Spring 2025
Earthjustice Program Report
Biodiversity & Ecosystems
Earthjustice fights to protect imperiled species and the habitats that support their lives — and ours. This work, decades in the making and with the force of the environmental movement behind it, cannot and will not be thwarted by one presidential administration. With our unparalleled expertise, strong partnerships on the ground, and steadfast supporters, we’re more prepared than ever to hold the line and advance progress. Here are highlights of our work to defend our natural world over the past year, and a glimpse at what’s next.
Safeguarding Critical Ecosystems
Earthjustice focuses on protecting ecosystems essential to sustaining greater ecological balance. In our era of mass extinction and habitat loss — the sixth our planet has experienced, but the first caused by humans — this work grows more urgent every day.
Defending coastlines from offshore oil drilling
Amid a flurry of anti-environment executive orders beginning on his first day in office, President Trump issued an order to revoke former President Biden’s protection of millions of acres of undeveloped public waters from future oil and gas drilling. He did so despite two-thirds of American voters being in favor of keeping coastlines safe from new offshore drilling. Now, areas including public waters off the Alaska, Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts are at risk. We responded by filing the first environmental legal challenge against the second Trump administration.
Urgent fights in Alaska
President Trump also issued an Alaska-specific executive order that targets the state’s most ecologically and culturally significant public lands and threatens critical subsistence resources for Alaska Native Tribes. We and our clients and partners are engaged on multiple fronts to push back against these orders and the actions likely to follow from them.
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The Trump administration is attempting to undo President Biden’s cancellation of unlawful leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to reinstate a plan from the previous Trump administration that would permit widespread and risky oil and gas activities throughout the entire sensitive Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. A recent ruling by a federal judge could reopen our 2020 lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s illegal issuance of leases in the Refuge, which has been stayed since 2021. This latest ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the state of Alaska against the federal government. It reinstated the Trump-issued leases that Biden canceled. Earthjustice has defended these lands from fossil fuel development for decades, and we will continue to do so.
- Western Arctic: In an executive order, President Trump directed federal agencies to toss out the current plan developed under the Obama and Biden administrations that protects roughly half of the 23 million-acre area from oil and gas development. This plan would be replaced by one put forward by the first Trump administration in 2020, which opened most of the area to development. Trump also ordered the repeal of new regulations affording special protections to some lands within the region. Earthjustice will defend against further oil and gas development in the Western Arctic, including any attempts to expand the Willow project, the biggest proposed oil and gas project on public lands.
Western lands
Earthjustice started the year with a victory for greater sage-grouse and sagebrush habitat, one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the West. In January 2025, a federal court affirmed an earlier district court ruling that threw out hundreds of oil and gas leases issued by the previous Trump administration in key habitat for the iconic bird.
In the Northern Rockies, we’re defending crucial wins to end coal. In a last-ditch effort to revive the struggling coal industry, the states of Montana and Wyoming and industry are suing to undo the Biden administration’s landmark action to end coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. Representing the Northern Cheyenne Tribe alongside Tribal and conservation groups, we are intervening to defend the Biden administration decision and protect the Powder River Basin.
Forests
Forests are essential — for biodiversity and for removing carbon from our atmosphere — and safeguarding them has been flagship work for Earthjustice. We are steeped in fights across the country to steward these precious places.
- Tongass National Forest in Alaska: In an executive order, President Trump directed the Department of Agriculture to work toward repealing roadless rule protections for the Tongass. This could again raise the threat of industrial, old-growth logging within our nation’s largest forest, which serves as an important climate buffer and holds 20% of the carbon calculated to be stored by all U.S. forests. In recent years, the region has largely transitioned away from logging in favor of sustainable local economies — a change many local Alaskans and Tribes have supported during a revision of the Tongass forest plan now underway. We’re monitoring the plan revision process to ensure that any new plan serves the interest of the public, not the logging industry.
- Federal forest protections: In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to ramp up logging across the national forest system. The order seeks to increase timber production, erode Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections to speed approval of timber sales, and set a target for timber offered for sale annually, among other things. These measures could result in widespread clear-cutting of federal forests. We’re monitoring the situation closely and will be ready to challenge any logging plans, timber sales, or efforts to broadly weaken environmental protections that violate the law and put public forests at risk.
