National Wildlife Fall

National W ® ıldlıfe . . NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDER ATION | NWF.ORG | FALL 2023 Q A FIGHT FOR SACRED LAND Q CONNECTING FLORIDA’S WILDLIFE CORRIDOR Q THE FANTASTICALLY ELUSIVE CASCADE RED FOX Q TARANTULAS ON THE MOVE 50 YEARS OF GROUNDBREAKING VICTORIES UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT— & WHAT’S NEXT

Shop native plants at GardenforWildlife.com/mag Save 10% with code NWFMAG23 Help wildlife with fall-blooming native plants. Bring your yard to life with beautiful, rich fall florals that attract and serve birds and other important wildlife. The Garden for Wildlife native plant collections bloom fall, spring and summer to help more pollinators and give you perennial flowers that will thrive where you live without maintenance. Now available for 38 states with free shipping! Photo by Linda Abrams

NWF.ORG/NW 3 22 38 | ’CASCADING EFFECTS ON SURVIVAL’ Newly listed as endangered by Washington state, the Cascade red fox faces a bevy of threats—and some cause for hope. TE XT AND PHOTOS BY GRETC HEN K AY STUART 42 | FINDING THE WAY If completed, the Florida Wildlife Corridor would protect 18 million acres of nearly contiguous habitat at the heart of one of our nation’s biologically richest states. BY ISAAC EGER | PHOTOS BY CARLTON WARD JR. 50 | SPIDER-MEN A Colorado town celebrates male tarantulas’ journey to mate. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DEVON MATTHEWS 22 | 50 YEARS OF ACTION Th e Endangered Species Act, signed into law in 1973, has helped prevent the loss of hundreds of North American wildlife species, from grizzly bears to brown pelicans. BY BRIANNA RANDALL PHOTOS BY JOEL SARTORE 32 | A TEST OF METTLE An Arizona copper mine that would create a nearly 2-mile-wide crater of public land sets the group Apache Stronghold against a foreign multinational corporation. BY JEANNE EDER RHODES PHOTOS BY TOMÁS K ARMELO AMAYA “The ESA is one of the most important foundational conservation laws in our country.” 22 22 fall 2023 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOEL SARTORE; CARLTON WARD JR.; TOMÁS KARMELO AMAYA 32 42 CONTENTS National Wildlife® is published worldwide by the National Wildlife Federation. Vol. 61, No. 4 | nwf.org

4 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 Follow us on Instagram: @nationalwildlifemagazine National Wıldlıfe . . CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: SAXON HOLT (PHOTOBOTANIC); STEPHANIE WUNDERLICH; KYDD POLLOCK (THE NATURE CONSERVANCY); DAVID LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY On the cover: In attempts to avoid the species’ extinction, scientists have reintroduced captive-bred black-footed ferrets to the wild and cloned the world’s first ferret, Elizabeth Ann, photographed in 2023 at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center by Joel Sartore. 5 | EDITOR’S NOTE 6 | PRESIDENT’S VIEW 7 | PHOTO CONTEST ARCHIVE A serendipitous encounter 8 | SCOPE Science news about wildlife 10 | CONTRIBUTORS The voices behind this issue 12 | GARDEN FOR WILDLIFE How to help pollinators this fall 14 | ECO-EDUCATION Heading outdoors for healthier kids 16 | BEHAVIOR WATCH How some wildlife species repel ticks 18 | COMMUNITY CONNECTION Fortifying hallowed habitats 20 | NATURE’S WITNESS A chrysalis on the cusp 54 | FIELD WORK The latest from NWF and affiliates 57 | NEXT GENERATION Charting a path with Luca Grifo-Hahn 58 | FOOTPRINT Building buzz through bee art 14 12 54 16

NWF.ORG/NW 5 EDITOR’S NOTE MEMBERSHIP BENEFIT Fall 2023 | Volume 61 | Number 4 NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION MISSION Uniting all Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair: John Robbins Vice Chairs: Brad Powell, Rebecca Pritchett, Mary Van Kerrebrook Past Chair: Bill Houston Directors: Mark Berry, Arthur “Butch” Blazer, Carol BuieJackson, Priscilla De La Cruz, Allyn Dukes, Jomar Floyd, Scott Gilmore, John Goss, Randy Jones, Brianna Jones Rich, Koalani Kaulukukui-Barbee, Frederick Kowal, Jay Lanier, Catherine Novelli, Miguel Ordeñana, Mamie Parker, Sally Ranney, Bob Rees, Lyndzee Rhine, Rob Speidel, Rachel Sprague, Elizabeth Swisher, Gloria Tom, Jeremy Vesbach, Beth Viola EXECUTIVE TEAM Collin O’Mara, President & Chief Executive Offi cer Mustafa Santiago Ali, Executive Vice President Dirk Sellers, Chief Development Offi cer Bruce Stein, Ph.D., Chief Scientist MAGAZINE STAFF Jennifer Wehunt, Editorial Director Haley Mustone, Managing Editor Laura Tangley, Senior Editor Delaney McPherson, Assistant Editor Julianne H. Smith, Senior Production Manager Maxwell Bagley, Production Assistant David Whitmore, Design Director Kim Hubbard, Photo Editor NWF REGIONAL CENTERS Headquarters: Reston, Virginia Field Offi ces: Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Annapolis, Maryland; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Missoula, Montana; Montpelier, Vermont; Seattle, Washington; Washington, D.C. MEMBERSHIP SERVICES 1.800.822.9919 Membership: National Wildlife is one of the benefi ts of a membership in the National Wildlife Federation. Minimum contribution for a membership is $15 per year. Of this amount, $5 is designated for a one-year subscription to National Wildlife. The balance of the contribution is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. For inquiries about membership, write to NWF at 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5362 or visit nwf.org. Contact Us: For general inquiries about the magazine, write to National Wildlife at 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190- 5362, or email [email protected]. For changes of address, please send both old and new addresses. (Not responsible for unsolicited submissions and materials.) National Wildlife (ISSN 0028- 0402) is published quarterly by the National Wildlife Federation, a nonprofit corporation, 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5362. Periodical postage paid at Herndon, VA, and at additional mailing offices. Prepress by Quad/Graphics Imaging. Printed by Quad/Graphics, Sussex, Wl. Postmaster: Send address changes to National Wildlife, P.O. Box 1583, Merrifi eld, VA 22116-1583. Canada Postmaster: Send Canadian address changes to IDS, P.O. Box 456, Niagara Falls, Ontario L2E 6V2, Canada. Copyright 2023 National Wildlife Federation. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. SHARE YOUR VIEWS [email protected] JENNIFER WEHUNT Editorial Director HARBINGERS OF CHANGE If I’m honest, I’ve had an up-anddown relationship with fall. As a kid in Texas, I welcomed the reprieve from 100-plus degrees and reveled in acting out what “autumn” meant in places with a more dramatic change of seasons. Craft projects full of fake colored leaves seemed delightfully exotic in a land of loblolly pines. As a young adult in Chicago, I saw any crispness in the air as an omen of the frigid winter to come. I set my shoulders, gritted my teeth and kept my head down. And then I landed in New England, a fall fairy tale come to life: apples on a spectrum from tart to sweet, long hikes without breaking a sweat, early fi res on brisk evenings. I don’t know what fall will bring in the future, other than change. Living in an era of climate crisis, I’m thankful for the work of organizations like the National Wildlife Federation that recognize our decisions as humans can speed up or slow down our shared ecological clock. In this issue, we celebrate NWF and all stakeholders dedicated to strengthening the 50-year-old Endangered Species Act (p. 22). You’ll read about more folks committed to safeguarding people and their ecosystems, from Apache Stronghold’s fi ght against landscape-scale destruction in Arizona (p. 32) to an indefatigable Florida eff ort to connect fragmented wildlife habitat (p. 42). Endeavors like these give me hope and a sense of anticipation—which might be the most fallish feeling of all. Q Renew today and receive your free NWF Polar Bear Puzzle Simply visit nwf.org/renewmag Contents not included. While supplies last. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. National Wıldlıfe . . ®

6 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 STEPHEN JOHN DAVIES (INATURALIST) PRESIDENT’S VIEW Fifty years ago this December, after years of work with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. John Dingell and tough negotiations with the Nixon administration, the National Wildlife Federation helped pass the modern Endangered Species Act. The law had a simple yet globally unprecedented objective: to protect imperiled species before they reached the brink of extinction by utilizing both regulatory protections and funding recovery efforts. As millions of Americans celebrate this 50th anniversary, we want to share a few thoughts: The ESA prevents extinction. While extinction of some species is a natural part of our ecosystems, human activities have significantly accelerated the global loss of species to crisis levels—as much as 1,000 times the natural rate of extinctions. And yet nearly 99 percent of the more than 1,700 species ever listed as endangered or threatened in the United States under the ESA are still with us today—a remarkable and unparalleled global success of staving off extinction. This is why the ESA enjoys support from more than 80 percent of the American public. Chronic underfunding impedes recovery. Of all the species listed under the ESA, only about 50 have fully recovered to the point where they no longer need federal protections. This is not the fault of the ESA but is due to a chronic lack of funding. There are shining examples of what’s possible. When I was secretary of natural resources in Delaware, we were part of an innovative partnership among federal and state agencies and private landowners that helped recover the Delmarva fox squirrel (above). We can replicate recovery successes and foster more collaboration on the ground, but we need Congress to invest. At-risk species need earlier intervention. Beyond species already listed as endangered, a full one-third of all wildlife species in the nation are at heightened risk of extinction. States have identified more than 12,000 species of greatest conservation need. Just as in health care, preventive conCOLLIN O’MARA President & CEO of the National Wildlife Federation Celebrating the Endangered Species Act at 50 servation efforts can cost effectively save species before they require ESA protections. We’re pushing hard for Congress to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which will provide states, Tribes and territories with funding to recover species before they become endangered, so the ESA can focus on the most imperiled species, as was intended. What’s next? The National Wildlife Federation and our affiliates are working hard to reauthorize and strengthen the ESA, including prioritizing how funding is spent based on science, accelerating development and enactment of species recovery plans, incentivizing private landowners and improving the process for recognizing when species are recovered. We are also forever vigilant in our defense of the law whenever legislative efforts to weaken it are introduced in Congress. The ESA plays a vital role in not only saving at-risk wildlife and plant species but also maintaining the ecosystems upon which we all depend. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope you’ll join us to ensure the landmark legislation remains strong for the next half-century. Q SHARE YOUR VIEWS Follow Collin O’Mara on Twitter @Collin_OMara or email [email protected].

