Latest news with #FWS
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Poachers hunting rare ‘ghost' flowers, near extinction
(WJW) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fears if action isn't taken, the rare ghost orchid could soon be extinct. The FWS is now proposing to list the swamp-dwelling plant as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Woman dies from brain-eating amoeba in tap water According to experts, the ghost orchid is a flowering plant that is only in Florida and western Cuba. It is described as a leafless plant that attaches itself by its roots high up on trees, making its white blossoms appear to hover in the air and look ghost-like. 'It is one of the most famous flowers in Florida, but its population has declined to fewer than 1,000 plants in the United States. Less than half of those are mature enough to reproduce,' warned the FWS in a press release. Ground beef sold nationwide possibly contaminated with E. Coli Experts report the plant is at risk of extinction due to multiple threats, including habitat loss and habitat degradation. However, poaching is its biggest threat. The Service said it is not proposing critical habitat for the plant out of fear that it would only increase the threat of poaching. CLICK HERE to learn more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Record
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Record
South Lanarkshire Council secures £90k funding to plant new trees
The council's Removing Barriers to Tree Planting programme has been awarded the cash. Green-conscious South Lanarkshire Council will be planting new trees right across the community after securing some funding support. The council's Removing Barriers to Tree Planting programme has been awarded £90,000 to allow it to plant trees in key areas across South Lanarkshire. The grant which will run over a three-year period is part of the Future Woodlands Scotland (FWS) £450,000 fund which was awarded to seven community projects across Scotland's cities and towns The funding will allow the planting of trees at strategic locations working closely with Clyde Climate Forest to allow collaboration with partners including the Tree Council and Trees for Cities. David Booth, the council's Executive Director of Community and Enterprise Resources, has welcomed the vital support to help boost the authority's environmental credentials. He said: 'We are delighted that our funding bid to Future Woodlands Scotland for £90,000 over a three-year period has been successful. 'These funds will now allow us to buy trees and materials which we will then be able to plant in some of our local climate vulnerable communities. 'Planting trees, as well as enhancing the look and feel of our local communities, provide long term benefits as they grow and enrich the local biodiversity in our communities. 'This funding will allow us to tackle some of the key challenges we all face, from the climate and biodiversity crisis to declining health and well-being.' FWS, which is dedicated to creating and conserving woodlands across Scotland, selected the first seven projects to receive large grants of up to £100,000 from its Urban Forestry Programme Challenge Fund. *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Game and Fish seeks input on 2025 wildlife conservation plan
May 30—BISMARCK — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department is taking public comment on the revision of its 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP), a process it is required to undertake every 10 years as part of an effort to conserve wildlife and habitats across the state. According to Patrick Isakson, conservation supervisor for Game and Fish in Bismarck, the department developed its first SWAP document in 2005 to shed light on at-risk and potential at-risk species in North Dakota. While SWAP includes a "handful" of game species, including sharp-tailed grouse, canvasback, lesser scaup and northern pintail, "the vast majority are those nongame species that we don't hunt or fish in the state," Isakson said. That includes grassland birds, shorebirds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, insects, freshwater mussels, mammals, reptiles and amphibians that may be under threat. The ultimate goal of the plan is to prevent species from being listed for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. "The State Wildlife Action Plan is really a guiding document for our agency and our partners to identify the threats and conservation actions for at-risk species and their habitats," Isakson said. Bruce Kreft, chief of the Game and Fish Department's Conservation and Communications Division, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) provides states with money to address rare and declining species, but state agencies in turn must develop a plan to address the species listed in the document. Kreft talked about the required SWAP update on Tuesday, April 22, during the Game and Fish Department's spring Advisory Board meeting. Game and Fish is mandated to hold the meetings twice a year in each of the state's eight advisory board districts, and the meeting for District 7 was livestreamed from Game and Fish headquarters in Bismarck. The FWS recently announced it is distributing more than $55 million to state fish and wildlife agencies through its State Wildlife Grant Program. North Dakota is receiving $552,727 for 2025, according to the FWS. "The State Wildlife Grant Program supports conservation actions aimed at avoiding new federal listings of threatened and endangered species, recovering those species already listed and ensuring healthy populations of each state's top-priority fish and wildlife species for future generations," Paul Souza, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. "We