Select Page

News & Commentary

Please email media@wildlifeforall.us with press inquiries. 

When Beavers Do It Better

When Beavers Do It Better

Beavers aren’t just dam-builders; they’re ecosystem engineers who create wetlands, sequester carbon, and enhance biodiversity. Yet in North America, they’re often trapped and killed as nuisances.

The Wildlife Wire: Mandy Culbertson

Wildlife for All Communications Director Mandy Culbertson had the chance to discuss how language is used to normalize harm to wildlife in depth on the Wildlife Wire podcast with Mark Surls and Samantha Miller of the Colorado Wildlife Alliance. Listen to Podcast ►

Celebrating Kevin Bixby

Celebrating Kevin Bixby

Celebrating Kevin Bixby: After decades of tireless work to protect wildlife and wildlands, Kevin Bixby is retiring—leaving behind an incredible legacy of advocacy, courage, and leadership.

January Wildlife Commission Meetings

January Wildlife Commission Meetings

It's time to get active in January Wildlife Commission Meetings. January Wildlife Commission Meetings Welcome to 2025, wildlife advocates! As we start this new year, let's kick it off with activism. Wildlife commission meetings are critical opportunities to influence...

Ban Dog Pack Hunting in Arizona

Ban Dog Pack Hunting in Arizona

Wildlife for All Cosigns Petition to Ban Dog Pack Hunting in Arizona SANTA FE, N.M.—Wildlife for All is proud to join conservation groups in petitioning the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to ban the use of dog packs in hunting wildlife including mountain lions and...

Who Is The Anti-Wolf Lobby?

Who Is The Anti-Wolf Lobby?

Journalists in Utah have revealed that an anti-wolf lobby group fraudulently misused public tax dollars to fund its activities, highlighting the entrenched power and corruption of the anti-carnivore lobbyists within state wildlife management.

Action Alert: CPW Commission Meeting Nov. 14-15

Hunters Need Predators

Recent research on ungulate diseases like CWD calls into question the wisdom of states’ permissive, in some cases unrestricted, hunting and trapping of cougars, wolves, coyotes and bobcats. If the whole of nature is good, no part can be bad. It’s time for all hunters to recognize predators as allies, not competitors.

Wild Ground is Common Ground

Wild Ground is Common Ground

In a recent op-ed, Will Marlier pushes back against the narrative often repeated in the wildlife management community that interest in hunting is waning because young/urban people are disconnected from nature and too immersed in their screens.

New Mexico’s Green Amendment

New Mexico’s Green Amendment

A proposed amendment to the state constitution would guarantee New Mexicans the right to healthy environments, ecosystems, and a safe climate. It would also hugely benefit wildlife by acknowledging that native species are to be protected on behalf of future generations as part of the public trust.

For Asha, Let Nature Takes Its Course

For Asha, Let Nature Takes Its Course

In a heartfelt op-ed for the Santa Fe New Mexican, WFA Executive Director Dr. Michelle Lute reflects on the tragic death of Asha, the first Mexican wolf to cross into northern New Mexico in decades.

Florida Wildlife Federation joins growing list of opponents to Florida “right-to-hunt” ballot initiative

Lawsuit Challenges NJ Law Giving Hunters Majority on State Fish and Wildlife Council

A former New Jersey state senator filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law that effectively gives hunting groups the power to select a majority of the 11-member NJ Fish and Wildlife Council, which sets wildlife policy for the state. The legal challenge was filed in response to the state’s decision to allow a bear hunt in each of the next five years. The judge denied a preliminary injunction to halt the hunt which began this month.
Read more here.

Wildlife for All joins call to end federal funding for state wildlife killing efforts

Wildlife for All joins call to end federal funding for state wildlife killing efforts

In response to the state of Alaska killing more than 100 bears and wolves by helicopter in June, supposedly to increase caribou numbers, a coalition of 35 wildlife and Indigenous groups, including Wildlife for All, sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland in August, renewing their demand that federal funds be withheld from states that practice or sanction the killing of native carnivores like wolves.
Read more here.

Wolf Connection #137: Michelle Lute

Michelle Lute is the Co-Executive Director for Wildlife For All, whose mission is to reform wildlife management in the U.S. to be more democratic, compassionate and focused on protecting wild species and ecosystems. She is a conservation scientist and advocate with...

Sen. Baldwin’s ‘Midwest Gray Wolf Delisting’ Bill epitomizes abysmal wildlife policy

Sen. Baldwin’s ‘Midwest Gray Wolf Delisting’ Bill epitomizes abysmal wildlife policy

Current wolf conservation policies epitomize the bias of state and federal agencies to allow unjustified and unscientific lethal control through undemocratic processes that ignore diverse public values. As a result, wolves are used as a political bargaining tool by Republicans and Democrats alike. The latest move to delist wolves by US Senators Baldwin and Klobuchar is no exception.
Read this statement by Wildlife for All and our partners to learn more.

