EPA shrinks workforce and wetlands definition

November 25, 2025 by Kaylyn Zipp

The federal environmental watchdog is slashing jobs while moving to sharply limit the scope of federal waterway protections—two actions will likely affect wildlife and wetland habitats.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) newly proposed “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) definition in the Clean Water Act will redefine which wetlands and waterways qualify for federal oversight.

WOTUS are protected under the Clean Water Act, which requires federal permits for pollutant discharges and for dredge-and-fill activities that could degrade those waters.

The 2023 Sackett v. EPA ruling limited the federal government’s authority by narrowing which wetlands and streams fall under the Clean Water Act, requiring that a wetland be “indistinguishably part” of a larger water body. The agency asserts that the proposed rule is more in line with the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision. The proposed WOTUS definition refocuses federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act on relatively permanent, standing, or continuously flowing bodies of water, such as streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes, as well as wetlands directly connected to them. It also proposes:

  • That jurisdictional tributaries must connect to traditional navigable waters either “directly or through other features that provide predictable and consistent flow,” removing those that do not meet the continuous-surface-connection test.
  • The use of terms like “wet season” to help decide whether a water body qualifies under WOTUS.
  • Reductions in the number of permafrost wetlands eligible for federal protection

The proposed changes to the definition are intended to provide clarity and consistency. If passed, the rule changes will limit the wetlands and temporarily flowing waters that receive protection under the Clean Water Act, with potential implications for wildlife dependent on these sources of water. The agency published the proposed rule on November 20, 2025, and will accept public comments until January 4, 2026. The agencies will hold two in-person public meetings, with an option for virtual participation which will be posted online.

EPA staff cuts

At a moment when the Administration is restructuring research offices and tightening its regulatory reach, it raises questions about the EPA’s capacity to implement policy like the Clean Water Act amid upheaval.

The proposed rule arrives as the federal government is implementing one of the most significant workforce shake-ups in its history. More than 2,600 agency employees have accepted the Administration’s “Fork in the Road program,” which gives federal workers the option of deferred resignation. More than 17% of the agency’s staff has left or will leave, mirroring a broader loss of 154,000 federal workers as part of the Administration’s mass resignation plan to reduce the federal government’s payroll.

Concurrently, the Office of Research and Development closed on October 3, and the EPA launched the new, smaller Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions.

It remains to be seen if a leaner EPA can uphold the Clean Water Act as its jurisdiction narrows.

Join fellow TWS members in supporting this year’s Giving Tuesday campaign. The funds from this year’s campaign will go to support securing a future where wildlife and the people who protect it can thrive through policy engagement.

Conservation brings biodiverse cave from darkness

November 25, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

A vast cavern rediscovered in 2008 helped transformed Vietnam’s Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng National Park from an ecosystem impacted by poaching and logging into a thriving hub of sustainable tourism, a rare success story.

“There was no work,” remembered Phan Văn Thín, who as a teenager supported himself through jungle work despite the decline of many species at the time. As UNESCO recognition expanded and conservation enforcement tightened, hundreds of former hunters traded their hunting equipment for helmets and harnesses, finding steady work guiding visitors through the region’s 400-million-year-old karst labyrinth.

Fifteen years later, wild species began reappearing in growing numbers. Elusive animals like the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), an antelope so rarely seen that it is nicknamed the “Asian Unicorn,” are now found in Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng.

National parks in Vietnam have limited resources to measure wildlife population numbers. But UNESCO recently declared a transboundary world heritage site in the area that stretches past the western border and into Laos. Conservationists hope this expansion will increase the benefits of the park, reshaping livelihoods and reviving ecosystems across country boundaries.

Read more in Mongabay.

Congress passes spending bill for USDA conservation

November 24, 2025 by Kelly O’Connor

Several key conservation programs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been funded in appropriations language that passed with the recent spending bill.

The continuing resolution (H.R. 5371) passed through Congress after a record 44-day shutdown. While the administration proposed significant cuts to, or complete elimination of, funding for many of these programs, Congress has provided relatively stable appropriations for the 2026 fiscal year compared to the previous fiscal year.

The NRCS Conservation Technical Assistance Program, which connects private landowners with opportunities to improve the health of their lands while conserving wildlife and their habitats, was one program slated for funding elimination in the President’s FY2026 budget request. It is now being funded, though final FY2026 appropriations for the program were $697.6 million compared to the $776.5 million at FY2025 levels.

The administration had also proposed to eliminate funding for the Renewable Resources Extension Act, which funds extension forestry and natural resource activities at land grant universities. But the program received $4 million in FY2026 appropriations, level with funding the previous fiscal year.

As we’ve come to see over the past year, the passage of appropriations bills is just part of the federal conservation program funding puzzle. When federal dollars are appropriated but fail to reach their intended programs, the issue at hand is often one of impoundment—the effective withholding of congressionally-approved dollars from obligation or expenditure.

