Lyle Lewis

@race2extinct.bsky.social

4557 Followers 1717 Following

Former U.S. Fish & Wildlife endangered species branch chief with more than three decades of experience in wildlife conservation and ecological policy. https://substack.com/@lylelewis1?r=3fnb3k&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile

Wild horses on western rangelands.
Young badger in the Trout Creek Mountains of Oregon.
Wetland landscapes similar to those once occupied by giant beavers across North America.
Agricultural field near Burns, Oregon during high wind conditions.
Cattle grazing near the lakeshore of Pyramid Lake, Nevada.
Cladonia perforata, Martin County, Florida 7 This lichen is the Florida Perforate Cladonia. It is one of two Federally Endangered lichens in the U.S. Photo credit: Alan Cressler
Credit: NOAA Fisheries
Photo credit: Renee Bodine / USFWS
Photo: Larry Richardson / USFWS Location: Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge
Photo credit: Brad Weaver
Northern spotted owl
Photo: Greg Kramos / USFWS
Sand dunes lizard in shinnery oak dunes habitat. Photo: Ryan Hagerty / USFWS
A Mediterranean cypress in Iran that is over 4000 years old.
Recently logged area along the Oregon coast.
These are deciduous conifers — likely larch or dawn redwood — planted at massive scale in China.
Close-up of a fossilized ground sloth claw; thick, deeply curved, and massive; illustrating the scale and strength of an extinct Ice Age herbivore that once reshaped entire ecosystems.
Bee pollinating a flower.
A golden-crowned kinglet darts rapidly through evergreen branches in a high-elevation forest, rarely pausing as it forages among the needles.
Two species of fungi peeking through pine needles.
Prothonotary warbler
Midwestern farmland: this landscape once held tallgrass prairie, now almost entirely replaced by agriculture.
Screenshot from the PBS documentary, The Big Burn.
Aspiring forest ecologist on X.
Theodore Roosevelt
Mountain lake mirroring the clouds.
Mushrooms—quiet, overlooked, essential. The ESA protects the obvious. Most species disappear quietly.
Dusk in the wilderness is a reminder why protection matters and where equating and defining success numerically is a form of self-deception.