The Attack Is
Everywhere.
So Are We.
On Endangered Species Day, here is what we are up against — and exactly what we are doing about every single piece of it.
Dear Friend,
This Friday, May 15th, is Endangered Species Day — the 21st annual global day of action for imperiled wildlife. This year’s theme: Celebrating America’s Wildlife Comeback Stories. Championing the Endangered Species Act.
The irony is not lost on us. Because at this exact moment, the ESA is under the most sustained and coordinated assault it has ever faced. And the wolves, the bison, the migratory birds, the Boundary Waters, the forests — they are all in the crosshairs at the same time.
We have been tracking every move. Filing every comment. Preparing every legal challenge. Showing up at every hearing. And this Friday, we want you to join us — because the best thing we can do on Endangered Species Day is show that the people who care about wildlife are still here, still organized, and still fighting.
Endangered Species Day
Short Film Festival
We have partnered with some of the most respected wildlife organizations in North America to bring you an evening of award-winning short films — stories that put real faces, voices, and landscapes to the species and places we fight for every day. Wolves. Monarch butterflies. Sturgeon. The predators and the pollinators. The ones being erased right now by policy decisions most people never hear about.
After the films, join our panel discussion on what these stories mean for the moment we are in — and what you can do next. This is what it looks like when wildlife advocacy meets storytelling.
Here is what has happened in just the last few weeks — all documented, all directly affecting Great Lakes wildlife and wild places:
The Wisconsin DNR Wolf Advisory Committee is actively building out zones, quotas, and kill structures for a wolf hunt — while wolves remain on the federal Endangered Species List. Our state ESA petition has sat unanswered for 335+ days — more than three times the 90-day legal deadline. We have sent a formal pre-litigation demand letter to Secretary Karen Hyun and Attorney General Josh Kaul. Legal action is being prepared now.
On April 27th, Trump signed legislation ending the 20-year moratorium protecting the Boundary Waters watershed. Chilean mining giant Antofagasta — through its subsidiary Twin Metals — can now apply for permits directly upstream of one of America’s most visited wilderness areas. Senator Heinrich said on the Senate floor: this type of copper mining has never been done without polluting the water. Not once. Earthjustice is preparing litigation.
Highland Copper is pursuing $250 million in federal Export-Import Bank financing for the Copperwood Mine — adjacent to Porcupine Mountains State Park, the largest old-growth forest in the Midwest. Their proposed 323-acre tailings pond sits less than 2 miles from Lake Superior. A GLIFWC model predicts toxic waste could reach the lake in 21 minutes in a rupture. Michigan’s legislature has blocked state funding three times. The federal fight is now.
BLM quietly reversed the Biden-era ban on M-44 “cyanide bombs” via an internal April memo — revealed publicly this week. Wildlife Services can now deploy spring-loaded sodium cyanide traps on 245 million acres of BLM land through 2031. These devices kill wolves, family dogs, and endangered species as easily as the coyotes they target. In 2023–24 alone, M-44s killed over 10,000 animals.
All nine regional Forest Service offices are closing. Research stations in Ely and Grand Rapids, Minnesota — critical to wolf monitoring in the Minnesota-Wisconsin border region — are shutting down. Wisconsin Forest Service staff dropped from 645 to 539 in one year. The 2027 budget proposes eliminating all Forest Service research and development funding entirely. Senator Baldwin confronted the Forest Service chief directly about the impact on GLIFWC and tribal programs.
BLM moved to cancel grazing permits for American Prairie’s 900+ bison herd in Montana — replacing them with cattle-only permits — dismantling two decades of prairie ecosystem restoration. The Coalition of Large Tribes, Cheyenne River Sioux, and Defenders of Wildlife have all formally protested. Earthjustice is preparing a lawsuit.
A federal judge ruled May 6th allowing Alaska to shoot bears from helicopters over caribou calving grounds. 191 bears killed in three seasons. The Trump administration is simultaneously moving to restore bear baiting in Alaska national preserves — reversing protections against shooting hibernating bears and killing wolf pups in their dens.
The proposed 2027 budget cuts state and tribal wildlife grants from $73.8 million to zero, slashes migratory bird management by $11 million, and would close the Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center where 80+ scientists combat invasive carp threatening Great Lakes fisheries.
The House passed the Pet and Livestock Protection Act — written by Tom Tiffany and Lauren Boebert — stripping ESA protections from wolves in 44 states and barring judicial review. Ron Johnson has the companion Senate bill. This is the same mechanism that enabled Wisconsin’s 2021 catastrophe: 218 wolves killed in 60 hours, 82% over quota. We are in daily contact with allied legal teams.
“The only legislative mandate in Wisconsin wildlife law that the agency has never once found a reason to delay, modify, or fail to execute is the mandate to kill wolves. That is not neutral administration of the law. That is a choice.”
→ Continued in Part 2 — What We Are Doing About It
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is not watching from the sidelines. Here is what we have done — and what is actively underway:
All of this — every comment, every petition, every legal letter, every Wednesday — is funded entirely by people like you. We take no corporate money. No grants with conditions. No compromises.
Because we know this list feels overwhelming. It is supposed to. When everything is on fire at once, it is easy to feel like there is nothing one person can do.
That is exactly why we exist. You do not have to track all of this. We do. You do not have to write the legal letters or show up at the NRB or file the petition pipeline. We do.
What we need from you is two things:
First — join us this Friday, May 15th. The Endangered Species Day Short Film Festival is free, online, and one of the most powerful things you can do this week: show up, be moved, and be in community with other people who give a damn about wildlife.
Second — if you are able, make a gift today. Every dollar funds the legal infrastructure, the science documentation, the community education, and the presence at the hearings that makes all of this possible. We are a small, all-volunteer organization. Every gift is used directly. And every wolf still alive in Wisconsin is evidence that this work matters.
Never give up.
The wolves need you.
Today.
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance is 100% donor-funded. No corporate money. No compromises. Your gift goes directly to legal action, petitions, and community education — the work that keeps wolves alive in Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes.
GIVE BACK TO THE PACKGreat Lakes Wildlife Alliance / Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your gift is tax-deductible. • speakforwildlife.org/donate
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