For conservation professionals, even when policy wins result in an appropriation, real ecological outcomes still depend on timely obligation, allocation, and dispersal of funding. If those steps are delayed—or funds are held back for policy, budgetary, or administrative reasons—the gap between legislative intent and field implementation widens, meaning stewardship targets slip, partnerships stall, and measurable conservation progress remains unrealized.

Earlier this year, TWS chapters, sections and working groups identified conservation funding as the most important policy priority for The Wildlife Society. TWS is committed to championing diverse, sustainable funding sources for wildlife conservation. Visit the Conservation Affairs Network Policy Toolkit to learn more about using your voice to engage with the U.S. congressional appropriations process.

Birds avoid spotted lanternflies fed on invasive plants

November 24, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Hungry birds avoid snacking on spotted lanternflies after the insects have been feasting on tree of heaven plants. Both invasive species from Asia, the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is the spotted lanternfly’s (Lycorma delicatula) preferred host. Researchers from The Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences placed insects on top of boxes occupied by house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) and found that birds were less likely to choose lanternflies reared on tree of heaven. They also ground up adult lanternflies reared with and without the plant and incorporated them into bird feeders. The bird feed with lanternflies that hadn’t eaten tree of heaven had more visits from birds compared to the other bird feed. The researchers isolated toxins called quassinoids from the lanternflies, which they think the insects are getting from tree of heaven. In an interview with the university, coauthor Anne Johnson said the results suggest that “the insects that consume this plant are less tasty, thereby providing some chemical defenses against avian predators.” Despite the distaste, some birds and other insects still feed on lanternflies in the wild, and the researchers next step is to better understand the conditions in which this predation occurs. 

Read more at The Pennsylvania State University.

LISTEN: How to stalk a predator

November 21, 2025 by Katie Perkins

Face to face with a 182-pound male mountain lion, Maurice Hornocker didn’t shirk. Instead, he greeted “Rex” like an old friend passing in the street.

Hornocker, the 2024 Aldo Leopold Memorial Award winner, is widely considered the godfather of carnivore research.

A TWS member since 1959, Hornocker helped pioneer the practice of marking individual animals and had a hand in the first life history studies of many large carnivores. From grizzlies (Ursus arctos horribilis) and cougars (Puma concolor), to bobcats (Lynx rufus) and river otters (Lontra canadensis), Hornocker has seen it all. His stories reveal the fundamental base for which much of the wildlife profession now works off.

“Our Wild Lives” is The Wildlife Society’s weekly podcast, sharing compelling stories from wildlife professionals doing critical work around the world. Your hosts, Katie Perkins and Ed Arnett, of The Wildlife Society, bring you thought-provoking conversations with leading experts and emerging voices.

New episodes are released weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Please email comms@wildlife.org with feedback or future episode suggestions.

Watch: Once extinct, reintroduced snails glow with hope

November 21, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Before their journey back into the wild, each tiny Partula snail received a small streak of reflective paint, glowing electric blue under a ultraviolet light at night in the Pacific islands of French Polynesia. Partula snails are nocturnal, and the paint turns them into a shifting constellation, slowly moving in the leaf litter, allowing the researchers applying the colors to monitor the released snails and track the species’ recovery. These snails were part of a pivotal boost this year for a slow-moving conservation success story—more than 7,000 zoo-bred Partula snails were released into the wild across four islands in French Polynesia. This year’s release marks the largest reintroduction of snails—some formerly listed as “extinct in the wild” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, since releases began 10 years ago.  

Wild Partula populations declined significantly in the 1980s and early 1990s due to the introduction of invasive predatory snails, prompting conservationists to rescue the last individuals of 15 species. They brought them into captivity and initiated an international breeding program.

Efforts like these have resulted in the 2024 downlisting of the Moorean viviparous tree snail (Partula tohiveana) from “extinct in the wild” to “critically endangered.” This year brought two more milestones: the first wild-born Moorean viviparous tree snail found outside the release area and the first Polynesian tree snail (P. varia) born in the wild in over 30 years.

“This exciting news demonstrates the power of conservation breeding programs and carefully planned releases in bringing species back from the edge of extinction,” said Fiona Sach, a conservation manager at the Zoological Society of London involved in one of the captive breeding programs, in a release.

Read more at the Zoological Society of London.

Are ocelots and opossums in cahoots?

November 20, 2025 by Olivia Milloway

Camera traps show that ocelots and opossums might be more friend than foe. In both Peru and Panama, new data shows these animals may work together, puzzling scientists.

“I wonder how many of these weird interactions are happening that we’re unaware of because they’re difficult to record in the field,” said Dumas Gálvez, a Panamanian researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Panama.