ANJANI SINGAMANENI NWF.ORG/NW 7 FROM OUR PHOTO CONTEST ARCHIVE Anjani Singamaneni was on a mission to photograph wildlife in India’s Nallamala Forest, but he never guessed he’d catch this serendipitous encounter. While scouting locations within the tiger preserve on assignment for the state forest department, he spotted a brown fish-owl hunting streamside. He set up his camera trap and, a month later, caught this honorable mention from our 2022 photo contest. “The fruit bat coming into the frame was the icing on the cake,” he says. “Nature blessed me with this surprise.”

BY MARK WEXLER 8 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 scope ALEX WILD seeds outside the nest. The scientists say low numbers of woodland ants in regenerated forests stems from several factors, including competition with invasive slugs that thrive on former agricultural lands. To restore the health of these newer forests, “we need to look beyond trees to the diversity of insects,” Buono says. Ants may not be as charismatic as pollinators like bees and butterflies, she adds, “but they are just as important.” species in the genus Aphaenogaster (above) are critical dispersers of the seeds of native understory wildflowers. “These plants evolved with seeds that have an appendage rich in fats, and that’s very attractive to woodland ants,” says lead author Carmela Buono, a doctoral candidate in biological sciences. The insects take the seeds to their nest—where they are safe underground from seed predators such as rodents—and later “plant” the One hallmark of old-growth northeastern deciduous forests in spring is the dazzling display of violets, trilliums, wild ginger and other wildflowers that carpet the forest floor. In newer secondary forests, such spring ephemerals tend to be scarce—and in recent research published in Ecology, scientists say one explanation may be a lack of woodland ants. According to researchers at Binghamton University, several ant TINY ANTS PLAY BIG ROLE IN FOREST HEALTH Visit National Wildlife online (nwf.org/nw) to read the complete digital edition.

NWF.ORG/NW 9 microscope TOP: TOM VEZO (NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY); MIDDLE: GLENN BARTLEY (BIA/MINDEN PICTURES); BOTTOM: JIM BRANDENBURG (MINDEN PICTURES) WIDE-OPEN SPECTRUM Aft er analyzing vision research on nearly 450 species, University of Arkansas biologists report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B that wildlife adapted to open habitats (such as prairie dogs, left ) see a wider range of colors than forest animals. MAPPING HOTSPOTS TO HELP MIGRANTS Princeton University researchers have produced the fi rst comprehensive map of the most important places migratory songbirds (such as the Blackburnian warbler, right) stop to rest and refuel across the eastern United States during fall migration. Th e scientists identifi ed these stopover hotspots—which include dozens of sites along the Mississippi River and in the Appalachian Mountains— by compiling data on bird densities each fall from 2015 to 2019 at 60 U.S. weather radar stations covering more than 150 million acres. Th e map, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “gives us a powerful new tool for identifying the key habitats these birds are using during their epic migrations,” says Princeton ecologist and co-author David Wilcove. Th e scientists found that forests provide the most essential habitats for autumn migrants and that forest fragments in heavily deforested regions support especially large numbers of the birds. Unfortunately, these “small pockets of deciduous forest are oft en neglected in conservation planning,” says Princeton ecologist and lead author Fengyi Guo, who hopes the new migration stopover map will help to change that. POLLUTION-CATCHING POWER Oft en isolated from larger waterways, seasonal wetlands such as prairie potholes (left ) are frequently drained for agriculture or development. But according to a recent study in Environmental Research Letters, such wetlands are “pollution-catching powerhouses” twice as eff ective at protecting downstream rivers and lakes from nitrogen, phosphorous and other contaminants as wetlands connected to larger water bodies. To reach that conclusion, environmental engineers at Canada’s University of Waterloo combined computer modeling with 30 years of satellite imagery to calculate pollution retention. Th ey then measured water levels at diff erent times of year in 3,700 wetlands nationwide. “Being disconnected can be better because the wetlands are catching the pollutants and retaining them as opposed to leaking them back into streams,” says lead author Frederick Cheng, now at Colorado State University. Draining wetlands also destroys wildlife habitat and increases the risk of fl oods, drought and other impacts of climate change.

10 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 FROM TOP: COURTESY OF JEANNE EDER RHODES; MANNY RANGEL; DANIELLE MATTHEWS; COURTESY OF BRIANNA RANDALL; VERONICA RUNGE CONTRIBUTORS 1. Publication title: National Wildlife® magazine 2. Publication no.: USPS 374-580 3. Filing date: August 14, 2023 4. Issue frequency: Quarterly 5. No. of issues published annually: 4 6. Annual subscription: $15.00 7. Address of known offi ce of publication: 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5362 8. Address of the headquarters or general business offi ces of the publisher: 11100 Wildlife Center Drive, Reston, VA 20190-5362 9. Names and addresses of publisher, editor and managing editor: publisher, Dirk Sellers, Reston, VA; editor, Jennifer Wehunt, Reston, VA; managing editor, Haley Mustone, Reston, VA 10. Owner: National Wildlife Federation, Reston, VA. Names and addresses of stockholders: None. NWF is a private, nonprofit organization 501(c)(3). 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None 12. Tax status has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication title: National Wildlife 14. Issue date for circulation data below: July 1, 2023 15. Extent and nature of circulation: Member publication Average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no. of copies (net press run): 487,316 B. Paid circulation: 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions: 475,276 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions: -0- 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales (not mailed): -0- 4. Paid distribution by other classes of mail through USPS: -0- C. Total paid and/or requested circulation: 475,276 D. Free distribution (by mail and outside the mail): 1. Free or nominal rate outside-county: -0- 2. Free or nominal rate in-county: -0- 3. Free or nominal rate mailed at other classes through the USPS: -0- 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail: 4,673 E. Total free distribution: 4,673 F. Total distribution: 479,949 G. Copies not distributed: -0- H. Total: 479,949 I. Percent paid/and or requested circulation: 99.06% Actual no. of copies of single issue published nearest to fi ling date: A. Total no. of copies (net press run): 466,814 B. Paid circulation: 1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions: 458,579 2. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions: -0- 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales (not mailed): -0- 4. Paid distribution by other classes of mail through USPS: -0- C. Total paid and/or requested circulation: 458,579 D. Free distribution (by mail and outside the mail): 1. Free or nominal rate outside-county: -0- 2. Free or nominal rate in-county: -0- 3. Free or nominal rate mailed at other classes through the USPS: -0- 4. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail: 1,918 E. Total free distribution: 1,918 F. Total distribution: 460,497 G. Copies not distributed: -0- H. Total: 460,497 I. Percent paid/and or requested circulation: 99.58% I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fi nes and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties). —Dirk Sellers, Chief Development Offi cer, National Wildlife Federation STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION JEANNE EDER RHODES, a retired associate professor of American and public history at the University of Alaska Anchorage, fi rst learned about Oak Flat (“A Test of Mettle,” p. 32) from her friend Deb Krol, a reporter for the Arizona Republic. “Every week we meet to produce traditional Native American beadwork and discuss the latest problems in Indian country,” says Rhodes, an enrolled member of the Sioux and Assiniboine nations who lives in Chandler, Arizona. “We discuss all sides of creating a copper mine.” DEVON MATTHEWS already had an interest in spiders prior to “Spider-Men” (p. 50). “I came across a jumping spider, and I sat and observed it,” says the Minneapolis photographer. “Jumping spiders don’t wait for insects to land on their webs. Th ey have very good vision, and they use it to hunt. If you’re within, say, 3 feet of a jumping spider, it will observe you back.” See more on Instagram @dev_shoots. ISAAC EGER was born in Florida, but “I spent most of my young adult life trying to escape it,” he says, moving fi rst to Portland, Oregon, then to New York City (“Finding the Way,” p. 42). A decade ago, however, Florida’s rich natural history called him back, and now the Sarasota-based writer is “making up for lost time by writing about the disappearing and imperiled parts of my home state.” BRIANNA RANDALL was in high school when she “earned the nickname ‘Nature Girl’ because I was always outside or spouting off random facts about plants and animals” (“50 Years of Action,” p. 22). She still spends as much time as possible outside—especially “visiting new wild places”—but as a Montana-based science writer and communications specialist, the facts she shares are far from random. Read more at briannarandall.com. CARLTON WARD JR. began his photography career working in Gabon with the Smithsonian Institution. In 2005, he pivoted, moving to his native Florida to document the state’s landscapes and biodiversity—and inspire their protection (“Finding the Way,” p. 42). “Each time I fl ew home, I’d see more of Florida paved over,” he says. “I decided my work could have a bigger impact here in my home state.” See more on Instagram @CarltonWard.