are pleased to be working with these partners to protect America's natural resources and wild places." That's where the State Wildlife Action Plan comes into play, Isakson of Game and Fish said. "One of the benefits of the state putting together a State Wildlife Action Plan is then, it's eligible for State Wildlife Grant money" from the FWS, Isakson said. "So, in order for us to spend that money on our species of greatest conservation need, we need to have the State Wildlife Action Plan in place to identify what we're going to do with it." That allocation has ranged from about $450,000 to $550,000 annually over the last decade or so, he said. "It's been a real stable funding source for our nongame species and one that really has done a lot of work in our state and furthered our information and knowledge," Isakson said. "We leverage (funding) with partner dollars, university dollars, NGO (nongovernmental organization) dollars and do research and habitat conservation with it." Examples, he says, include a freshwater mussel study being conducted with Valley City State University, reptile and amphibian surveys underway with a researcher at North Dakota State University and looking at grassland bird habitat and how it relates to some of the at-risk species in the SWAP document. "We've been fortunate over the last decade or so to add some expertise in both terrestrial insects and aquatic insects, so we really lean heavily into this plan on what effects those threats out there have on our invertebrate community," Isakson said. "So, there are a lot of new insects both aquatic and terrestrial, that are in our (updated) plan. "That's where a lot of the species that we see being potentially listed and petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act are going — to those invertebrates." As part of its first two State Wildlife Action Plans in 2005 and 2015, Game and Fish ranked "Species of Conservation Priority," Isakson says. Under the SWAP draft now up for public review, species are identified as "Species of Greatest Conservation Need" and "Species of Greatest Information Need," Isakson says. "We don't rank them out anymore," he said. "We just have species that we have an idea of what the threats and actions are that we need to conserve them. And then those Species of Greatest Information Need are those that we really need to do some more investigating on. We have an idea that maybe there's some threats out there or their populations may be declining, but we need to lean into some of the research to identify those." The 2025 SWAP draft includes 134 species of Greatest Conservation Need and 98 Species of Greatest Information Need in North Dakota, Isakson said. The first SWAP in 2005 identified about 100 species of concern, a number that increased to 115 species in the 2015 SWAP update, Kreft said during the April Advisory Board livestream. "So, we're seeing that increase in the number of species that are rare and declining either regionally — throughout different states — or within the states," Kreft said. The 152-page SWAP draft has eight elements, he said, including abundance, distribution, some of the threats and potential actions. While the list of at-risk species has grown, species occasionally come off the list, as well, Isakson said. The river otter and the American marten, both of which were listed in the 2015 plan, are two examples, he said; the bald eagle also was removed from the list. "Ultimately, we found out enough information to feel like they're not really at risk in our state," Isakson said. In revising the 2025 SWAP as required, Game and Fish last September hosted a "SWAP Summit," which included about 60 members from the public and various conservation partners. North Dakota's SWAP is a collaborative effort between Game and Fish staff, species experts, partner conservation groups, and state, federal and local agencies. "That's the second time we brought all of our partners and stakeholders together," Isakson said. "We gave them an update on some of our thoughts from our internal work and then broke them out into groups based on the habitats they were interested in — or that they had experience in — and really dove into what those threats are." Habitat loss is a concern, Isakson says; what benefits game species also benefits nongame species. "That is the beauty of our plan, being habitat-based and habitat conservation-based, is if you keep it 'green side up,' if you keep the grass out there and keep the trees out there, it benefits all species in the state," Isakson said. "Both hunted (species) and those nongame species that we talk about more readily in this plan. "Our plan focuses a lot on conserving native habitat — the native grass that's out there — and in some cases trying to rebuild some of that habitat." Getting people to recognize the importance of all wildlife — and not just species targeted by hunters and anglers — can be a challenge, Isakson concedes. "We always have work to do when it comes to talking about the importance of all wildlife in the state," he said. "The department is in charge of managing all wildlife in the state. A lot of people think about those game species and those species that they catch out there, but we've done work over the years to try and educate the public on the importance of all species and their habitats — and that is part of our plan here." Game and Fish will take comments on the 2025 SWAP draft through June 30. After that, the department will develop a final draft for the Fish and Wildlife Service to approve. "Once it's signed off on, we're good to go for another 10 years," Isakson said. * To comment: A draft of the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan update is available on the Game and Fish website at Public comments are accepted through June 30.
