"The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands."
- Terry Tempest Williams |
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Wilderness Watch started the new year by filing an amicus brief at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rein in Wildlife Services’ wanton killing of native wildlife in Nevada, including the potential for killing wildlife in Wilderness. Together with seven partner organizations, we’re supporting Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians in their fight against a decision by the federal government to permit killing of native predators within 3.6 million acres of Wilderness in Nevada on behalf of livestock ranchers.
The case, which is now on appeal after the Nevada District Court issued a bad decision allowing the practice, has huge implications for the protection of Wilderness—and its wildlife—nationwide.
Wildlife Services is the secretive wildlife killing program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that has shot, trapped, and poisoned over 1,222,000 native animals nationwide during just the past three years—including wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, foxes, coyotes, mountain lions, and bobcats. In Nevada, between 2020 and 2022, Wildlife Services was responsible for killing at least 65 mountain lions, seven foxes, six bobcats, and an astonishing 10,085 coyotes!
Our brief explained to the Ninth Circuit what’s wrong with Wildlife Services’ “predator damage management” program and how our legal rules protecting Wilderness areas as secure natural habitat must prevent the government from permitting Wildlife Services’ killing program in these critical places that native predators and all wildlife depend on. As Wilderness Watch’s attorney Andrew Hursh wrote in our amicus brief, “Allowing the federal government to despoil Wilderness ecosystems and slaughter important wildlife species just to make heavily-discounted public lands grazing more profitable cannot be squared with Congress’s statutory text and cannot be squared with this Court’s precedent.” Our work to rein in Wildlife Services’ in Nevada is just the latest example of how we are fighting to defend Wilderness and the wildlife that call it home. Thank you for your continued support and please stay tuned for updates about this case and additional actions you can take to protect Wilderness and wildlife. |
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