This information is not intended as legal, accounting or other professional advice. For assistance in planning your legacy gift, please consult an estate planning attorney and/or financial advisor for professional advice. You may qualify for an immediate charitable income tax deduction for your gift. Did you know you can use your QCD to fund a CGA? To learn more, please contact our Gift Planning Office by returning the attached card, calling us at 1-800-332-4949 (option #3) or visiting us online at legacy.nwf.org. Plan Your Legacy Today for Wildlife Tomorrow Charitable Gift Annuity Rates* Rate 5.3% 6.0% 7.0% 8.1% 9.1% Age 70 75 80 85 90+ Annual Payment** $530 $600 $700 $810 $910 *For illustrative purposes only. Rates listed are based on a single beneficiary. Rates current as of July 1, 2022. **Payment amounts are based on a $10,000 gift (min. amount). ©Ben Knoot Charitable Gift Annuity Receive Income for Life

12 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 SAXON HOLT (PHOTOBOTANIC) BY LAURA TANGLEY Fall Provisions for Pollinators Come autumn, as temperatures drop and summer flowers fade, gardeners in most parts of the country turn their attention to the annual chore known as “fall cleanup” then assume they’re done until the following spring. But for gardeners who care about wildlife, autumn is an ideal time for tasks that have an impact year-round. “Just because the seasons are changing, don’t think there are no opportunities to help wildlife,” says National Wildlife Federation Naturalist David Mizejewski. “That’s especially true if you’re trying to support birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators.” Here’s what he and other experts suggest. . Leave the leaves. In many places, raking and bagging fallen leaves is expected—and may even be required by cities and homeowners associations. But the need to dispose of leaves is “one of the biggest false assumptions about fall cleanup,” says Mizejewski, “and it’s a bad idea if you want to help wildlife survive winter, see butterflies in spring or have your vegetables pollinated in summer.” Leaf litter on a garden bed creates habitat for wildlife, from small mammals and reptiles and amphibians to overwintering bees and moth and butterfly larvae. If you have too many leaves, rake to the corners of your property or use as mulch. Sending leaves to a landfill is the worst option, robbing your soil of natural fertilizer and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. . Nurture fall-blooming native plants. Because many plants stop flowering by late summer, maintaining those that bloom into or through fall is critical for pollinators, including migrating monarch butterflies and native bees. In social species such as bumble bees and many sweat bees, “only mated queens live through winter, so they need forage to put on fat during late summer and early fall,” says James Cane, a biologist and head of the nonprofit WildBeecology. He recommends goldenrods, asters, sunflowers and, in much of the West, rabbitbrush. . Plant flowers for next spring. Contrary to conventional thinking, which embraces spring planting, “fall is the premier time of year for planting or transplanting,” Once cool weather arrives, take these steps to help bees and other wildlife thrive GARDEN FOR WILDLIFE

TOP: KRISTA SCHLYER; MIDDLE: DOUG WECHSLER (ANIMALS ANIMALS); BOTTOM: DUNCAN SELBY (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO) says Cane. “If you get plants in the ground before the soil freezes, “they’ll have a chance to establish roots when they’re not trying to put out leaves or dealing with heat or drought, which can be tough on a perennial.” When choosing what to grow for pollinators, “focus on species needed by specialist bees that eat pollen only from a narrow range of plants,” says Mary Phillips, head of Garden for Wildlife™ programs for NWF, which publishes a science-based list of these “keystone plants” (nwf.org/keystoneplants). . Sow milkweed seeds. Monarchs have been hit hard by loss of the milkweeds their caterpillars need. In response, many gardeners cultivate these plants. If you sow seeds, it’s important to know that most milkweed species require a period of cool wet weather followed by spring warmth to successfully germinate—a step called cold stratification. While many gardeners store their milkweed seeds in the refrigerator until spring, it’s better to get them into the ground in fall. Make sure you only sow seeds collected locally to ensure the plants are native to your region. . Leave seed heads and flower stalks. Like fallen leaves, the stems and seed heads of perennials can be essential habitat for insects—especially some overwintering native bees—long after flowers have faded, says Mizejewski. Come spring, “cut the stems down to 10 or 12 inches, and native bees will nest inside.” If you prune back shrubs such as forsythia or blackberry, whose stems have hollow or pithy cores, bundle those on your property for more bee nesting sites, says Cane. Mizejewski points to an added bonus of saving seed heads until spring: “They will attract goldfinches, chickadees and other songbirds you can enjoy watching all winter.” Q Laura Tangley is the senior editor of National Wildlife. NWF.ORG/NW 13 An autumn garden in Colorado (opposite) brims with late-blooming aster and stiff goldenrod along with the stems and seed heads of coneflowers. Both stems and late-season flowers benefit native pollinators such as the green metallic bee (top left, on an aster). Leaving fallen autumn leaves is another way to help pollinators, as well as amphibians such as the marbled salamander (middle left). If you’re planting milkweed seeds (bottom left) to support monarch butterflies, autumn is the best time of year for sowing.

14 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 BY EMILY COOK Go Play Outside E nvision a preschooler scrambling over logs, exploring tree-lined paths and tending native wildflowers or vegetables grown from seed. For many kids, these activities are part of a typical day, thanks in part to Early Childhood Health Outdoors (ECHO). “A love of nature starts at a young age, when children have opportunities to explore the natural world alongside caring adults who model these values,” says Rebecca Colbert. The senior director of design and engagement at the National Wildlife Federation, Colbert leads a team of landscape designers and early childhood educators along with Liz Houston, NWF deputy director of partnerships and development. Launched in 2017, the program initially helped four Colorado early childhood centers reimagine their traditional playgrounds as outdoor learning environments. Fast forward to 2023: Using ECHO training, resources and design support, nature-centered playscapes are completed or in the works at 167 child care sites and 10 community spaces from Colorado to Washington, D.C. States including Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas support ECHO principles and are championing similar initiatives, Houston says. ECHO’s best-practice guidelines were created with North Carolina State University’s Natural Learning Initiative, based on research indicating that outdoor play increases creativity, encourages independent learning, fosters a deeper connection to the natural world and supports healthy child development. “Evidence shows that children who engage regularly in nature experience myriad benefits to mental, physical and emotional health,” Colbert says. What’s more, ECHO prioritizes working with locations where daily outdoor play may be limited due to environmental contamination, poor air or water quality, or a lack of public resources, Colbert says. “It’s really [about] making sure those experiences are available in those early years.” “We don’t just plop down our vision,” Houston says. “We really, first and foremost, want to complement whatever work is happening in a particular community, because we know, especially since the pandemic, everybody has a greater appreciation for how healthy it is to be out in nature and to have equitable access.” Each ECHO playscape is designed to fit the needs of kids in a given location, whether that’s a private child care setting or a public space, such as a museum, park or library. Elements may include play areas studded with stumps to mimic the woods, habitat and vegetable gardens, looping pathways, and shady spots to sit and listen to birds. Some playscapes feature classic swing sets and slides; others don’t. Take Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center in Cañon City, Colorado. A child care center with an enrollBased on research finding that access to nature makes for happier, healthier kids, a national initiative is taking early childhood playtime outdoors ECO-EDUCATION At Colorado’s Little Giants Learning Center, an ECHO site, kids ride on a landscaped path (above) and tend a garden bed (right).

BOTH PHOTOS: DAVID LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY ment of 110 kids ages 6 weeks to 7 years, it was one of the first ECHO sites. Co-directors Cheryl Gould and Sharyl Boehm worked with NWF and a host of stakeholders, including teachers and families, to plan and install the new playscape. Unveiled in 2018, the result added 26 kinds of trees, pathways for bikes and scooters, and an expansive garden where kids plant and harvest vegetables. “Children need places outdoors where they can learn about their bodies in space and use big muscle movements to climb, crawl, run and jump with a sense of risk, to test their limits,” Gould says. “We’ve created daily connections with nature through a beautiful, safe and accessible outdoor space.” While every site is unique, ECHO’s desired outcomes are largely consistent for the kids who frequent the playscapes: increased confidence, healthy risk-taking, independent thinking, greater cooperation, and more imaginative play and inquisitiveness toward their surroundings. “Their natural sense of curiosity has increased because we talk about nature so much,” says Carrie Kennedy, an early childhood educator and owner of Miss Carrie’s Child Care in Arvada, Colorado. Kennedy redesigned her play area in 2019 to be more nature-centered for her ten or so charges, typically infants to 5-year-olds. “This is especially true in the spring and summer, when we are planting the garden and observing the bees and butterflies,” she says. Rachel Wellington saw immediate changes when her son, Mason, transitioned to more nature-based play at Miss Carrie’s. “He became more curious about playing in the trees or climbing things, like the stumps, or finding stuff in the grass,” she says. “He became generally more nature-focused than he was before.” Mason isn’t alone. “It doesn’t take a whole lot to get kids in that mode,” Colbert says. “Often we see [them] making mud soup. Or they’ve harvested a stalk of grass or a seed head, and they’re using it as a wand to play make believe. It’s really creating the space for that natural way kids want to engage with understanding the world around them.” Q Emily Cook is a freelance writer based in Northern Virginia. NWF.ORG/NW 15

