal judge ordered the Service to come to a listing decision for the bears before the upcoming presidential inauguration, the agency upheld the species’ threatened status and declined to consider bears in Montana and Wyoming as a distinct population segment from other surrounding states. “After a thorough review of the best scientific and commercial data available, the Service found grizzly bear populations in those two ecosystems do not, on their own, represent valid DPSs,” the Service announced in a press release.

Read more at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

National Wildlife Refuge System receives disaster relief funding

January 15, 2025 by Kelly O’Connor

The recent natural disasters have not spared the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS). From hurricanes like Helene and Milton to severe winter storms in California and Nevada, the NWRS has accrued hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to both built infrastructure and wildlife habitat in recent years. Thirty-seven separate disasters have impacted approximately 90 refuges in 2023 and 2024 alone.

In December 2024, TWS joined with the National Wildlife Refuge System and other organizations to urge leaders in Congress to address damages to the NWRS resulting from natural disasters by appropriating funds for end-of-year disaster relief. The request included $565.7 million for the NWRS to cover damages and an additional $289.9 million to invest in proactive management toward nature-based solutions (e.g. management of coastal marshes to create storm surge buffers during hurricanes).

The Continuing Resolution passed on Dec. 21, 2024, included supplemental disaster relief funding for a number of U.S. federal programs. Congress appropriated $500 million for the NWRS, falling just short of the request that TWS supported. Notably, Congress did not appropriate funds for resiliency efforts and nature-based solutions.

The NWRS will use the $500 million for activities including debris removal, habitat rehabilitation, invasive species management and repairs to facilities, roads and bridges. The NWRS will need continued support via congressional funding to address disaster impacts and other management necessities in the future.

For more on the costs of recent natural disasters across the NWRS, see this fact sheet.

A 30-year look at wolf reintroduction

January 14, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

It’s been 30 years since managers, scientists and others reintroduced gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. At the time, the decision was controversial. Some thought the wolves (Canis lupus) would naturally return to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem after their extirpation in the 1930s due to unregulated trapping and hunting. But the federal government wanted to move forward with the reintroduction in the 1990s. In an article published in WyoFile, writers discuss the history of the effort including the perspectives of activists, bureaucrats, biologists and politicians.

Read the article in WyoFile.

JWM: Pacific walrus harvest sustainable for foreseeable future

January 13, 2025 by Joshua Rapp Learn

Pacific walrus harvest appears to be sustainable when it’s maintained at current levels. But that could change under future climate change scenarios and increasing ship traffic in northern waters, researchers discovered in new research.

“Before this [research], there was no reliable metric for determining whether or not this harvest is currently sustainable or will continue to be sustainable in the future,” said Devin Johnson, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Marine Mammals Management Walrus Program.

Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) live in the Bering, Chukchi and East Siberian Seas—essentially, in the waters of Alaska and Russia.

Indigenous people in both areas have long walrus harvesting traditions. The Eskimo Walrus Commission, an organization that represents the harvesting communities of the Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and Iñupiaq, wanted to assess the sustainability of the practice. In a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management, Johnson and his colleagues helped them answer these questions by looking at walrus harvest, both now and into the future under the estimated impacts of increasing development and climate change forecasts.

Pacific walruses are harvested in Russia and Alaska. Credit: Devin Johnson

The team gathered published statistics on the numbers of walrus harvested since 1980 in Russia and Alaska. This data revealed that the average number of walruses harvested was about 28% lower during the period of 2005 to 2015 compared to the time between 1980 and 2005. Scientists estimate the total population of Pacific walruses to be about 257,193.

The team calculated the amount of disturbance to walruses from previous research Johnson and his colleagues had published in Marine Ecology Progress Series. When disturbed while on shore, in the worst cases, thousands of frightened walruses can stampede and trample one another, leading to deaths and injuries. Ship traffic can also disturb them while they’re foraging. But Johnson’s earlier research had predicted that declining sea ice will be the main factor affecting walrus numbers from now until 2100. All climate models predicted walrus declines.

The researchers then compared disturbance scenarios to various harvest scenarios.

The models revealed that a harvest of 1.23% of the female population would remain sustainable to 2100 under all scenarios considered. But even if harvest stayed at a set number rather than a percentage of estimated population, the chances of the harvest becoming unsustainable were low, the researchers found.

Walrus harvesting should remain sustainable at current levels. Credit: Devin Johnson, USFWS Permit PRT #MA33776D

These findings square well with those reported by Indigenous harvesters. Johnson and his colleagues consulted with Indigenous walrus hunters and elders in a workshop as part of the study. “Hunters continue to report the animals they harvest are healthy,” Johnson said, but they share concerns about the future effects of climate change and disturbance on the population.