Gálvez and researchers in Peru captured four occasions of ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) and common opossums (Didelphis marsupialis) associating—the first observations of their kind. They showed that opossums are attracted to and often rub their bodies against ocelot scent cues like urine. Researchers think there may be an unexpected benefit to both species when it comes to hunting.

The ecology of fear

Gálvez was studying seed dispersers in the Panamanian rainforest, specifically the Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) and how the rodent responded to ocelot urine. Because ocelots prey on agoutis, Gálvez thought agoutis would avoid foraging for or removing seeds in areas with ocelot smells—which he found evidence for and published in Behavioral Ecology.

He assumed that project was finished until he went to the 2024 Melbourne Behavioural Ecology Conference, where he met a research team from Peru. They were presenting a poster on preliminary findings of ocelot and opossum associations.

Lead author Ettore Camerlenghi recalled presenting their findings when Gálvez stopped by. “He mentioned that he had set up camera traps using ocelot scent and to his surprise, captured numerous videos of opossums rubbing against the scent,” Camerlenghi said.

Gálvez returned to Panama and found the images of the opossum biting and pulling at the fabric with ocelot urine. He continued to comb through the camera trap data and was shocked at what he found. “I just remembered one camera,” he said. “But I was really surprised when I went back and found it on all the cameras.”

The researchers decided to collaborate together on a new study, published recently in Ecosphere. “It’s a nice example of how science often works through serendipitous events, curiosity, and collaboration,” said Isabel Damas-Moreira, another of the study’s coauthors.

Unlikely pairs in unlikely places

There are other examples of interspecies hunting partnerships, such as badgers (Taxidea taxus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) collaborating to hunt burrowing animals in North America. But the researchers still find this mutual tolerance between ocelots and opossums “puzzling.” While badgers can hold their own against coyotes, opossums can easily become ocelot food.

Camerlenghi speculated that similar to badgers and coyotes, they could be better at hunting cooperatively rather than individually. Opossums are immune to some snake venom, so they may collaborate to hunt these reptiles—though they haven’t yet found direct evidence of cooperative snake hunting.

Another potential reason for their association could be masking each other’s scent cues. Gálvez’s initial thought was that if the opossums smelled more like an ocelot, they’d have protection from other predators. But the scent masking can also go the other way. Opossums are notoriously smelly—ocelots could be using opossum stench as a cover to more easily approach nervous prey, the study authors speculated.

While there’s a lot the researchers don’t know, they continue to investigate these associations. “The regional scale of this is interesting—it’s not only happening in Peru, but also further north in Panama,” Gálvez said.

He is interested in associations between other felids whose ranges overlap with opossums, like the puma (Puma concolor). He also wants to see how opossums on Coiba Island—a national park in Panama without any ocelots or other predators—respond to ocelot urine.

Gálvez is still researching ocelots, but his local ocelot urine supplier—a zoo in Panama City that houses the animals—isn’t producing like it used to. He says it’s easier to just buy puma urine on Amazon.

New antivenom works against 17 snakes

November 20, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

At least 7,000 people die every year from snake bites across Africa but a new therapy targeting 17 different species may help save lives. Traditional antivenom comes from injecting small amounts of snake venom into horses, which then develop antibodies. Specialists isolate these antibodies from the horses’ blood to develop serums for snake bite victims. But antivenom is very specific, making care challenging in places like Central Africa where there are many highly venomous snake species. Researchers have now made a new broad-spectrum antivenom by copying eight antibody fragments, or nanobodies, from llamas (Lama glama) and alpacas (Lama pacos) and combining them. In lab trials, the antivenom saved mice from 17 out of the 18 snake venoms in the Elapidae family, which includes cobras and mambas. While the results are promising, researchers don’t yet know what a therapeutic dose for humans would be or if the technology, though it would be cheaper than traditional antivenom production, will be scalable. “The most powerful of all the ‘omics’—economics—may once again represent an insurmountable obstacle to fighting the most neglected of tropical diseases,” said Juan Calvete, Director of the Evolutionary and Translational Venomics Laboratory at the Biomedicine Institute of Valencia, in an interview with Live Science.

Read more at Live Science.

Road noise may give solace to squirrels

November 19, 2025 by The Wildlife Society

Roads are a killer problem for wildlife, not to mention the noise pollution from traffic. But new research reveals that gray squirrels may forage more near noisy roads as a strategy to avoid larger predators. In a study published recently in Oikos, researchers mapped out where gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) left behind more of their food in different parts of a standardized study area—an indicator of how afraid they were while foraging. They found that the squirrels may feel safer from predators in areas with more road noise. But the researchers also found that for squirrels, consistency is key—unpredictably noisy roads still left them scared. “Our findings suggest human activities have a double-edged impact on urban wildlife like the gray squirrel,” said Sasha Dall, an ecologist at the University of Exeter, in a press release. “Squirrels are having to adapt to these challenges by altering their foraging behavior and habitat use.”