16 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 BY REBECCA DZOMBAK Ticked Off As the world heats up and their habitat expands, ticks—the bloodsucking parasites known for transmitting Lyme disease and spotted fevers harmful to humans and other mammals—are thriving. But some wildlife have ways of keeping ticks at bay that scientists are just starting to understand. Take American black and brown bears. Perhaps their most charismatic behavior, standing on their hind legs and wriggling against a tree, leaves behind a signature scent that lets other bears know they were there and likely helps them scratch hard-to-reach spots. Now scientists may have found another reason: rubbing on tick repellent. When a bear rubs against trees, particularly conifers, the trees release pungent, sticky resins and saps—especially if the bear clawed through the bark first. Those goos can get stuck in fur and on skin, providing a physical—and potentially a chemical—barrier against parasites, including ticks. To test this idea, Agnès Blaise, a Ph.D. student in biology at France’s University of Strasbourg who published her research in Journal of Zoology earlier this year, put ticks in tubes with two smelly substances derived from trees: beech tar and turpentine. The ticks high-tailed it away from the stink, suggesting tree resins and saps might help bears naturally stay tick-free. “We are not the only animals that can self-medicate,” Blaise says. “An antiparasitic effect … could explain why bears are doing this, in spite of it being very energydemanding and time-consuming.” If bears are the frontier of repellent research, primates are old-school. Over decades, scientists have observed more than 40 primate species rubbing various smelly substances on themselves or otherwise self-medicating. Capuchin monkeys, macaques and owl monkeys have used everything from onions to pepper leaves to citrus fruits. Studies have shown that pungent oils lingering on fur can send ticks scurrying. Many monkeys have another advantage in the fight against parasites: social grooming. In addition to physically removing ticks and other parasites from each other, monkeys have been observed rubbing citrus on each other’s backs. As largely solitary animals, bears don’t have that luxury. “They have to find their own solutions,” Blaise says. Mice and voles, which represent significant tick reservoirs in the United States, rely on copious self-grooming to rid themselves of ticks, too. Monkeys and some birds may seek tick-repelling chemicals in a surprising source: ants—specifically members of the Formicidae family, including carpenter ants—that release formic acid as a defense mechanism. In a behavior called “anting,” monkeys destroy the ants’ nest on the ground, prompting a horde of ants to scurry out and attack. “The monkeys just start rubbing themselves with ants,” says Tiago Falótico, a primatology fellow at Brazil’s University of São Paulo. Falótico’s research has shown that formic acid repels ticks, providing a potential explanation for anting. Monkeys also use millipedes, which release tick-repelling chemicals called benzoquinones. Other researchers have observed passerine birds, such as starlings and grackles, lying in ant nests and crushing the ants into their feathers. Like monkeys, this avian order also rubs citrus and other smelly substances into their feathers. “They look sort of nuts when they’re doing it,” says Dale Clayton, a biologist at the University of Utah. Ticks are less of a concern for many birds that spend little time on the ground, so the behavior also could target other ectoparasites or bacteria, according to Clayton. “We don’t know a lot about these behaviors, frankly,” he says. “Maybe 200 [bird] species do this crazy behavior, when they’re totally vulnerable to predators. It must be worth it for them.” Backyard birds might not worry too much about ticks, but their predators do. Domestic cats and other pets that go outside should be treated with tick-repellent medicine, but a favorite cat snack can help. Nicoletta Faraone, a biochemist at Canada’s Acadia University, found that essential oils in catnip can repel ticks. “But don’t put on catnip to avoid ticks while you’re hiking!” she warns. Big cats, including mountain lions, are attracted to the plant, too. To ward off bloodsuckers, some wildlife turn to plants, ants and each other B E HAV I O R WATC H

STEPHANIE WUNDERLICH Not all wildlife have safe and efficient remedies. Across the Upper Midwest and New England, moose have been hit hard by ticks, and biologists are struggling to help. “These moose get such heavy loads of ticks—70,000 or more—that their blood supply is pretty much drained,” says Michelle Carstensen, a wildlife health specialist for the state of Minnesota. While a robust adult can withstand a hefty tick load, a younger or infirm moose doesn’t have a chance. What’s more, scratching—a moose’s one known tool— “might even make things worse, because they’ll be dealing with hair loss,” Carstensen says. Moose need a thick, warm coat to survive winters. If they rub it away, “they become anemic, and then hypothermic, and then they die,” she says. Scientists know even less about risks and potential treatments among canids such as foxes, coyotes and wolves. That blind spot could be due to canids’ reputation as nuisance animals, according to Hannah Tiffin, an entomologist specializing in ticks at Pennsylvania State University. She says that’s an important knowledge gap we need to fill. “With suburban encroachment, as humans expand into wild landscapes, we’re going to have more of that overlap between people and tick-bearing animals,” Tiffin says. Q Rebecca Dzombak is a writer and editor with a Ph.D. in earth and environmental sciences. NWF.ORG/NW 17

18 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 Along with his congregation at East Washington Heights Baptist Church, Reverend Kip Banks (right) partnered with Sacred Grounds™ to install a garden of purple coneflowers and other native plants (opposite and below right)— photographed in early spring, he points out, so not yet in full bloom. “Our first commandment is to be good stewards of the Earth,” Banks says. “All the environmental catastrophes we see—climate change, man-made pollution—are doing harm to our brothers and sisters, our animals and plants. If we want healing to occur among our brothers and sisters, we have to heal the Earth.” Volunteers at Detroit Hope Community of Christ (below left) install a native-plant rain garden in 2022.

NWF.ORG/NW 19 community connection THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE TOP AND BOTTOM RIGHT: DEE DWYER; OPPOSITE BOTTOM LEFT: TIFFANY JONES (NWF) We have so many inequities— high poverty, high crime, a former power plant not far from us, runoff polluting the watershed—whatever we can do to sustain God’s creation, to pivot back to where God intended it to be, that creates justice,” says Reverend Kip Banks of East Washington Heights Baptist Church, in Washington, D.C. Together with the congregation he has pastored for 21 years, Banks partnered with National Wildlife Federation’s Sacred Grounds™ program to install a native plant garden and to give away native plants to the church’s neighbors— members and nonmembers alike. His vision is one of more than 150 so far that Sacred Grounds has committed to supporting. Launched in 2012 in the Mid-Atlantic by Naomi Edelson, senior director of wildlife partnerships for NWF, the program later expanded to Michigan and Ohio in the Great Lakes region, where it found a second spiritual home. “Sacred Grounds helps people and wildlife thrive—especially important in an era of climate change,” Edelson says. The program partners with houses of worship as anchor institutions, similar to how other NWF habitat initiatives work with schools. “Traditionally, faith communities haven’t been included in the conservation movement,” says Manja Holland, NWF director of education and community engagement for the Great Lakes. “We’re trying to bring more folks to the table.” While both Sacred Grounds service areas uphold common goals—including community building, flood reduction, beautification and increased access to nature for all— how they get there differs from project to project. “Every Sacred Grounds garden is different, because it is designed with each congregation’s needs,” says Natalie Cohen, community conservation manager for NWF’s Mid-Atlantic region. As she and Holland see it, the strongest plan for a healthy community comes from the community itself. So, while Sacred Grounds provides funding and support, it follows each faith group’s lead, helping churches, mosques, synagogues and more places of worship connect directly with nearby resources and experts, from air- and water-quality specialists to local chapters of the NAACP. For the Indonesian Muslim Association in America (IMAAM) Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, the plan called for a native plant garden of whorled tickseed and cardinal flower. “It is important to our beliefs to take care of the Earth,” says Jennifer Zaibi, a member of IMAAM’s Green Team who uses the garden to educate members on healthy environments, in shared spaces and at home. “Even very small habitats and gardens can have a tremendous impact for people and for wildlife,” Holland says. In downtown Detroit—where the city has raised sewer rates and flooding has led to extensive damage, polluting nearby rivers—Gesu Catholic Church put in rain gardens with grants and technical assistance from Sacred Grounds. Like many houses of worship, Gesu had a large paved parking lot that could cause excessive runoff, but the congregation couldn’t afford thousands of dollars in new fees. Church volunteers dismantled 56 downspouts, removed four dumpsters of concrete, installed 500-gallon rain barrels and planted black-eyed Susans, coneflowers and other pollinator plants. “The reality is, we are doing the right thing, whether we get the reduction in our fees or not,” says Anita Sevier, development director of the church school. “We are helping faith communities scale back their footprint,” says Tiffany Jones, NWF manager of education and engagement for the Great Lakes, while also spreading the gospel of environmental justice. Q Doreen Cubie is a frequent contributor based in Arizona. BY DOREEN CUBIE SACRED GROUNDS PARTNERS WITH FAITH GROUPS TO UPLIFT PEOPLE AND ECOSYSTEMS Hallowed Habitats “

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NWF.ORG/NW 21 nature’s witness On the Cusp PHOTO BY KRISTA SCHLYER For monarch caterpillars, forming a chrysalis is the fast part. Then the waiting starts. Same goes for humans watching them. When Krista Schlyer first spotted a monarch caterpillar a few years back in early fall, the critter was so close to pupating, she didn’t have time to run inside and grab her camera. The conservation writer and photographer had just transformed her lawn in Mount Rainier, Maryland, into a native plant habitat for pollinators, “and all of a sudden, I was getting all of these surprises coming in.” Another surprise, she says, was noting that the caterpillar chose fleabane for its perch and learning that milkweed serves some, but not all, of a monarch’s needs. Determined not to miss the butterfly’s emergence, “I cleared my schedule of all doings” and set up a stakeout, she says. In about 10 days, “I could see the palest outline of a wing inside the jade shell.” Within an hour, the chrysalis thinned to the perfect transparency to capture this image. “After all this time, it was like a snap of the fingers,” she says. “The covering tore very fast; there was a bit of a struggle; and the butterfly popped out. I had to remind myself to take photographs.” See more of Schlyer’s images of the Anacostia River watershed at kristaschlyer.com. Q —Jennifer Wehunt

THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, signed into law on December 28, 1973, has helped prevent the loss of hundreds of North American wildlife species, from grizzly bears and gray wolves to alligators and brown pelicans 50 YEARS OF ACTION

Grizzly Bear Ursus arctos horribilis THREATENED | Some 50,000 grizzly bears once roamed across the entire western United States south into Mexico. But by the 1930s—after decades of governmentsponsored killing by European settlers—the bears had vanished from 98 percent of their range in the Lower 48, with a population of 700 to 800 outside Alaska and Canada. Listed in 1975 under the Endangered Species Act as threatened—or ”likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future”— grizzlies are recovering in many parts of their range, with nearly 2,000 at last count.

24 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 The sight of a bald eagle gliding overhead, white head framed against the blue sky, is sure to spark a sense of awe—and perhaps a breath of gratitude. An emblem of strength, courage and freedom, our country’s national symbol was once nearly extinct in the Lower 48. In 1776, when the country was founded, about a halfmillion bald eagles soared above what’s now the continental United States. But beginning in the late-1800s, the population steadily declined as eagles fell victim to habitat loss, deliberate killing and, starting in the 1940s, the widespread use of DDT—a synthetic pesticide that washed off the land into waterways and contaminated fish that eagles eat. By 1963, only 417 breeding pairs remained in the country outside Alaska. Today, however, some 316,700 eagles once again soar the nation’s skies—thanks in large part to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which catalyzed a number of eagle conservation measures, including protection for critical habitat, a ban on DDT and captive breeding and reintroduction programs. Signed by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, the ESA protects plants and animals at risk of going extinct, in part by mandating the creation of a list of endangered and threatened species. Species are considered for listing when federal scientists determine ESA protection is needed or when the government receives a petition from an individual or organization requesting a species’ addition. If scientists determine listing is warranted and the government adds the plant or animal to the list, either the U.S. Fish & Wildlife SerBY BRIANNA RANDALL PHOTOS BY JOEL SARTORE Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus DELISTED | Chosen as a symbol for the U.S. national emblem in 1782—with its image on everything from passports to quarters—the bald eagle is a conservation success story. Victims of habitat loss, deliberate killing and the synthetic pesticide DDT, the eagles were down to just 417 breeding pairs in the Lower 48 by the 1960s. Thanks to protections spurred by the ESA, bald eagles rebounded, and in 2007, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service removed them from its list of threatened and endangered species. Gray Wolf Canis lupus ENDANGERED | Once widespread across most of North America, the gray wolf was heavily hunted—subsidized in large part by federal predator-control programs—and vanished throughout nearly all of its historic range. In 1978, the species was listed as endangered in the Lower 48 and Mexico (except Minnesota, where it was listed as threatened). Since then, the wolf has made a remarkable recovery in the Northern Rocky Mountains, ultimately coming off the endangered species list throughout the region.

