SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The battle against copper mining the Santa Rita Mountains outside of Tucson continues - even though the feds just handed a victory to environmental groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just rejected a bid by a Canadian mining company, Hudbay Minerals, to remove critical-habitat designation for jaguars from 50,000 acres - the proposed site of the company's open-pit Rosemont mine.

Gayle Hartmann, president of the nonprofit Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, said Hudbay now plans to explore the other side of the mountain - the west side.

"The biggest problem on the west side is that it's largely not public land, it's private land," said Hartmann. "It's their mining claims, and they have bought more private land. So, they're trying to avoid federal law by sticking to their private lands."

In 2019, Hudbay lost a court case that halted preparations for the Rosemont mine, but that is now under appeal. The company, which did not respond to a request for comment by deadline, has invested tens of millions of dollars in its mining claims in the Santa Rita Mountains.

Hartmann said she wants to see the area returned to the Coronado National Forest in pristine condition.

"What we're looking forward to ultimately is that there would be sufficient funds," said Hartmann, "through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, perhaps - to buy out their private land and turn this back into a national forest without mining claims on it."

Only a handful of jaguars still remain in the mountains of southern Arizona. Sportsmen and ranchers have hunted them almost to extinction.

The area is considered an important wildlife corridor to lure the Mexican jaguar population back into their historic range.

Robert Peters, southwest representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said he sees jaguars as an iconic part of the American West.

"They're a charismatic, vital part of our natural heritage that was lost," said Peters. "And it's essential that we reintroduce top predators, like the Mexican wolf and the jaguar, because they're key components to keeping ecosystems functioning well."

Peters coauthored two recent scientific papers on jaguars - one on the feasibility of reintroducing them in Arizona, and one that identifies 20 million acres of possible jaguar habitat in Arizona, much of it north of Interstate 10.

ALBUQUERUE, N.M. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has six months to develop new language in its Mexican gray wolf recovery plan, after a judge ruled the problem of illegal killing of wolves was not adequately addressed.

The judge's ruling was in response to a lawsuit by conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders' Southwest Program Manager Bryan Bird said one of the highest sources of wolf mortality is poaching by humans, and protections are needed for that.

"Whether that's increased law enforcement, or increased education of the public," said Bird. "They have to put those in their recovery plan, explicitly."

The group's 2018 lawsuit claimed that the federal agency's plan failed to meet basic requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Mexican gray wolves or "lobos" became one of the most endangered mammals due to federally sanctioned hunting, trapping and poisoning.

According to Bird, the centuries-long coexistence conflict between wolves and humans - especially over territory and livestock - has nearly led to their extinction.

"You're never supposed to shoot a wolf unless you're under extreme threat for personal safety or property," said Bird. "And when you lose a wolf to poaching, it's very likely it could be highly valuable from a genetic perspective."

Bird said genetic diversity has decreased dramatically among the Mexican gray population and a proper recovery plan could help save the wolves from extinction.

He added that 105 gray wolves are known to have been killed unlawfully between 1998 and 2019 following their reintroduction to New Mexico and Arizona.

PHOENIX -- A cooperative effort to restore habitats along the Lower Colorado River Basin is seeing the re-emergence of several threatened and endangered species.

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is part of a program, begun in 2005, that has reclaimed or restored more than 1,100 square miles of wetlands and woodlands along the river.

The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (MSCP) is designed to protect 27 species, including eight listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Chuck Cullom, Colorado River programs manager for the Central Arizona Project, said the 50-year project is a joint effort between Arizona, California and Nevada.

"We do that so that the species have a chance to recover from the impacts of building dams and operating diversions in the Lower Colorado River," Cullom explained. "We're paying the environment back for the service the river provides."

Cullom pointed out the program has created more than 6,500 acres of conservation habitat, planted thousands of cottonwood willows and honey mesquite trees, and has restocked the river with more than one million native fish.

He added restoring the habitat is part of the CAP's agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and he noted the program works much better when the states work together.

"Rather than the service coming in and saying, 'You need to do this and that,' we've spent about seven years negotiating with all the water users in the Lower Basin to figure out how to do this cooperatively," Cullom recounted.

Cullom emphasized the program has already seen the resurgence and return of several of the species it is designed to protect, including the "rediscovery" of the Northern Mexican garter snake, which has not been seen in the river basin for decades.

"We're learning a lot about these rare species because of the program and because we're learning about them, we can enhance their chance of long-term survival," Cullom asserted.

The program operates through funding provided by the U.S. government and from water and hydropower users in California, Arizona and Nevada. There are more than 30 participants in Arizona, including the CAP, which is the largest single contributor in Arizona.

BOISE, Idaho - Millions of pronghorn used to roam the West freely. But impediments like road and fences, as well as a changing climate, threaten the species' future.

A new web map explores the pronghorn's journey as it migrates the grasslands of the West.

Andrew Jakes - regional wildlife biologist in Northern Rockies, Prairies and Pacific offices for the National Wildlife Federation - said pronghorn need a connected habitat to thrive. And he noted that pronghorn aren't the only ones that flourish from habitat connectivity.

"Having a healthy and resilient ecosystem equates to having healthy and resilient rural communities," said Jakes. "It equates to having healthy water. It just equates to having really robust wildlife populations within these different ecosystems."

The website, known as a "StoryMap," is called On the Move and follows pronghorn migration from spring to winter. It was put together by the National Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy.

Jakes said as many as 30 million pronghorn used to roam the West. After falling nearly to extinction in the early 20th century, numbers are now close to one million because of conservation efforts.

Kelsey Molloy is a rangeland ecologist for The Nature Conservancy. She said a suite of animals benefit from conservation of the grasslands.

"It's not just the pronghorn that benefit when we modify a fence," said Molloy. Mule deer are benefiting from that too. And when we make sure that a ranch stays intact, that means that grassland birds are benefiting too. So it's all connected."

Jakes said it's worth thinking about the landscape as a whole. He said pronghorn and other wildlife on the move don't think about whether they're on public or private lands or in the United States or Canada.

"So it's worth working with all these different entities to sustain this really important ecosystem," said Jakes.

Jakes noted that grasslands are the most imperiled ecosystem in the world.