A Future for All Species
Scientists predict nearly 40% of all species may face extinction by the end of this century if we continue our current rate of consumption. Earthjustice is working to prevent this by defending imperiled species, focusing especially on those for which conservation efforts also secure habitat for other vulnerable wildlife.
Grizzly bears | Defense of umbrella species
Earthjustice has long fought to defend grizzly bears and their habitat across the Northern Rockies. This year we secured more victories for the keystone species: We won a court ruling barring Idaho from authorizing wolf trapping and snaring — which also threatens grizzlies — during grizzly bears’ non-denning periods. We won a challenge to a federal plan for the Flathead National Forest that would have allowed new roadbuilding in grizzly habitat. And, citing similar harms, we filed a lawsuit challenging increased roadbuilding in the Bitterroot National Forest.
Still, 2024 saw a record number of grizzlies killed by humans — including the beloved grizzly 399, a 28-year-old female and mother of 18 cubs who was killed by an auto collision. While grizzlies are rebounding in the Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide ecosystems, these sub-populations remain disconnected, and other sub-populations are perilously small.
To address this, Earthjustice launched a grizzly bear recovery campaign on behalf of a large coalition to advance a comprehensive, science-based vision for grizzly bear connectivity and recovery in the Northern Rockies. With the expertise of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s former leading grizzly biologist, we are petitioning the agency to revise its 30-year-old grizzly recovery plan and ensure, at least, that states can continue protecting these bears, especially if they lose ESA protections (“delisting”). We expect the Trump administration to attempt to delist grizzlies and are ready to fight back when this happens. We will also challenge proposals to increase grizzly killings in habitats key to their future recovery.
Gray wolves | Protections for keystone predators
Our victory barring wolf trapping and snaring in Idaho secured tangible results on the ground for gray wolves in the state. This 2024 win was reaffirmed in January 2025 after the state and trapper associations attempted to weaken the ruling and narrow its scope. According to our partners on the ground, our efforts have resulted in a significant reduction of wolf mortalities from years prior. Looking forward, we’ll defend this great result on appeal.
In Colorado, we continue to succeed in supporting the state’s voter-approved efforts to reintroduce the gray wolf to a landscape where it’s long been missing. Our work helped convince the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to reject a livestock industry petition to pause gray wolf restoration measures. Reintroductions will boost the genetic health of the state’s nascent population and help restore the region’s core ecological balance.
Māui dolphin | International biodiversity defense
The biodiversity crisis knows no borders, which is why Earthjustice supports international groups in their fights to support wildlife and habitats across the globe. In December 2024, Earthjustice and Law of the Wild filed suit to protect the Māui dolphin in the United States Court of International Trade on behalf of the grassroots group Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders in New Zealand.
Fifty years ago, 2,000 Māui dolphins lived along the West Coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Since then, the population has plummeted by over 97%. Today, only 30 to 50 of these dolphins are thought to exist in their native habitat.
The dolphins are being driven to extinction from entanglement in gillnet and trawl gear used by fishers targeting commercial seafood species. Our lawsuit seeks enforcement of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, which requires the U.S. government to ban seafood imports from any foreign fishery that excessively harms marine mammals, to protect the species.
Pollinators | Keeping the web of life intact
Pesticide overuse is driving declines in insect pollinator populations globally, posing a threat to human food systems, terrestrial food webs, and global biodiversity. Despite this, the EPA’s current testing requirements for pesticide manufacturers allow pesticides harmful to thousands of insect species to go to market without adequate testing.
Earthjustice is working to decrease the use of the systemic insecticides and herbicides that cause the most harm to biodiversity. On behalf of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Earthjustice has petitioned the EPA to improve its regulatory processes by considering impacts to the vast array of native pollinators that face harm from overuse of insecticides and herbicides. This includes the Monarch butterfly, which has been proposed for the ESA threatened-species list and is at risk of extinction due in large part to pesticide use in the Midwest.