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range from large, well-known animals such as the California condor and Hawaiian monk seal to a host of lesser-known species like the pinky-sized Oregon chub, a minnow. One of the most-celebrated ESA success stories has been the effort to bring gray wolves back to the Northern Rockies, particularly Yellowstone National Park, where wolves had been missing since 1926. After the species was listed as endangered in 1974, FWS, the National Park Service and state wildlife agencies partnered to relocate 41 wolves from wild populations in Canada and northwestern Montana into the park in the 1990s. By 2008, FWS biologists estimated that 1,639 wolves roamed through Montana, Wyoming and Idaho—five times higher than the minimum population goal in the species’ recovery plan. vice (FWS) or, for most marine species, the National Marine Fisheries Service must create a plan for aiding its recovery. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the ESA has saved hundreds of animals that once teetered on the brink of extinction. Without its protections, we might not have gray whales spouting off our coasts today or alligators roaming mangrove swamps, brown pelicans gliding above beaches or grizzly bears lumbering through western mountains. “The ESA is one of the most important foundational conservation laws in our country,” says Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife policy for the National Wildlife Federation. According to a 2019 study published in PeerJ, the ESA has prevented the extinction of some 291 species since the law was passed in 1973. Species whose extinctions were averted American Alligator Alligator mississippiensis THREATENED | Found only in the United States, the American alligator ranges across coastal wetlands of the Southeast, from North Carolina west to Texas and south to Florida. Beginning in the 1860s, the luxury leather industry’s demand for hides led to widespread hunting of alligators and drastic population declines. Federally protected as endangered in 1967 under a law that preceded the ESA, alligator numbers bounced back once alligator farming began and hunting was temporarily put on hold. 26 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023

This happy ending did not stop with wolves: Reintroducing the keystone predator sent benefits rippling across the 22-million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The gray wolf’s absence, for example, had allowed Yellowstone’s elk to munch freely on cottonwoods, willows and aspens without fear of predation. This was bad news for beavers, which rely on riparian trees for food and shelter. Just one colony of beavers remained in the park in 1995. Once wolves rebounded, keeping elk on the move, riparian vegetation rebounded, improving habitat for beavers, cutthroat trout and other species. Reintroducing gray wolves also produced more food for a host of animals that scavenge the predators’ kills. According to a 2003 study in the Journal of Animal Ecology, Yellowstone’s wolves consume only 40 to 80 percent of their elk kills, leaving plenty of leftovers to sustain other wildlife, from ravens, magpies, and bald and golden eagles to coyotes, grizzly and black bears and at least 57 species of beetles. Despite the law’s success at preventing extinctions, however, relatively few listed species have ever been declared sufficiently recovered to remove from the list—a total of just 54 species since the act was passed a half-century ago, according to a 2022 study published in Plos One. Take the endangered black-footed ferret. Decimated by habitat loss and landowners killing off their prey—prairie dogs—these sleek little carnivores were thought to be extinct until a small population was discovered in Wyoming in 1981, forming the core of a captive-breeding colony a few years later. Since 1991, thousands of ferrets have been captive-bred and NWF.ORG/NW 27

28 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 Tribe’s “traditional culture and diet and spirituality,” says Entz. “In dire times, during severe winters or when food stores were low, caribou sustained us. Our view is that caribou are now in that same dire space, and it’s our turn to sustain them.” Another shortcoming of the ESA is inadequate funding. For its endangered species work, FWS receives $70 to $80 million in federal funding a year—compared to a whopping $766 billion the government spent on national defense in fiscal year 2022. Like the black-footed ferret, “many listed species, from the right whale to the California condor, will remain conservation reliant; they will always need our care to survive,” says Wilcove. Even when recovery is possible, “it’s expensive and takes a really long time,” he adds. “Funding for the ESA is not commensurate with what is needed.” Shoren Brown, vice president of public affairs for The Conservation Alliance—a group of 270 outdoorrelated companies that fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places—and a former NWF staff member, agrees. “Conservation without funding is just an idea; it’s not implementation,” he says. Since the ESA passed in 1973, the threats to our landscapes and wildlife have increased “by orders of magnitude” without the necessary accompanying investments. Not surprisingly, limited federal funding often prioritizes charismatic animals such as ferrets, whales and eagles. Cashstrapped state wildlife agencies, meanwhile, focus much of their funds on game species that bring in hunting or fishing revenue they use to finance their own wildlife conservation work, including recovery efforts for species on state endangered lists. That leaves hundreds of endangered species—from snails and shellfish to wildflowers and insects—with little to no funding and makes them more vulnerable to extinction. One way to protect a broader array of species—and increase funding for all at-risk plants and animals—would be to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA), reintroduced to 33 sites in eight western states, Canada and Mexico. But while the animals’ numbers peaked at about 700 in 2008, FWS estimates there are only a few hundred now. Meanwhile, ferrets face many newer threats, including inbreeding and—especially—nonnative sylvatic plague. To fight the plague and the fleas that spread it, biologists are experimenting with vaccines and insecticides. To increase the ferrets’ genetic diversity and prevent inbreeding, FWS in 2020 cloned a female ferret from another female that had never given birth (and therefore never passed on her genes), but the cloned female also was unable to reproduce. According to David Wilcove, a Princeton University conservation biologist and co-author of the Plos One paper, it’s possible ferrets will never fully recover, “but there’s no question that, without the ESA, this marvelous animal would be extinct today.” In their study, Wilcove and his colleagues examined several possible causes of low species recovery rates. Focusing on 970 species listed between 1992 and 2020, they concluded: “Most species are not receiving protection until they have reached dangerously low population sizes.” Leahy likens the ESA to an “emergency room, where you’re doing whatever it takes to save a species, but it may be too late.” Emergency measures came too late to save mountain caribou in the Lower 48. Once roaming northeastern Washington, northern Idaho and northwestern Montana, the continent’s southernmost herds had dwindled to fewer than 50 individuals by 1983 when the population was listed as endangered. Three decades later, Canadian wildlife officials captured the last four caribou from the herds, moving them to join larger groups in British Columbia. Ray Entz, director of wildlife and terrestrial resources for the Kalispel Tribe in Washington state, says the Tribe hopes to eventually relocate caribou back to this country. The animals are an important part of the Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis DELISTED | Inhabiting beaches and lagoons along Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, brown pelicans hovered near extinction twice: devastated first by hunting for feathers then by the pesticide DDT, which contaminated fish the birds feed on and resulted in deadly thinning of their eggshells. Listed as endangered in 1970 under the ESA’s predecessor, brown pelicans have recovered, thanks to habitat conservation and—especially—the banning of DDT. The species was removed from the endangered species list in 2009, and today its populations are still increasing. “MANY LISTED SPECIES . . . will remain conservation reliant; they will always need our care to survive.” Even when recovery is possible, “it’s expensive and takes a really long time. Funding for the ESA is not commensurate with what is needed.” —David Wilcove

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30 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 NWF priority The National Wildlife Federation works to defend, strengthen, fund and ensure the effective implementation of the Endangered Species Act. To better support all wildlife species, NWF also champions the proposed Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would invest $1.4 billion annually to help states and Tribes keep wildlife populations healthy. Learn more at nwf.org/esa. PROTECTING IMPERILED SPECIES Monarchs are a good example of how the law’s proactive conservation could work. Battered by habitat loss, pesticides and climate change, these much-beloved insects have declined by 90 percent east of the Rocky Mountains and by 99 percent in the West since the mid-1990s. Proposed for federal listing as threatened in 2014, the species remains unprotected by the government. Although an FWS assessment in 2020 concluded that listing was warranted, further action was put on hold while the service focuses on “higher-priority listing actions.” Nonetheless, a bevy of states and nonprofits, including NWF, are already engaged in vital monarch conservation efforts nationwide. NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat® and Schoolyard Habitats® programs, for example, help particsay conservationists. Introduced in the U.S. Senate in March 2023, the bipartisan bill would provide $1.3 billion a year to state wildlife agencies to fund wildlife conservation efforts. That funding would cover costs for 75 percent of activities outlined in State Wildlife Action Plans, benefiting more than 12,000 species of concern listed in the plans. Many of those species also are on the states’ own lists of endangered species or protected under the ESA. In addition, the law would provide $97.5 million annually to Tribes, which historically have been left out of reliable sources of funding for wildlife conservation. Passing the act “would be an intentional step towards co-stewardship and equity and also ensure Tribes have a seat at the table to meaningfully engage in and implement conservation decisions that impact their fish and wildlife relatives,” says Julie Thorstenson, executive director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society. Leahy says one of the act’s most important goals is to keep common species common and protect at-risk species through “proactive conservation,” reducing the number that require listing as federally endangered. While the ESA has been a great resource to prevent species extinctions, Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón, director of the Climate-Resilient Habitat Program and monarch recovery strategist for NWF, believes we need to do more to help at-risk species before they need ESA protection. “We can better support imperiled species in our daily lives,” she says. “For monarch butterflies, that could mean reducing the use of pesticides in your yard or planting native milkweeds and nectar plants.” Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus CANDIDATE | Threatened by pesticides, climate change and habitat loss—specifically, loss of the native nectar and host plants the insects and their caterpillars need—our most-recognized butterfly has been in decline since the mid-1990s and has been proposed for listing as threatened. Fortunately, hundreds of individuals and organizations, including NWF, have stepped up to help monarchs recover by creating and restoring native pollinator habitat across the country.