Read more at the University of Exeter News.

Wild Cam: Restoration boosts cryptic salamander numbers

November 19, 2025 by Joshua Rapp Learn

On the surface, the plight of the Barton Springs salamander seems dire. The small salamanders can usually only be seen in a collection of freshwater springs in the middle of downtown Austin. And some of these springs have been modified with concrete or turned into municipal swimming pools, making the habitat less suitable for the amphibians.

Now, wildlife managers are making small changes to miniscule springs less than half a city block in size. They hope these changes will have an impact on the wider, unseen population that lives deep under Austin. 

“That little [spring] habitat was wildly successful in terms of increasing the abundance of that salamander,” said Nathan Bendik, a biologist with Austin Watershed Protection, a department of the city’s municipal government.

Surface springs don’t tell the full story of these amphibians, which spend much of their lives in underground aquifers far from human eyes. Since researchers can’t easily reach these often narrow and submerged underground passages, the best they can do is improve conditions on the surface.

New species, old problems

The Barton Springs salamander (Eurycea sosorum) was first described in 1993. Shortly after, it was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service due to habitat changes in its relatively tiny natural range in downtown Austin. The species is most easily observed on the surface in a few springs that feed into Barton Creek, which flows through the center of town into the Colorado River. Heavily modified over the years, Barton Springs is a stretch of Barton Creek that has been turned into an outdoor natural pool that stretches for a few city blocks, open year-round. The water from these springs is fed by the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer, a huge underground source of freshwater.

While the salamanders can sometimes be found in Barton Springs Pool, they’re more often seen in a series of smaller surrounding water bodies such as Eliza Springs, pictured above. Though now closed to swimming, Eliza was also heavily modified for swimming in decades past—the water lies in the middle of an oval-shaped concrete amphitheater no wider than 30 feet across and just a foot deep or less. Spring water had been redirected through a pipe so it emerges from Edwards Aquifer via a pipe below.

In a study published recently in Animal Conservation, Bendik and his colleagues describe how retrofitting Eliza Springs, the main surface habitat of the Barton Springs salamander, and its small outflow has helped to boost the population.

Salamanders’ rock

While the project has been in the works for about 20 years, physical work started in 2016. The first order of business: rock collecting. The Barton Springs salamander needs fist-sized rocks and gravel to hide and lay their eggs under. “We had to go rock shopping,” Bendik said.

The team searched for locally-sourced natural river rocks for sale but had no luck. They tried quarried rock, but the size was still too big.  Then, the managers of Barton Springs wanted to clear out debris in the larger municipal pool after a recent flood. Bendik and his colleagues moved the rocks between the pools and it seemed to help. “We made this change and then all of a sudden we were seeing a lot more salamanders there,” Bendik said.

Next, they removed the inflow pipe so that water flowed up from the aquifer more naturally. They also retrofitted the outflow from Eliza Springs from a drainpipe into a more natural stream that flowed for about 70 feet along the surface, increasing the potential surface habitat of the species.

Wildlife managers have been surveying salamander numbers at Eliza Springs since 1996 by flipping all the rocks while snorkeling.

In 2014, they switched to a new method of tracking salamanders that improved accuracy. They photographed each individual, recorded if females had eggs, then released them back into the spring. Each salamander has a unique pattern on its head which researchers can use to identify individual salamanders from one another, allowing for a population estimate after each survey.

They also began capturing salamanders by sucking them up with a modified turkey baster, resulting in fewer injuries, then put them into floating nets for processing.

Springs surge in population

The salamander counts confirmed what Bendik and others had already noticed. The peak abundance for salamanders in Eliza Springs and the stream outflow before retrofitting was 1,200 in 2008. Peak abundances since restoration have been more than 2,000 in some years. Salamander numbers can ebb and flow naturally based on conditions above and belowground—biologists still aren’t even sure how and why Barton Springs salamanders sometimes get spit out of the Edwards Aquifer more some years than other years. “You get some highs and some lows,” Bendik said.

Despite the fluctuations, the average number of salamanders has increased from 354 to 1,051. The average salamander density, too, increased from 4.8 individuals per square meter before changes to 10.6 after. “Everything is looking very positive at that site,” Bendik said.

Making salamander-positive changes at the municipal pool is difficult due to its heavy use by residents and visitors. But Bendik and his colleagues are now trying to replicate their success at Old Mill Spring, another former swimming hole which sits just southeast of the municipal pool and sometimes has Barton Springs salamanders. They plan to reinstall a more meandering stream from the aquifer outflow. “We’re excited about that and we’re hoping we can get that done before the end of our permit term [in 2033],” Bendik said.