In 2023, wolverines won federal protections, gray wolves were reintroduced in Colorado and the Bureau of Land Management announced a draft-management plan for critical Gunnison sage grouse habitat, all species protected under a statute passed by Congress 50 years ago.

Vera Smith, senior federal lands policy analyst for Defenders of Wildlife, said while the primary goal is to avoid Endangered Species Act listings altogether, when scientists do see species in decline, the act is critical for ensuring they get the protections they need to survive and thrive in the future.

"The act is really good at incentivizing that," Smith pointed out. "When species are getting closer to extinction, the act steps in and offers that critical protection and directs resources where they need to go."

Since the 1900s, the Gunnison sage grouse has lost 90% of its sagebrush-sea habitat to human development. Smith said the number of birds known for their iconic mating dance has dropped to just 4,000. The BLM manages 42% of the bird's remaining habitat, and is accepting public comments on its proposal through Feb. 7.

After 20 years of work by conservationists, in November the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to list wolverines as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Fur trapping and poisoning brought the animal to the brink of extinction, and just 300 remain in the lower 48.

Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation program legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said climate change and human disturbance are the two main threats.

"Wolverines need high elevation, large snowpack levels for their denning habitat," Zaccardi explained. "Climate change obviously is reducing the availability of the heavy snowpack in high elevations that wolverines need."

Ryan Sedgeley, southern Rockies field representative for the Endangered Species Coalition, credited the Endangered Species Act for helping gray wolves rebound from near-total extinction in parts of the Northern Rockies and other states. After Colorado voters approved their reintroduction in 2020, 10 wolves were released this December.

"Wolves haven't been in Colorado since the 1940s when they were systematically eradicated," Sedgeley noted. "Restoring the balance to nature, to our ecosystems, is really important."

Teams of researchers and volunteers will fan out at dawn Friday with their smartphones and binoculars on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus for a 24-hour biological scavenger hunt, known as "BioBlitz."

The annual event comes as new research shows Florida's natural habitats are disappearing at unprecedented rates, with Southwest Florida among the regions most affected. The fifth annual event builds on last year's discovery of 144 species, including the rare two-striped forktail dragonfly and confirmed river otter activity on campus wetlands.

Mercedes Rasler, a senior biology student at the university, hopes to focus her camera to capture another circling osprey, one of the region's most visible raptors.

"We see a lot of ospreys, a lot of red-shouldered hawks, those are kind of our cool raptors," Rasler reported. "In terms of other species, we've got northern mockingbirds, we've got grackles, blue jays, lots of iconic species, but then also some species that people may not know right away."

This year, participants equipped with the iNaturalist app aim to surpass previous records while contributing to a global database supporting conservation efforts. Anyone, regardless of location, can participate by downloading the app and documenting species in their own area.

Oscar Johnson, assistant professor of ornithology at the university, explained the scientific value of BioBlitz, through its not-so-secret goal of empowering "citizen science" to document biodiversity.

"It's a combination of an event where we can get a lot of people outside and looking at nature, learning about nature, looking at cool bugs, birds, mammals, plants, anything that we can find that's living," Johnson outlined. "Learn about identification, natural history."

The event aligns with similar conservation efforts at other Florida schools and organizations. With ongoing budget constraints and staffing reductions across wildlife agencies, state officials said volunteer-collected data now play an increasingly important role in species monitoring efforts.

Wildlife conservationists are working with landowners and concerned Texans to recover at-risk species.

Currently, more than 1,100 animals from salamanders to mountain lions to birds need protection. Grahame Jones, executive director of the Texas Conservation Alliance, said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is at the forefront of the work, and added that the agency created a comprehensive program to save the near threatened Guadalupe bass "through stockings in different rivers and creeks, restoration projects in watersheds and rivers, and then the management of invasive plants and how that might affect the rivers. And then also bringing in the public to help them."

The department is updating its Wildlife Action Plan that helps manage and conserve various species to keep them off the threatened and endangered lists. A survey is on the department's website.

The Parks and Wildlife Department is also working to save the threatened Texas horned lizard, or horny toad. John DeFillipo, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation, said the agency is partnering with landowners to help repopulate the reptile.

"So, they will release these small horny toads on their property and also the work, which is unique on the horny toads, they coordinated with zoos across the state, and they raised them and released about 1,000 hatchlings," he said. "And then these hatchlings, since they're so young, they're able to produce in the wild."

Jones added that it's easier to keep population numbers up than it is try to recover a species.

"Once they get on a threatened list or endangered species list, the rules change and it's more expensive and there's all sorts of caveats and issues that come up," he said."So the goal is to keep these species off those lists."

Wyoming's practice of feeding elk over winters is a century old but the spread of disease has increased concerns. Now, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition is rolling out a new solution.

The group launched a voluntary program in 2019, incentivizing ranchers who live near elk feedgrounds to ship their cattle elsewhere during winters, allowing elk to roam on their native winter range instead.

It keeps cattle and elk from commingling, which can lead to the spread of dangerous diseases such as brucellosis and Chronic Wasting Disease.

Teddy Collins, Wyoming conservation associate for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the program is beneficial to the elk and cattle ranchers.

"It is very timely to have these agreements as a tool in the toolbox for state wildlife officials to try and move away from this process that has been around for a hundred years, but has negative repercussions," Collins emphasized.

Collins noted Chronic Wasting Disease was detected in four of the state's 21 feedgrounds this winter. A rancher in Lincoln County signed on in the fall, adding to the two agreements Teton County ranchers have signed since 2019.

The agreements are tailored to each rancher. Generally, cattle leave the property for more temperate areas of Wyoming or Utah from around Dec. 1 to April 1. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition shares associated costs with producers.

"These are voluntary agreements and they are incentive-based," Collins explained. "Each agreement is unique to the needs and the topography and the business of the individual producer."

Producers are, he added, "quite satisfied" with the program so far.


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