NWF.ORG/NW 31 ipants create pollinator-friendly outdoor green spaces at homes, schools and businesses. In Texas, 12 schools have participated in the Monarch Heroes environmental education program, where students planted native milkweed and nectar plants and contributed observations to research. From Minnesota south to Texas, along the U.S. portion of the monarch’s central flyway between Canada and Mexico, NWF worked with state transportation departments to promote pollinator habitat in the rights of way along Interstates 77 and 83. And more than 1,000 U.S. mayors have taken the Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge™, committing to foster pollinator habitat in their cities. Collectively, these and other efforts have helped protect, create or restore millions of acres of habitat for the iconic insects. To spawn similar action for less-popular wildlife, Leahy stresses the importance of passing RAWA—especially this year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ESA. The most significant federal investment in wildlife conservation since the ESA, “RAWA would tap into the energy and the expertise of the states, Tribes and territories and set them up with the resources they need to keep species from becoming endangered, which is not a fate we want for any of our wildlife,” he says. Q Montana-based writer Brianna Randall is a frequent contributor. National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore focuses on portraits of wildlife in human care. Black-Footed Ferret Mustela nigripes ENDANGERED | Until a tiny population was found in 1981, the black-footed ferret was considered extinct, a victim of habitat loss and the attempted eradication of the carnivores’ prairie dog prey by ranchers who thought the rodents competed for grass livestock eat. Thanks to captive breeding and reintroduction, small wild populations remain. One new strategy, aimed at increasing these populations’ genetic diversity, was cloning a female ferret (right) from another female who’d never passed on her own genes.

Once again the prospect of a multimillion-dollar mine looms over Superior, Arizona, some 70 miles east of Phoenix. It’s a place with a long boom-and-bust history and a landscape of shuttered mines to prove it. What remains of the industry these days is mostly brokendown equipment and piles of what looks like white dirt. Th e piles, or tailings, represent the waste left behind aft er a mineral—copper, silver, iron, lead, mercury, quartz and so on—is extracted from ore. Tailings can contain calcium oxide, silica, aluminum and iron oxide, all of which are harmful to plants, animals and humans. On a recent visit to the hillsides around town, no plants, animals or humans were in sight. In prosperous times, Superior’s streets were lined with shops and restaurants, commercial success correlating to the demand for ore: peaking during the First and Second World Wars and crashing when prices for silver and other metals bottomed out. But in the Superior of today, lots of stores have boarded-up windows, and many of those that are open have limited hours. You might say the area is due for another boom—and fast. But a proposed mine that some hope will save Superior could take more than it gives. “I see a complete disaster coming,” says Wendsler Nosie, former chair of the San Carlos Apache Tribe whose reservation lies to the east of the prospective operation. A TEST OF METTLE An Arizona copper mine that would create a nearly 2-mile-wide crater of public land sets the group Apache Stronghold against a foreign multinational corporation BY JEANNE EDER RHODES PHOTOS BY TOMÁS K ARMELO AMAYA Wendsler Nosie, founder of the mine-opposition group Apache Stronghold, stands at the edge of a cliff near Oak Flat Campground in Arizona. “All of this comes from the Earth, the very Earth we’re destroying,” he says. 32 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023

34 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| In 2014, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation primarily addressed military spending but included an 11th-hour addition from John McCain, the late U.S. senator from Arizona: a land swap between the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Resolution Copper for Oak Flat. “I remember that day clearly,” says Nosie, founder of Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group that opposes the mine. “All I could do was pray these leaders—Congress, the Forest Service—would stick with what they had said for years, that this was not a good land transfer. But I realized these leaders were not there for the best interest, for the survival, of the people. It gave me a blueprint for what we needed to do.” In 2021, Apache Stronghold sued the United States under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. Signed into law in 1993, RFRA said the federal government had to have a compelling reason to substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion. Apache Stronghold argues that, by turning a sacred place into a 2-mile-wide hole, a mine at Oak Flat would not only burden Tribal members’ religious practice. It would destroy their ability to gather there altogether. Resolution Copper, a joint venture of two foreign companies, plans to extract what is estimated to be the largest copper ore deposit in North America. To do so, Resolution reports it would hire some 1,500 workers, at about $134 million a year in pay, in addition to providing job training and creating miningadjacent jobs. “Resolution could produce up to $61 billion in economic value for Arizona over the 60-year life of the project,” spokesperson Tyson Nansel says in an email. “We will boost state and local tax revenues by between $88 million and $113 million per year, while the federal government could see an extra $200 million in tax revenues per year.” All parties agree the method of mining, known as block caving, eventually would cause the land above the mine to collapse, leaving a crater more than 1,000 feet deep and nearly 2 miles across. Opponents say that’s a problem for many reasons, particularly on property that belongs to the American public. A 740-acre parcel of U.S. federal land, the site is known by several names, including Oak Flat and Oak Flat Withdrawal, which includes Oak Flat Campground, which in turn is part of Tonto National Forest—or, to the Apache people who consider it sacred, Chi’chil Biłdagoteel.

NWF.ORG/NW 35 edge that Tribes revere certain rocks, such as the formations that stand east of Superior like fossilized guardians watching over the sacred area. The deaths of 75 Pinal Apache warriors at the site—now known as Apache Leap—has even made it into popular folklore. Legend has it, after being surprised by U.S. troops in the 1870s, the warriors were pushed to the edge of the precipice and jumped. You can still find obsidian nodules nearby that appear translucent when held up to the sun, rumored to be tears the Apache people cried over the deaths. The land’s significance isn’t relegated to the past but is vital to the future, Tribal members say, with Oak Flat serving as a classroom for generations of Native children. “Growing up, my mom would take me to Oak Flat, and we would pick acorn,” recalls Naelyn Pike, Nosie’s granddaughter, a spokesperson for Apache Stronghold and executive assistant to the chair of the San Carlos Apache Tribal Council. The act of harvesting taught her “what the plants and land have provided for us and that we have to respect [the land],” she says. “In a way, we’re taking part of its life. When I look at Oak Flat, I see so much life—not only the life it gives me but the life of the land.” Mine opponents say ties to the land are especially precious given the U.S. government’s track record. In past decades, children were routinely removed from reservations and placed with white families, aiming to assimilate them into mainstream culture and dilute Indigenous ways of life. It’s a dark period of U.S. history and one still being adjudicated today. In June, the Supreme Court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which gives preference to Native families in fostering and adopting Native children. The Apache are not the only people to hold the site sacrosanct. In mounting its claim, Apache Stronghold hired the Tucson firm Anthropological Research to work with nine Tribes—four Apache, the Yavapai, Salt River Pima-Maricopa, Gila River Indian Community, Hopi and Zuni—in identifying cultural sites the Resolution mine would impact. Amy R. Juan of the Tohono O’odham Nation says visiting Skunk Camp, an ancient crossroads endangered by the mine, solidified her own decision to join Apache Stronghold. Based on architectural and environmental assessments, “This had been a gathering place for a lot of Indigenous Peoples,” she says, her own included. She shares a “mutual concern for protecting the land, for protecting the right to have access to our sacred sites—to the places we pray.” Many Native religions hold that humans have a responsibility to care for the land and that the land should be venerated. But most Tribes do not discuss their ceremonies, nor the ceremonies’ locations, with non-Native People—a code of silence borne of historical precedent. In 1883, Congress banned Indigenous dancing and ceremonies, as well as the practicing of medicine people. Although the ban was repealed in 1934, it took until 1978 for Congress to affirm that Native religions merit legal protection. Tribes today remain cautious: If you’re part of the culture, you know where rites are held. If you’re not, you don’t need to know. That said, community members will tell you they observe a number of ceremonies at Oak Flat—celebrating the sunrise, girls’ coming of age and sacred waters—as well as prayer circles and sweat lodges. It’s also common knowlResolution Copper’s West Plant (opposite), in Superior, Arizona, sits less than 2 miles as the crow flies from the sacred rock formation known as Apache Leap (right). Mining operations have paused at the site as the company waits for the U.S. Forest Service to deliver its second Environmental Impact Statement, which likely will influence the mine’s legal standing. “When I look at Oak Flat, I see so much life—not only the life it gives me but the life of the land.” —Naelyn Pike