Johnson and some of his co-authors continue to participate in ongoing walrus research. Since 2023, they have been involved with a new series of annual walrus research cruises, collecting tissue samples from walruses in the broken sea ice habitat of the Chukchi Sea and using genetic mark-recapture techniques to attain an updated population abundance estimate.

Human disturbance can cause walrus stampedes, leading to trampling deaths. Credit: Devin Johnson

The work doesn’t always go as planned. In 2024, their research vessel became trapped in the ice for over two weeks. “It was fine,” Johnson said. “We were equipped to be out there for a whole month of fieldwork.” Ultimately, the abundance estimate attained from this research effort will aid and inform the harvest sustainability analysis introduced in this study.

This article features research that was published in a TWS peer-reviewed journal. Individual online access to all TWS journal articles is a benefit of membership. Join TWS now to read the latest in wildlife research.  

Biden bans new offshore drilling in much of U.S. coast

January 13, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

President Joe Biden has banned new offshore oil and gas drilling along a large part of the U.S. coastline. The ban will cover the entire Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast of California, Oregon and Washington state, and part of Alaska’s Bering Sea. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden announced. Offshore drilling can also negatively affect wildlife by disturbing habitat and causing oil spills. President-elect Donald Trump declared he would reverse the ban. But Biden took his action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953—a law that allows U.S. presidents to revoke areas from resource exploration and drilling. A 2019 court ruling decided that other presidents can’t revoke these decisions without an act of Congress.

Read more at BBC.

Climate Connections features Renee Callahan

January 10, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

The Yale Climate Connections radio program shared TWS member Renee Cahallan’s expertise on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and wildlife crossing. As part of the law, a trillion dollars has gone into repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges. This funding helps the infrastructure become more resilient to climate change. It also helps wildlife move to suitable habitat as climate changes, since the law provides funding for underpasses or overpasses that help wildlife safely cross roads. “If animals are not able to move out of an area, then those animals are going to perish,” Callahan, the executive director for the nonprofit Animal Road Crossing (ARC) Solutions, said on the program. Yale Climate Connections interviewed Callahan at The Wildlife Society’s 2024 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Listen to the radio segment here and rea an accompanying article on the Yale Climate Connections website.

Wind energy experts gear up for 8th international conference

January 9, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

When researchers first observed raptors killed by turbines at a Northern California wind facility in the 1980s, concerns regarding turbine threats to wildlife emerged. Since then, these concerns have grown to include other taxa and across the entire globe.

Scientists now know that birds, bats and insects are all susceptible to mortality at wind facilities. But knowledge has also expanded about the indirect effects of turbines on wildlife, including habitat loss and fragmentation from development. And the challenge isn’t only on land. Researchers have documented offshore wind turbines affecting marine environments, too.

To address these types of issues in the U.S., organizations collaborated to create the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative in the mid-1990s. But as wind energy ramped up in other countries, the challenge quickly became a global one.

In response, the international research and conservation community formed the Conference on Wind Energy and Wildlife (CWW). TWS CEO Ed Arnett has been on the science advisory committee for this international conference since it began in 2011. Once again, he’ll help shape the upcoming conference scheduled to take place in Montpellier, France, this September.

“This conference brings together researchers, consultants, developers and other experts from governments, NGOs, the wind industry and private firms to share current science and technological advancements,” Arnett said.

The 8th CWW will take place Sept. 8-12 with the theme “Coexistence in a Changing World: Sharing Existing Knowledge, Challenges and Emerging Solutions.”

Presenters will cover a wide range of topics at the conference, including lessons learned from studies in marine and terrestrial environments, species-specific, ecosystem and habitat effects, innovations to future challenges and emerging solutions, and more.

The 2025 CWW call for abstracts from researchers who would like to present is open until Jan. 31.

“A key goal for the CWW is to build upon what we’ve learned from each prior conference and continually improve on solutions for the coexistence of wind energy and wildlife in a rapidly changing world,” Arnett said. “The broad global network of specialists attending this conference creates an exceptional networking and information exchange platform to help achieve that goal.”

Arnett got involved with the conference when he was with Bat Conservation International, helping develop themes and program areas, reviewing abstracts, delivering keynote presentations and moderating sessions and panel discussions.

The first conference in Norway in 2011 drew participation from over 300 people from at least 30 countries. In 2023 in Croatia, the conference drew 634 participants from 46 countries, demonstrating the continued interest in this critically important topic for global conservation.

Surveillance drones in Bangladesh help curtail poaching

January 8, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Wildlife managers are using surveillance drones to help tackle poaching in bird sanctuaries in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Forest Department’s Wildlife Crime Control Unit uses these drones to monitor wetlands for poaching. They discovered a number of nets set up for bird poaching relatively quickly. The technology also helped them seize the illegal traps, jail several poachers and even rescue several trapped birds.

Read more at Mongabay.