The Herald Scotland
28-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Scottish Government ordered to pay For Women Scotland costs
For Women Scotland (FWS) has previously said it expects to recoup about £250,000 of £417,000 it spent on the case in costs. READ MORE Scottish Government spent £374k on gender court battle Parliament defends 'inclusive' trans toilet ban after MSPs and staff complain 'Not divisive': Tory candidate in Hamilton by-election defends Orange Order ties In a unanimous decision last month, the Supreme Court ruled that a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) does not change a person's sex for the purposes of the Equality Act. The justices concluded that the terms 'man' and 'woman' in the legislation refer to biological sex, not acquired gender. The decision marked the culmination of a legal dispute that began in 2017, when the Scottish Government introduced the Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill, aimed at boosting female representation. The law was amended to include trans women — including those without a GRC — as 'women'. FWS challenged this, arguing that the definition conflicted with the Equality Act 2010, which provides sex-based protections for biological women. After an initial defeat, the group won on appeal in 2022, with judges ruling that biological sex could not be redefined. The Scottish Government then revised its guidance to state that GRC holders change their legal sex. Read the exclusive follow up to this story from Andrew Learmonth: FWS launched a second legal challenge, maintaining that 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex. Although the Outer House and the Inner House ruled in favour of Scottish Ministers, the Supreme Court ultimately overturned those judgments. The court order explicitly states that 'a person whose acquired gender is the female gender by virtue of a Gender Recognition Certificate issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 does not come within the definition of 'woman' for the purposes of sections 11 and 212(1) of the Equality Act 2010'. It adds the same clarification regarding trans men, before specifying that 'woman' in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 'refers only to biological women'. The order further states that the Scottish Government is 'liable for the appellant's costs in the Supreme Court, to include the costs of one leading and one junior counsel, assessed on the standard basis if not agreed'. It is also responsible for the expenses of FWS. A previous freedom of information request by the Conservative Party revealed that the Scottish Government had already spent almost £160,000 on legal costs associated with the judicial review brought by FWS. Writing on X, former SNP MP Joanna Cherry KC said the order 'underlines clarity of the Supreme Court's judgment and provides a timely reminder for the foolhardy that generally expenses follow success'.
Scottish Sun
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Scottish Government ordered to pay costs after landmark gender ruling over definition of ‘woman'
It comes after a three-year battle from feminist campaigners FOOT THE BILL Scottish Government ordered to pay costs after landmark gender ruling over definition of 'woman' THE Scottish Government has been ordered to cough up costs to feminist campaigners after losing a high-profile legal fight over the definition of a woman. Taxpayers are set to foot the bill, with For Women Scotland (FWS) expecting to recover around £250,000 of the £417,000 spent on the gruelling three-year court battle. Advertisement 4 Marion Calder, right, and Susan Smith, left, from For Women Scotland, celebrate outside after the U.K. Supreme Court Credit: AP 4 A court order has ruled the Scottish Government must pay FWS's costs and expenses Credit: Rex 4 The decision has sparked outrage amongst transgender communities Credit: Lesley Martin 2025 A court order issued on Tuesday confirmed the payout, which covers expenses from both the Court of Session and the UK Supreme Court. Last month, FWS emerged victorious when five Supreme Court judges unanimously ruled that the Equality Act defines a 'woman' as based on biological sex – a major blow to the Scottish Government's stance. The ruling also confirmed that a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) does not alter a person's sex under the Equality Act. The legal saga began in 2017 when the Scottish Government introduced the Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill, designed to boost female representation. Advertisement The legislation controversially included trans women – even those without a GRC – under the definition of 'women.' Outraged by the move, FWS argued the definition clashed with the Equality Act 2010, which provides sex-based protections for biological women. Despite an initial defeat, they won on appeal in 2022, with judges declaring that biological sex could not be redefined. The Scottish Government revised its guidance, while claiming GRC holders change their legal sex. Advertisement FWS made another legal challenge, insisting that 'sex' in the Equality Act refers strictly to biological sex – a position now upheld by the Supreme Court. Today's order states that the Scottish Government is 'liable for the appellant's costs in the Supreme Court, to include the costs of one leading and one junior counsel, assessed on the standard basis if not agreed'. It is also responsible for the expenses of FWS. The Scottish Conservative Party previously revealed with a Freedom of Information request that the Scottish Government had already spent almost £160,000 on legal costs associated FWS's judicial review. Advertisement And former SNP MP Joanna Cherry wrote on X, said the order: 'underlines the clarity of the Supreme Court's judgment and provides a timely reminder for the foolhardy that generally expenses follow success'.
