The Biden administration has restored rules to protect imperiled plants and animals that had been rolled back under former President Donald Trump.

On Dec. 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act.

Two wildlife conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against BNSF Railway over delays in finalizing a plan to reduce the number of federally protected grizzly bears that are killed by trains in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho.

President Joe Biden has vetoed Republican-sponsored bills intended to undo federal protections for two endangered species that have seen their populations plummet over the years.

A federal judge has found that a Trump-era rule change that allowed for the logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest violates several laws.

Scientists say in a new study that they've established a direct link between greenhouse gas emissions and polar bear cub survival.

Nearly 150 animals will be surrendered - including ring-tailed lemurs, kinkajous, wallabies, porcupines, foxes, prairie dogs and ground squirrels.

Congress has approved measures to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken and northern long-eared bat.

The Biden administration has proposed new rules for protecting imperiled plants and animals as officials move to reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened application of the Endangered Species Act.

A U.S. judge says the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the law when it failed to develop a plan to prevent the harming of humpback whales by West Coast commercial fishermen catching sablefish.

The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Nov. 29 in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease.

A legal battle over an endangered toad and a geothermal power plant in Nevada has many similarities to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark case on the Endangered Species Act nearly a half-century ago.

With climate change threatening the sea ice habitat of Emperor penguins, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday announced a proposal to list the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The Biden administration says it is canceling or reviewing a host of actions by the Trump administration to roll back protections for endangered or threatened species, with a goal of strengthening a landmark law while addressing climate change.

Ivory jewelry made from elephant tusks was recently taken from a traveler at Detroit Metro Airport, officials said.

Trump administration officials on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in most of the U.S., ending longstanding federal safeguards and putting states in charge of overseeing the predators. – Wildlife advocates on Thursday asked a federal court to overturn a U.S. government decision that stripped Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across most of the nation. Protections for wolves in the Rockies were lifted over the last decade and hunting of them is allowed. If endangered species protections were restored, wolves would again fall under authority of the federal government, not the state. A small population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest remain protected as an endangered species.

The interior least tern, a hardy Midwestern bird that survived a craze for its plumage and dam-building that destroyed much of its habitat, has soared off the endangered species list. (AP Photo/Dave Martin File)TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – The interior least tern, a hardy Midwestern bird that survived a craze for its plumage and dam-building that destroyed much of its habitat, has soared off the endangered species list. Environmental groups that sometimes have opposed dropping species from the endangered list supported the removal of the interior least tern. “We consider it an Endangered Species Act success story for sure,” said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity. But he cautioned that vigilance was needed to make sure the bird's river habitat remains secure.

FILE - In this June 2, 2019, file photo, a fresh monarch butterfly rests on a Swedish Ivy plant soon after emerging in Washington. Trump administration officials are expected to say this week whether the monarch butterfly, a colorful and familiar backyard visitor now caught in a global extinction crisis, should receive federal designation as a threatened species. Emergency action could be taken earlier, but plans now call for proposing to list the monarch under the Endangered Species Act in 2024 unless its situation improves enough to make the step unnecessary. Trump's team also has weakened protections for endangered and threatened species in its push for deregulation. “Protection for monarchs is needed — and warranted — now," said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety.

Trump administration officials on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in most of the U.S., ending longstanding federal safeguards and putting states in charge of overseeing the predators. (U.S. Forest Service via AP, File)BILLINGS, Mont. – Wildlife advocates and environmental groups have announced that they are challenging the removal of federal protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S.Two coalitions of groups filed formal notices over the past several days that they plan to sue the U.S. The Trump administration last week finalized a decision that ends longstanding federal safeguards for gray wolves in the Lower 48 states except for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest. But they remain absent from much of their historical range and wildlife advocates have said protections still are needed.

Both feared and revered by people, gray wolves have recovered from near extinction in parts of the country but remain absent from much of their historical range. Federal wildlife officials contend thriving populations in the western Great Lakes region, Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest ensure the species' long-term survival. “In the early part of the 20th century the gray wolf had essentially become a ghost throughout the United States," Bernhardt said. The decision keeps protections for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest. Fish and Wildlife Service would have no say about moving ahead with the plan, if voters approve it.

BOISE, Idaho Governors from 22 Western states and Pacific territories want a bigger say in how the Trump administration defines habitat for wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act. The governors insist they are co-sovereigns with the federal government" and need an equal role in the decision. Once an imperiled species is listed under the act, federal officials designate critical habitat that it needs to survive. The U.S. Supreme Court called into question the definition of critical habitat in a 2018 ruling. Fish and Wildlife Service, for example, designated critical habitat earlier this year for slickspot peppergrass, a rare desert flower in southwestern Idaho, that protected about 65 square miles (170 square kilometers).

Democratic lawmakers and wildlife advocates said the proposal ignores shifting threats to wildlife and plants due to climate change and habitat loss. It follows other steps under Trump to scale back or alter endangered species rules, including lifting blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened and setting cost estimates for saving species. It gives a standard which weve been lacking for the past 45 years to guide critical habitat designations, he said. You wont have the free-roaming critical habitat designations like you would have in the Weyerhaeuser case.The Trump administration ultimately withdrew the Louisiana critical habitat designation in a settlement. The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to help endangered species flourish and expand back into their former habitat. said Grijalva, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

This undated photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity shows a Pascagoula map turtle. The federal government says it will decide whether protection is needed for Pascagoula map turtles, found only in Mississippi, and Pearl River map turtles, found in Mississippi and Louisiana. The agreement settles a lawsuit filed in January calling for a declaration that Pearl River map turtles and Pascagoula map turtles are endangered or threatened. One is found in the Pearl River watershed in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the other only in part of Mississippis Pascagoula River system. Pascagoula and Pearl River map turtles are among 13 species of map turtles, named for shell markings that resemble maps.