36 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 locating some planned facilities “to avoid dozens of areas of cultural significance and hundreds of ancestral sites, medicinal plants, seeps and springs”—including Apache Leap, to which he says Resolution has agreed to relinquish land and mineral rights. “After mining, Resolution Copper will reclaim the area impacted,” Nansel says, a “maximum expected area” of about 1,800 acres. But “all the vegetation will be gone,” Nosie says. “Once you deplete the aquifer, what do you have left? I see death coming.” ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Some industry experts, including Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, say there’s insufficient demand for a new mine at Oak Flat—that existing mines could produce enough copper to satisfy the U.S. market. According to Featherstone, BHP, one of Resolution’s partners, closed a mine at San Manuel, northeast of Tucson, in 2002, leaving behind a 30-year supply. That was a foolish decision, Featherstone says. As the global demand for alternative energy increases, copper is back in style. A natural electrical conduit, it powers EV batteries, air conditioners, wind turbines, TVs, cell phones and computers. “The mining companies use this rhetoric that we need “Oak Flat is considered federal property,” Pike says. “But the reservation is also federal property. So, we’ve learned that both can be taken away with the stroke of a pen.” ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Along with places of religious and cultural importance, Oak Flat’s natural ecosystem would collapse when the crater gives way. Plants—including medicinal varieties such as sage, bear root, willow and greasewood—at the site would be wiped out, as would the Emory oak. Currently plentiful at Oak Flat, the Emory is declining elsewhere in Arizona, impacted by drought, reduced According to Simon, “One of the biggest ecological impacts at Oak Flat is the depletion of groundwater in an already water-stressed area.” A 2021 study conducted for the San Carlos Apache Tribe by the consulting firm now called LEA Environmental found the Resolution mine would use about as much water every year for 40 years as a city of 140,000 people. “But that groundwater may not be there” in 40 years, Simon says. “The groundwater is ancient and finite; yet mining companies currently have unlimited access to it, while others have to make hard choices.” Nansel, of Resolution, says talks with Tribal members “have helped significantly reshape the project,” including regroundwater, climate change, fire, livestock expansion and overharvesting. Because the oak keeps its leaves yearround, it’s considered valuable protective cover for wildlife, especially in winter. The acorns also provide a source of nutrition for livestock, as well as for deer, squirrels, birds and other animals, and for Indigenous People. When the habitat goes, so does the wildlife. Bird species including ravens, crissal thrashers, white-breasted nuthatches and white-crowned sparrows could relocate or die out locally upon losing their shelter and hunting grounds. Hawks and vultures would move to other parts of Arizona to find food. “There’s an incredible amount of wildlife dependent on the ecology of the area,” says Camilla Simon, executive director of Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors (HECHO), a group that elevates Hispanic voices and visibility in decision-making related to public lands. HECHO, which officially became part of the National Wildlife Federation in 2019, joined the mine-opposition movement in 2021. “Hispanics have querencia, or love for the land, which describes belonging to—and the relationship to—a place,” Simon says. “This is public land that has been protected from mining since the Eisenhower administration. If we start to say you can mine on protected lands, that’s a slippery slope.” Environmentalists say a copper mine could have devastating consequences for plant and animal species such as the Gambel’s quail (near right) and the Emory oak (far right), seen at Oak Flat this summer. Naelyn Pike (opposite) first gathered acorns at the site as a child. “Young people are taught that everything the Creator has given us is a blessing,” she says.

NWF.ORG/NW 37 Nosie says he’ll keep fighting and that the greater public should, too. In March, the 9th Circuit Court allowed Resolution to join the U.S. government as a defendant in Apache Stronghold. “By them joining forces against us, it’s a clear indication of what America is about,” Nosie says. The government “sees these lands as revenue. This fight is against all of us.” Pike agrees. “In our stories from long ago, it was said we could speak the same language as the plants and the animals, but we don’t have that privilege anymore,” she says. “I would love to see young people once again carry that relationship to land. But we have to have the land for that to happen.” Q Jeanne Eder Rhodes, an enrolled member of the Sioux and Assiniboine nations, lives in Chandler, Arizona. Tomás Karmelo Amaya, born for the A:shiwi, Rarámuri and Yoeme tribes, is a photographer and film director based in the traditional homelands of the O’odham in Phoenix. to mine our way out of climate change,” he says. “Well, here in Arizona, there are a number of mines that aren’t operating at full capacity. We have places to get copper that don’t destroy a sacred ecological and recreational haven.” Nansel points out that Resolution is repurposing the footprint of a former mine, Magma Copper. “To demonstrate our commitment to responsible operations and to making our community a cleaner and safer place to live and work, Resolution Copper voluntarily invested approximately $75 million over 15 years to restore 475 acres of the old Magma Copper West Plant,” he says. Meanwhile, the Apache people and allies await the results of Apache Stronghold v. United States—one lawsuit among a possible thicket of legal challenges to the mine. This spring, an 11-judge panel in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case and said a decision would be forthcoming, but as of press time, no one knows when. The court may be waiting for the results of a second USFS Environmental Impact Statement as guidance. The original statement, released in January 2021, was rescinded due to public concern in March 2021, less than two months into the Biden administration. “We have committed to providing at least 60 days’ notice before any future environmental analysis and draft record of decision is issued for the Resolution Copper Project,” says Adam Torruella, a public affairs specialist for the forest service’s southwestern region, in an email. If Apache Stronghold loses its case, the group could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Or claims filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe could move forward. Or a kinship group could make a treaty-based claim, as in the 2002 case— also heard in the 9th Circuit—of the Dann sisters, who held individual property rights on lands under their continuous possession and whose suit the court declared distinct from a separate claim filed by the Western Shoshone people as a whole. “Or another Tribe, another nation, could bring charges in another circuit,” says Rebecca Tsosie, a professor at the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law who is of Yaqui descent.

8 High in the Cascade Range of Washington state, amid a fog-veiled, unforgiving climate, lives an elusive mountain carnivore. Cascade red fox sightings are so uncommon, scientists were surprised to fi nd the animal still inhabited the area when Jocelyn Akins, a conservation geneticist and founder of Cascades Carnivore Project, fi rst caught one on a trail camera in 2008. “Th e subalpine zone feels completely devoid of life during winter,” Akins says. “I was thrilled to capture proof of such a rare fox existing in this harsh, desolate landscape.” But severe weather is the least of the fox’s concerns.  Hardy but not invulnerable Today the Cascade red fox—a unique subspecies whose ancestors arrived in North America via the Bering Land Bridge more than 300,000 years ago—is found only in Washington. Th ere, they live in small, isolated populations 4,500 to 7,000 feet in elevation, mostly between Mount Adams and Mount Rainier— the snowiest place in the United States, with an average annual snowfall of 640 inches.  Smaller than the lowland red fox, the Cascade red fox has a thick winter coat and extra fur around its toe pads. With a diet largely consisting of snowshoe hares, pocket gophers and voles, the fox performs several essential ecological duties: keeping rodent and insect populations in check, scavenging carrion and helping disperse the seeds of berries that feed numerous other mammals and birds. In 15 years of study with Mount Rainier National Park scientists and volunteers, Cascades Carnivore Project has analyzed around 1,000 DNA samples, documenting only 51 individuals. Th ose fi ndings contributed to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife listing the fox as endangered in fall 2022. Don’t feed the foxes While the foxes aren’t deterred by frigid weather, they’re less resilient to human encroachment, including food-conditioning. Car-strike fatalities have occurred when the animals have sought out food and trash left by visitors to Rainier and other recreational areas.  “Th ese foxes are really smart,” says Tara Chestnut, an ecologist with the national park. “Th ey have longterm memories, and if they’re fed even once aft er a long winter when food is scarce, they’ll take the easier option. Rather than hunt, they’ll go to people.”  Food-conditioning can also lead to aggression. If a fox were to bite a person, it would be Chestnut’s decision whether to euthanize the animal and test it ‘CASCADING EFFECTS ON SURVIVAL’ Newly listed as endangered by Washington state, the Cascade red fox faces a bevy of threats— and some cause for hope TEXT AND PHOTOS BY GRETCHEN K AY STUART ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

ALL PHOTO CREDITS HERE NWF.ORG/NW 39 When it was photographed in September 2022, this 5-month-old “cross-phase” juvenile—so called for its tan and black color pattern—was the first Cascade red fox kit documented since 2018.

40 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 A Mount Rainier biological field tech (top left) finds the hair of a Cascade red fox outside a den. The hair will be DNA tested to identify the individual fox. The fox diet, including that of a red-phase female called Ginger (top right), relies heavily on voles. The late fox nicknamed Whitefoot (above) darts between cars as she begs for food. Biologists believe Snag (bottom left), a black-phase male, fathered kits with Ginger in 2022. Climate change is shrinking the foxes’ habitat (middle left) of alpine and subalpine meadow, which also sees significant wildfire smoke in summer. Whitefoot (opposite) was the matriarch of her group, called a skulk. Despite food-conditioning, she lived to age 10 or older—more than twice the typical wild fox life expectancy.

NWF.ORG/NW 41 to poor reproductive rates, increased hereditary abnormalities and reduced ability to adapt to environmental change.  But all is not lost. Following the endangered listing, Cascades Carnivore Project and Mount Rainier National Park partnered with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington to develop and implement a recovery plan. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation intend to join in as well. By identifying and increasing biodiversity in fire-prone forests, the Yakama Nation aims to mitigate climate change’s impact on Cascade red fox habitat.  Mark Nuetzmann, a wildlife biologist for the Yakama Nation, believes raising awareness will help. “I am humbled that Mount Adams is one of the remaining locations that the Cascade red fox inhabits,” he says.  Another glimmer of hope appeared last year, when the first Cascade red fox kit was documented since 2018. Akins sees the juvenile as a promising indicator for ongoing collaboration between local communities and scientists. “It will take a joint effort to ensure that the Cascade red fox remains in this magnificent place for generations to come,” she says. Q Gretchen Kay Stuart is a wildlife conservation photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. for rabies. “As biologists, we’re trained to consider the population, not the individual,” she says. “But when a species gets to the point where it’s endangered, we have no choice but to consider every single individual. The loss of even one could have cascading effects on their survival long term.”  To avoid reaching that point, Chestnut has a message for the public: “Help me never have to make that horrible decision by not feeding them. Don’t be outsmarted by a fox.” The last known food-conditioned Cascade red fox, a female nicknamed Whitefoot, hasn’t been seen begging roadside since 2021 and is believed to have died of old age. With Whitefoot’s passing, biologists hope the cycle of begging behavior taught by parent to offspring is broken, making human-fox encounters extremely rare once again.  Hope despite danger Other threats remain. Decline in snowpack, a symptom of the warming climate, has allowed conifers to sprout in higher climes, turning subalpine meadows—which the Cascade red fox and its prey rely on—into forests. Meanwhile coyotes, a red fox predator and competitor, are reaching higher elevations via ski and snowmobile trails. What’s more, the fox’s small population size has resulted in low genetic diversity, with inbreeding potentially contributing

FINDING

In the Florida Panhandle, the Aucilla River Delta empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The delta and its surrounding lands are key links in the northernmost section of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. THE WAY If completed, the Florida Wildlife Corridor would protect 18 million acres of nearly contiguous habitat at the heart of one of our nation’s biologically richest states

