Wildlife

Every year the federal government's Wildlife Services program kills thousands of wild animals, such as bears, wolves and mountain lions, to protect livestock. The practice, known as predator control, is brutal, ineffective and costly. The NRDC film, Wild Things, shows the painful consequences of this widespread slaughtering of animals and introduces a new generation of progressive ranchers learning to coexist with these predators. Read more »

Wildlife Services spends over $100 million annually to kill more than one million animals. Some of its work, such as preventing bird strikes at airports and controlling the spread of rabies, benefits the public interest, but its current predator control program damages the environment and wastes taxpayer dollars. Read more »

Tens of millions of wild plains bison once roamed the grasslands of North America, but the slaughter of the late 1800s so devastated the famous herds that at one time only a few dozen animals remained in the wild, tucked away in a remote valley in Yellowstone National Park. The Natural Resources Defense Council believes it is time to recover bison as a wildlife species and give wild bison more habitat -- room to roam in the American West. Read more »

Climate change will have a significant impact on the sustainability of water supplies in the coming decades. A new analysis, performed by consulting firm Tetra Tech for NRDC, examined the effects of global warming on water supply and demand in the contiguous United States. The study found that more than 1,100 counties -- one-third of all counties in the lower 48 -- will face higher risks of water shortages by mid-century as the result of global warming. More than 400 of these counties will face extremely high risks of water shortages. Read more »

NRDC has been battling to protect the gray wolf in the Rocky Mountains. Hear from our experts on Switchboard, the NRDC blog. Read more »

Millions of migrating songbirds that nest in Canada's boreal forest are threatened by dirty fuel development. Read more »

The grizzly may not seem like an animal that's easily threatened, but its population has plunged to about 1,500 in the western U.S. Read more »