The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) may be considering a shocking giveaway: transferring 775 acres of the Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. If this plan moves forward, it would carve up federally protected refuge lands that were set aside for wildlife, habitat connectivity, and the long-term public good—not private industrial expansion.

#Wildlife #WildlifeRefuge #USFWS #Petition
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/trumps-usfws-could-give-refuge-land-to-elon-musks-spacex

Unfortunate that the administration would block a well-thought out, small expansion for fish and wildlife. But not surprising. #USFWS

"[W]hat the withdrawal does is it stops private property owner from doing wants to do with his own land – to sell it to the Fish & Wildlife Service or to offer a conservation easement. So they turned the tables on the supporters of a small federal footprint and said, 'here you're denying private property owners their alternatives.'"

https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2025-08-07/feds-discard-expansion-plan-for-panhandle-wildlife-refuge-in-rare-move?mc_cid=86530d2e5b&mc_eid=f1010f8799

An #Interview With A Fired #USFWS #FishBiologist

https://defector.com/an-interview-with-a-fired-usfws-fish-biologist

Sweeping layoffs of federal employees have struck the program responsible for controlling the invasive sea lamprey that threatens fish across the Great Lakes, the earth’s largest freshwater ecosystem. Among hundreds of US Fish and Wildlife Service employees terminated this month were 12 members of the Great Lakes sea lamprey control program. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/federal-firings-could-wreak-havoc-on-great-lakes-fishery/

#Trump #Musk #USFWS #politics #USpolitics