44 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 many other threats, including disease, low genetic diversity, a decline in prey and, especially, habitat loss and fragmentation. Only about 200 Florida panthers remain in the wild. Panthers are far from the only wildlife finding refuge solely in the Sunshine State. With a climate ranging from subtropical to tropical in the south, “Florida is an ecological jewel,” says Amanda Moore, a Florida resident and Gulf Program director for the National Wildlife Federation. The state’s coastlines, swamps, springs, pine forests, prairies and other habitats support many thousands of plant and animal species, at least 269 of them endemic, or found nowhere else. Carlton Ward Jr. brings his dusty Toyota Land Cruiser to a sudden stop. “There. Right there,” says the Florida-based conservationist and wildlife photographer, pointing to a spot along the dirt road into Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Located about 30 minutes east of Naples, Florida, the sanctuary is a 13,450-acre haven of wet prairie, marsh, pine flatwoods and North America’s largest old-growth bald cypress forest. “That’s where I saw my first Florida panther,” he says. An eighth-generation Floridian who’s spent much of his life exploring the state’s swamps and woodlands, Ward did not see that first panther until the summer of 2018, when he was in his 40s. That’s not surprising. Denizens of dense forests and swamps, Florida panthers are elusive predators that do not want to be seen. They are also rare. Panthers—also known as cougars or pumas—once ranged across the entire southeastern United States. Today, the breeding population of this puma subspecies is found only at Florida’s southwestern tip. Relentlessly shot by hunters beginning in the 1800s, they were nearly extinct by the 1950s. “They retreated to the southern tip of Florida in part because it was the last place they could go to hide from all the humans trying to hunt them,” says Jennifer Korn, a panther biologist for Johnson Engineering. Federally listed as endangered in 1973, the Florida panther now faces BY ISAAC EGER . PHOTOS BY CARLTON WARD JR. A female Florida panther and two kittens (right) traverse a trail through Babcock Ranch Preserve, 140 miles from Miami and the farthest north female panthers have been seen since the mid1970s. For the endangered cats to recover, they must keep moving north—a huge challenge as new housing (above, in Orlando) and other developments eat up remaining open spaces.

NWF.ORG/NW 45 Wildlife Corridor: 18 million acres of connected undeveloped land—from wetlands in the south to pineland forests of the Panhandle—crucial to the state’s wildlife. The concept of connecting Florida’s habitats is decades old. Ward credits, in particular, Larry D. Harris, a late University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation professor whose 1984 book, The Fragmented Forest, challenged traditional thinking about how to manage woodlands. To protect wildlife that depend on large, connected habitats, Harris proposed alternatives to conventional timber harvesting practices that isolate small patches of land. The pioneering ecologist warned that, at the pace of Florida’s growth, nearly all remaining blocks of habitat would become fragmented and surrounded by development, leading to massive species loss and diminished ecological function. For the past 18 years, Ward has been traveling throughout the state, documenting this rich natural heritage with his camera. Funded in part by the National Geographic Society (NGS), he and his team have captured thousands of images of Florida’s ecosystems and their inhabitants, from panthers and black bears to snail kites and eastern indigo snakes. To make images of the most-elusive wildlife, they set up dozens of unattended cameras outfitted with infrared trip sensors triggered when animals pass. They regularly return to the same sites to see what these camera traps have photographed. Making connections Since 2010, most of Ward’s photography has coalesced around an ambitious public education and outreach campaign he launched the previous year. Its goal is to promote the Florida

NWF.ORG/NW 47 life, I’m amazed that we still have the potential for a viable, connected wildlife corridor in Florida,” says Hilary Swain, the executive director of Archbold Biological Station, a conservation and research institute that is a key partner in the corridor project. Swain emphasizes that the corridor helps not only top predators like panthers but also much smaller wildlife species. “By protecting habitat connectivity for species that need large areas, you automatically bring along entire ecosystems on your coattails,” she says. “Everything from microbes to mice are embraced within the corridor.” That includes many of the state’s more than 600 imperiled species of plants and animals. Lessons from a bear Like panthers, bears also need large stretches of connected habitat, as Ward learned when he began a project to photograph the animals in the mid-2000s. Once declining, the Florida black bear—a subspecies of American black bear—is officially considered recovered, with more than 4,000 bears now roaming the state. Yet the animals need plenty of room to move. A single adult female requires 15 square miles, while a single male may spread out over 60 square miles—habitat increasingly tough to come by in the rapidly developing state. In 2010, a radio-collared young male bear known as M34 brought that lesson home. For eight months the bear stayed within a short range of where he was collared in 2009. But in May the following year, he set out on an epic journey at the start of the breeding season, traveling more than 500 miles up and down the heart of Florida over the course of two months. Although the trip eventually was thwarted by development—especially an interstate highway cutting across Central Florida—and the bear ended up not far from where he’d started, Ward and other conservationists saw potential. “M34 showed us that he had no issue cruising through what’s still green and connected: ranches, groves, farms,” says Ward. “He clarified for us the need for a wildlife corridor.” According to Moore, who serves on the board of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation—a nonprofit that promotes the corridor and facilitates communication among partners—the project’s participants “use a strategic, sciencebased process to identify the critical missing linkages between existing protected areas.” In 2021, the initiative got a boost from a legislative campaign led by Ward and his team at the conservation group Wildpath in collaboration with NGS and local partners. As a result of these efforts, the Florida House and Senate passed, and the governor signed, the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act in June. While the law itself does not conserve land, it directs the Florida Department of Environmental ProtecWith support from Harris and fellow biologist Reed Noss, Harris’ student Tom Hoctor, now director of the University of Florida’s Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, helped create the Florida Ecological Greenways Network, a database of connected public and private conservation lands. In 1997, the state launched a greenways program inspired by the database, which now guides efforts to create the corridor. The Florida panther has become the symbol of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Like most wild animals, panthers need to move in order to survive. Yet habitats are increasingly fragmented by new housing, roads, fences, energy facilities and other barriers. As a result, wildlife are struggling to reach food, water, shelter, mates and breeding sites. Lost habitat connections are particularly a problem for animals such as the panther. A single male panther “needs 200 square miles of habitat, so the only way to save the species is multiple adjacent lands working together as one connected habitat,” says Ward. So far, 10 million acres of the corridor have been protected, but another crucial 8 million acres remain. Meanwhile, the urgency is increasing. Florida is one of the ten fastest-growing states in the country, with more than 1,100 people moving in every day. But it is not too late. “Despite being appalled at what Florida has lost in terms of its natural resources and wildThe now-recovered Florida black bear (top) and threatened West Indian manatee (bottom) are among scores of wildlife whose prospects will be improved by connecting Florida’s habitats. Scientists say a completed corridor could benefit hundreds of imperiled plant and animal species statewide. “Despite being appalled at what Florida has lost in terms of its natural resources and wildlife, I’m amazed that we still have the potential for a viable, connected wildlife corridor in Florida.” —Hilary Swain

48 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 their land when developers make attractive offers. To benefit both ranchers and wildlife, much current funding for the corridor goes to purchasing conservation easements. The easements create financial incentives for property owners to stay on the land if they agree to management practices that ensure the long-term health of the habitat. Early on in the project, Ward, whose family roots are in ranching, set out on a 100-day trek that visited nearly 30 Florida cattle ranches. “It was like a path of opportunity,” he recalls. “We got to meet these ranchers and ask if they wanted to be a part of this project. There is no wildlife corridor without the conservation of farms and ranches,” he says. Elton Langford, an 11th generation cattle rancher, has been convinced. Today, he still runs 500 head of cattle on Babcock Ranch, a large master-planned community some tal Protection to “encourage and promote investments in areas that protect and enhance the Florida Wildlife Corridor.” In the two years since, nearly 150,000 acres have been approved for permanent conservation, and the 2023 Florida state budget allots $850 million for the corridor, with an additional $100 million of recurring funding. Value of working lands Because nearly all remaining 8 million acres needed to complete the corridor are privately owned, landowners— particularly ranchers—are key to success. Like wildlife, many of these ranchers’ traditional livelihoods are threatened by development. While Florida’s interior was once predominantly cattle country, with livestock sharing green spaces with native wildlife, many ranching families sell

NWF.ORG/NW 49 checking camera traps he’d set up in Corkscrew Swamp in 2022 specifically to search for panthers. There was nothing much to see until he reached the final frames on his last camera—and saw a female Florida panther with two kittens. The photo had been snapped just the week before. For Ward, discovering the image was thrilling but sobering. To survive, those kittens will need to travel and find territories in undeveloped habitat. If they make it, their kittens will require the same. “There is no recovery for the Florida panther,” stresses Ward, “without protection of the Florida Wildlife Corridor.” Q Isaac Eger is a writer based in Florida. Carlton Ward Jr. is a Florida-based wildlife photographer and conservationist. 15 miles northeast of Fort Myers that has left 90 percent of its 100,000 acres undeveloped. Langford, who worked on the land long before it was sold, laments many recent changes. But he also believes that the property—a vital link in the Florida Wildlife Corridor—could be a model for future development. “You’re not gonna show me a developer that comes in and buys thousands of acres of land and don’t try to put a home on every inch of it,” Langford says. “But out here, they left most of it to continue raising cattle and as green space for wildlife.” In 2016, scientists visiting the Babcock Ranch Preserve documented the first female panther north of the Caloosahatchee River since 1975—proof to corridor supporters that if wildlife have access to connected habitat, they will use it. Earlier this year and an hour south of Babcock, Ward was NWF priority Both the National Wildlife Federation and the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF), an NWF affiliate, have supported the Florida Wildlife Corridor since the project’s start. “In a state with accelerated growth, the science-based corridor helps us protect wild places before it’s too late,” says FWF president and CEO Sarah Gledhill. Nationwide, NWF pursues multiple strategies to help wildlife move between habitats fragmented by highways, housing and other barriers. See nwf.org/corridors. CONNECTING WILDLIFE HABITATS Ranch hands on horseback herd cattle (left) on Florida’s Buck Island Ranch. Because nearly all lands left to complete the corridor are private, supporters say the participation of ranchers is key to the project’s success. Ranch lands also are vital habitat for wildlife, from Florida scrub-jays (above) to Florida panthers.

50 NATIONAL WILDLIFE . FALL 2023 ALL PHOTO CREDITS HERE