State wildlife agencies focus on ‘hook and bullet’ work. Some see a new path. Washington state aims for a broader conservation role.

State wildlife agencies focus on ‘hook and bullet’ work. Some see a new path. Washington state aims for a broader conservation role.

“Most state wildlife agencies have followed the North American model for wildlife for a century or more,” said state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, a Democrat who championed the measure. “It’s worth looking — is there a better model?” This Stateline article by Alex Brown looks at steps Washington State is taking to democratize and modernize its wildlife management, along the lines Wildlife for All’s reform agenda.
Read more at the Stateline website

NM Governor vetoes bill to overhaul Game Commission

NM Governor vetoes bill to overhaul Game Commission

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham pocket vetoed a bipartisan bill passed by the NM Legislature that would have made the NM Game Commission more professional and representative of the broad public interest in wildlife. The bill was backed by Wildlife for All and a broad coalition of NM groups, ranging from hunters to animal welfare advocates. The governor’s office has not offered an explanation for her veto.
Read more at the Santa Fe New Mexican website

Are Butterflies Wildlife? Depends Where You Live

Are Butterflies Wildlife? Depends Where You Live

By Catrin Einhorn

“‘State agencies are really at the forefront of conservation for wildlife,’ said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, a nonprofit group that advocates for insect conservation. ‘But in these states where they can’t work on insects, or in some cases any invertebrates, they don’t. So, you see things just languish.'”

Read more here

Wildlife management in New Mexico needs modernizing

Wildlife management in New Mexico needs modernizing

By Bryan Bird & Kevin Bixby

“The time for the [New Mexico Department of Game and Fish] to pivot from being a relic of the past to a modern, wildlife conservation agency is long overdue. With the number of species moving toward extinction growing daily, the need is urgent. The Legislature needs to pass modernization and commission reform legislation while also approving license fee increases. It can do that with HB 184 and HB 486.”

Read more here

Hunting group recognizes Wildlife for All as leader of democratization effort

Bills aim to overhaul New Mexico Game and Fish management

By Nathan Brown

Two bills focused on reforming wildlife management were recently heard before a New Mexico House Committee. HB 183 would have abolished the state’s Game and Fish Department, while HB 184 would change the way that seats are allocated on the State Wildlife Commission. HB 183 was defeated, but HB 184 made it out of the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee on a 6-3 vote.

Read more here

Walter Medwid: Fish & Wildlife is unlike any other department in state government

Walter Medwid: Fish & Wildlife is unlike any other department in state government

Wildlife for All Advisory Committee member Walter Medwid wrote commentary for the Vermont Digger to highlight the necessity of reforming the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board. 

“The largely uncredentialed Fish and Wildlife Board holds broad regulatory and public policy authority over all game species without the benefit of the public’s voice at the table.” 

Read more here

December 2022 Newsletter

December 2022 Newsletter

From the Desk of the Executive Director: The Elephant Not In The Room; Did You Know…; This Inspires Us: The Intersectional Environmentalist; Our Coalition Partner: TrapFree Montana; New foundation funder, The Fund for Wild Nature; Join Now.

Read more

Should Utah pay $50 bounties on coyotes killed in controversial contests?

Should Utah pay $50 bounties on coyotes killed in controversial contests?

By Brian Maffly

“Late fall marks the resumption of Utah’s wildlife killing contests, where an unknown number of coyotes and other animals are shot by teams angling to take the largest haul of dead “dogs” stacked in the bed of their pickups by the end of the day.”

Events such as these are legal because wildlife managers are trained to ignore the interests of individual animals and only focus on the impacts on populations and species.

Read more here

Hybrid striped bass introduced into Caballo Lake

Hybrid striped bass introduced into Caballo Lake

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish just released over 40,000 hybrid striped bass into Caballo Lake in southern New Mexico. This story illustrates the absurdity of introducing a fish that is a hybrid of two nonnative, piscivorous (fish-eating) species into the state’s waters. There is no conservation value in introducing this fish, only the intention to increase fishing license sales.

Press Release: Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Votes to Permanently Eliminate Recreational Spring Bear Hunting

Press Release: Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission Votes to Permanently Eliminate Recreational Spring Bear Hunting

Press Release, Washington Wildlife First

Today, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 5-4 to eliminate recreational spring bear hunting.

“‘We thank the Commissioners for their courage, dedication to scientific integrity and ethical wildlife management, and commitment to representing the values of the people of Washington,’ says Samantha Bruegger, executive director of Washington Wildlife First.”

Read more here