WildEarth Guardians

05/28/2026

Today’s Supreme Court settlement underscores the need for long-term, science-based water management across the Southwest.

The Rio Grande is facing unprecedented early drying this year, and states are being forced to confront decades of overallocation, groundwater depletion, and climate-driven drought. The settlement aims to reduce groundwater pumping and improve long-term water sustainability in the Lower Rio Grande.

A healthy river is essential not only for human communities, but also for healthy ecosystems across the basin. Guardians will keep advocating for policies that protect flowing rivers, connected habitats, and a resilient future for the Rio Grande.

A deal to manage the dwindling Rio Grande is final. Here’s what it means for New Mexico's farmers and the state's water supply.

05/28/2026

Yesterday, we filed a lawsuit targeting a nationwide program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services that authorizes federally-subsidized “predator control” across millions of acres of public lands at the behest of the private livestock industry, including within designated Wilderness Areas subject to the strict protections of the 1964 Wilderness Act.

Today there are 803 federally designated Wilderness Areas in the United States, covering nearly 112 million acres, which still only represents less than 5% of the country.

Congress established Wilderness Areas under the Wilderness Act to preserve places “untrammeled by man,” where unrestrained wildlife and natural ecological processes operate freely without direct human control. Yet the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are systematically authorizing the killing of native wildlife in Wilderness Areas at the request of the heavily subsidized commercial livestock industry grazing on America’s public lands.

Read more about our latest legal challenge to defend America's wildlife and the wild places they call home ➡️ https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/new-lawsuit-challenges-wildlife-killing-by-federal-agents-inside-americas-designated-wilderness-areas/

05/28/2026

We're going to court to keep Wilderness wild and .

A division of the Agriculture Department is charged with killing predators that attack grazing livestock.

05/28/2026

The Colorado River is already stretched beyond its limits, and climate change is making flows more volatile and less reliable every year. The district court correctly recognized that federal agencies cannot ignore those realities when approving massive new water diversions and dam expansions. We’re proud to continue defending that ruling alongside our partners because decisions about the future of the Colorado River must be grounded in science, law, and the river’s actual limits.

With negotiations failed so far, the dispute over an injunction against filling Denver Water's Gross Reservoir is headed to appeals court in July.

05/28/2026

New Mexico is finally starting to confront the real costs of oil & gas cleanup, but major gaps remain, especially around repeat offenders and toxic fracking waste contamination.

Guardians submitted comments pushing for stronger protections before the rule closes. Read more ⬇️

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/new-mexico-land-office-hears-pros-cons-of-proposed-hike-to-oil-and-gas-bonds/article_445c4f6a-91d8-4c32-9edf-ba23302efd0a.html

The proposed change would increase bonding requirements for operators from $10,000 for a single well to $150,000.

05/27/2026

Our latest cutting-edge legal effort to protect all that is wild and ⬇️

The federal government’s use of cyanide devices and other agents to eradicate wolves, coyotes, and other predators that kill livestock in Congressionally-designated wilderness areas is illegal under the Wilderness Act, three environmental groups claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

05/27/2026

[Lawsuit Filed ✅] Today, Guardians and our partners Western Watersheds Project and Wilderness Watch filed a lawsuit targeting USDA's nationwide wildlife killing program Wildlife Services. Wildlife Services authorizes federal agents to kill native wildlife, including wolves, bears, mountain lions and coyotes using poisons, traps, and aerial gunning inside the nation’s most protected public lands: congressionally designated Wilderness Areas.

“This case is about whether Wilderness can actually be wild,” said Jennifer Schwartz, senior staff attorney with WildEarth Guardians. “You cannot preserve areas as ‘untrammeled’ while simultaneously deploying federal agents to kill apex predators for the intended purpose of propping up commercial grazing operations.”

Read more about our latest legal challenge to ➡️ https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/new-lawsuit-challenges-wildlife-killing-by-federal-agents-inside-americas-designated-wilderness-areas/

05/26/2026

The Greater Gila is one the wildest places on the planet. The various Roadless Areas found in the Gila are key to maintaining the wild character of this landscape and protecting it against the threats of logging, toxic mining operations, loss of wildlife habitat and decades of forest mismanagement.

Defending the Roadless Rule is but one essential effort in the larger campaign to work with partners across this landscape to advance the level of protection the Gila Bioregion deserves.

Today we show up in support of the Roadless Rule, which protects 1.6 million acres in New Mexico. Show your support by posting your own photo today for .

05/23/2026

It's official: The U.S. Senate voted to confirm former New Mexico Congressman Stevan Pearce as Bureau of Land Management Director, a position that oversees the management of 245 million acres of public lands (roughly one-tenth of all land in the United States). BLM also manages 700 million acres of federal sub-surface estate (oil and gas, coal, minerals).

America’s public lands have been exploited for private gain for more than a century. The Bureau of Land Management has long facilitated this exploitation–oil and gas development, clearcut logging, mining, and livestock grazing–to the detriment of our water, air, soils, wildlife, and health. Today, we desperately need a new land management ethic–one that fosters resilient ecosystems and human health instead of resource extraction.

Unfortunately, new BLM Director Steve Pearce is the opposite of what we need but exactly what you’d expect from the Trump administration: an oil and gas industry insider who values public lands for their profit potential. Pearce is openly hostile to the ethic of conserving and restoring the nation’s natural wealth.

Given Trump’s “energy dominance” orders and ongoing efforts from members of Congress to sell-off public lands across the West, every proposal and action from Pearce’s BLM should be scrutinized.

https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/blm-director-stevan-pearce-a-threat-to-public-lands/

05/22/2026

Of all the commercial uses that harm public lands, livestock grazing affects the largest acreage by far, and is the leading cause of species endangerment on western public lands. Read why Trump's grazing regulations weaken government oversight on 155 million acres of public land across the West and benefit private industry ⬇️

Conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, criticized a proposed rule change from the Trump administration guiding how the Bureau of Land Management regulates millions of cattle grazing across 155 million acres of public land in the Southwest.