Florida Scrub-Jay | ESA defense
We are defending the constitutionality of the ESA in the context of a lawsuit challenging critical protections for the imperiled Florida Scrub-Jay. Because this fight concerns the legal validity of the ESA itself, victory here will be crucial for protecting both the charismatic Scrub-Jay and so many other species with limited ranges.
The Florida Scrub-Jay, listed as a federally threatened species, is the only bird found exclusively in the state of Florida. The suit we’re defending against claims that the ESA cannot protect any species found only in one state because Congress’ constitutional authority to enact laws only applies to issues that cross state borders. It argues that since the Scrub-Jay is found only in Florida, federal protections should not apply. If left unchallenged, this legal theory could impact hundreds of other imperiled species found in just one state, including the Florida Panther and Hawai‘i’s many imperiled endemic species. Most imperiled species in the U.S. exist in only a single state. If, as this lawsuit claims, those species can’t be protected under the ESA, many will be lost forever. We are fighting to ensure that the courts continue to recognize a strong federal authority to protect wildlife from extinction.
Wild salmon | Reining in toxic chemicals
Earthjustice is working to protect wild salmon from 6PPD, a chemical used in tires. 6PPD releases a breakdown product known as 6PPD-Q, one of the most toxic chemicals to aquatic species ever evaluated. 6PPD-Q pollution directly kills salmon and has devastated salmon restoration efforts along much of the West Coast.
In November 2023, the EPA granted a petition we submitted on behalf of three Tribes urging the agency to establish regulations prohibiting the manufacturing, processing, use, and distribution of 6PPD for tires. Now, representing the West Coast’s largest association of commercial fishing families, Earthjustice is in federal court suing the 13 largest U.S. tire manufacturers themselves for harming threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.
Our Path Forward
In this all-important decade for the environment, Earthjustice is clear-eyed about the threats, prepared for the fights ahead, and creatively shaping pathways for progress.
Federal defense of bedrock environmental laws
Earthjustice will challenge any attacks on bedrock environmental laws like the ESA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. We’re already holding the Trump administration accountable, and we will continue to do so on behalf of our clients.
Innovative legal tactics
By relying on novel legal approaches, Earthjustice is carving a path to durable progress.
- State-level wins: When federal environmental protections are undermined, we can shore up defenses with new state laws. After the Supreme Court gutted protections for wetlands, we secured new ones at the state level in Colorado. We’re now helping to draft strong regulations to implement that law. We’re also making change through state constitutional provisions that protect people and the environment. We used this tactic to achieve a ground-breaking settlement in a climate lawsuit brought by 14 youth advocates in Hawai‘i.
- Public trust doctrines: In Utah, we’re litigating a landmark case to restore the Great Salt Lake, which is drying up even as the state holds it in trust for current and future generations. And in Hawai‘i, our work on the public trust doctrine recently yielded another victory in our ongoing legal battle to protect Nā Wai ‘Ehā, Maui’s legendary four rivers and streams.
- Civil enforcement: We’re expanding our work to support citizen enforcement of the ESA, as we have in our effort to rein in 6PPD. These ambitious cases, which require time and resources to dedicate to processes like discovery and expert witness testimony, ensure impacted communities can bring lawsuits directly against polluters.
Public engagement
We will continue to drive change in the court of public opinion. Our grizzly campaign built the scientific record and communications strategies needed to defend grizzly protections in court and build support with the public. And we’re partnering with Tribal groups and outdoorspeople in South Dakota to launch the Save The Black Hills Campaign to secure federal action to withdraw all new mining projects in the Black Hills. We’ll continue public engagement work to combat the increased coal leasing, oil and gas extraction, and hardrock mining at the heart of the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda.
Evolution in a new legal landscape
Earthjustice is leveling up our Supreme Court practice with our Strategic Legal Advocacy team. We were part of the biggest environmental case of the Court’s last term, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado. We expect to see more cases from the Supreme Court that tee up more longstanding doctrines that are linchpins of environmental law. Earthjustice is also working with Earthjustice Action as it ramps up its push for impartial, qualified judges.
A Thriving World Still Within Reach
No matter what happens over the next four years, one thing is certain: Earthjustice is ceding no ground in the fight for our web of life. Thank you for joining us.
