Alex Erwin

Sharing my draft article, Protecting Wild Animal Abundance, forthcoming in Utah Law Review, @sjquinney.bsky.social. It highlights loss of relatively common wild #animals as distinct from the #biodiversity crisis, and discusses why US #environmental #law failed to stop such losses.

For junior environmental law folks, we’re hosting our 2nd Annual Early Environmental Law Scholars (EELS) Conference at @uflaw.bsky.social this Nov 6-8. We’ve got it all: paper talks, teaching workshops, a field trip into nature, and more!

Register here:
www.law.ufl.edu/events-feed/...

Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species A legal scholar with a Ph.D. in wildlife genetics explains the promise biotechnology techniques hold for some animals that are currently endangered.

The use of biotechnology for conservation, whether for de-extinction or genetic augmentation of existing species, promises solutions to otherwise intractable problems in protecting endangered animals. A law professor explains: buff.ly/MfRdVg3
By @alexerwin.bsky.social @fiu.bsky.social

Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species A legal scholar with a Ph.D. in wildlife genetics explains the promise biotechnology techniques hold for some animals that are currently endangered.

The use of biotechnology for conservation, whether for de-extinction or genetic augmentation of existing species, promises solutions to otherwise intractable problems in protecting endangered animals. A law professor explains: buff.ly/MfRdVg3
By @alexerwin.bsky.social @fiu.bsky.social

I wrote this, so you should totally read it!

Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species A legal scholar with a Ph.D. in wildlife genetics explains the promise biotechnology techniques hold for some animals that are currently endangered.

Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species buff.ly/MfRdVg3

Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species A legal scholar with a Ph.D. in wildlife genetics explains the promise biotechnology techniques hold for some animals that are currently endangered.

More of my thoughts on dire wolves, red wolves, and biotech for conservation. Thanks to @us.theconversation.com for editing and publishing.

theconversation.com/beyond-de-ex...

Congrats to the FIU Law @fiu.bsky.social
Class of 2025 graduates! This was the first group I taught as 1L’s, so I feel like I’m graduating with y’all this year!

Rebecca Bratspies named Inaugural Oliver Houck Chair in Environmental Law Tulane University Law School News

Some big (personal) Earth Day news. I am deeply honored to be named as the first holder of the Oliver Houck Chair in Environmental Law at Tulane. Excited to join the fabulous faculty there law.tulane.edu/news/rebecca...

Taught my final class at FIU this morning. My natural resources law students made it extra-special with a UF-themed goodbye care package. It’s been a wonderful 3 years, and the students are what I will miss the most.

The administration today announced it's rescinding the regulatory definition of "harm" under the #ESA, which includes destroying endangered species' habitat.
public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-06746.pdf

And that’s all a shame. Because gene editing is a technology with significant potential for conservation. Not as a silver bullet or as an excuse to conserve less or destroy more, but as one tool in the conservation arsenal. 5/5

The Administration can use de-extinction or gene editing as a fig leaf for their cuts to the ESA, but that line of argument is not based on the reality of the science or the purpose of the ESA. And they are going to make those cuts regardless. 4/5

The ESA is supposed to conserve endangered species AND their habitat. Clearly allowing a species to go extinct because it can one day be brought back fails that dual purpose.

The same moral hazard argument can be made about cloning and even captive breeding programs. 3/5

The “dire wolf” isn’t back. They’ve created something that maybe looks and acts like a dire wolf. And that distinction matters if we believe we have a moral or ethical duty not to cause extinction or if we care about all the genetic diversity and evolutionary history lost. 2/5

Trump team cites wolf ‘de-extinction’ as it seeks to cut endangered species list The interior secretary hailed a biotech company’s claim to have brought back the dire wolf, while the administration and GOP push to roll back species protections.

The moral hazard issue is so dumb. True de-extinction will likely always be impossible. Functional de-extinction can maybe help restore ecosystems. But it is not real de-extinction and does not absolve humanity for its role in extinction. 1/5

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

@alexerwin.bsky.social You might enjoy this:

I do in fact enjoy this!

Huge congrats to @uflaw.bsky.social on getting a wonderful scholar and great human being to join them!

Totally agree with the last point. The Interior Sec released this long statement about the agency’s support for the dire wolf “de-extinction”. It’s tonal whiplash from the way FWS plans on delisting gray wolves and turning them over to the states that want to eradicate them

After that comeback, now feels like a great time to officially announce that I’m joining the faculty at @uflaw.bsky.social in the Fall! 🐊🐊🐊

I’ll miss my students and colleagues at FIU, but I’m ready for the next chapter (which hopefully involves more national championships)!

And as cool as the science is, there is also something unsettling about bringing back dire wolves in a world where we still haven’t figured out how to coexist with the wolf species we currently have …

I’ve written on this recently too: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I don’t think free-roaming dire wolves solve our conservation problems (and it’s fair to question whether these pups even are “dire wolves”), but if we can recover red wolves in the process, that is a big win! I’ve written about this:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Return of the Dire Wolf Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered the first dire wolf to live in over 10,000 years. Here's what that means for other extinct species.

The science behind the dire wolf “de-extinction” is soooo cool, but imo not directly useful for conservation.

The real conservation benefits of this work are buried in the article.
Colossal has also been cloning red wolves to reintroduce lost genetic diversity.

time.com/7274542/colo...

She Inspired Laws to Hold the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable. Now She’s a Target. (Gift Article) A conservative group is suing for emails of a law professor who helped create legislation to force oil, gas and coal companies to pay for climate damage.

The targeting of @profrrothschild.bsky.social is yet another example of shameful efforts to mobilize the law against those who are fighting for this planet's future and in the process degrade academic freedom.

YouTube video by University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law 19th Annual Stegner Center Young Scholar Lecture with Alex Erwin: Litigating Predator Management

And if you hate reading, feel free to watch the 19th Annual Stegner Center Young Scholar lecture I gave instead!

youtu.be/az-p9hZ2Yr8?...

I’m assuming this is also a place for shameless self-promotion so …

“Litigating Predator Management” is now out online and in print! Cite it liberally!

dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2025/...

¡Dale FIU!

In honor of #305Day, I am thrilled to announce I am moving back home!! Beginning this summer, I will be an Assistant Professor of Law at FIU Law in Miami, Florida. I am ready for this new transition and the many, many cafecitos y pastelitos.