Strip-mining Pollution - How You Can Help Stop It

Both Glacier and its Canadian cousin, Waterton Lakes National Park, provide critical habitat for the Peace Park's largest and most sensitive species that make the area one of only two fully intact ecosystems left in the Lower 48. But one area around the Peace Park particularly rich in wildlife is unprotected on the Canadian side.

Specifically, the proposed strip-mine would dump over 325 million tons of waste rock into a tributary of the Flathead River.

The Flathead River Valley forms the western boundary of Glacier National Park and its rich wide open lands and pristine waters provide habitat for grizzlies, wolves, lynx, wolverines, threatened bull trout and genetically-pure westslope cutthroat trout. But the strip-mine proposal threatens to turn this biological heart of the Peace Park into an industrial playground.

Any leakage of waste could send toxic sludge into Glacier National Park within 24 hours.

Canadian and U.S. officials need to hear from you before the World Heritage Committee meeting in Spain later this month. Please tell them this threat to Glacier National Park and the Flathead Valley is unacceptable and that the Flathead River Valley needs to be permanently protected.

CONTACT:
Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

Industry Polluters Wage War to Derail Environment Protection

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a finding that global warming pollution threatens our health and welfare. Once finalized, the endangerment finding will give the EPA both the authority and the obligation to fight global warming. Industry Polluters Wage War to Derail Environment Protection, but you can speak out to support the EPA.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued an "endangerment finding" that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a significant threat to public health and welfare. The EPA is accepting public comments on this finding until June 23—this is the first time the public has been asked whether we want to limit greenhouse gas pollution.

"By shifting to clean energy, and cracking down on the corporations that pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe, we will create economic prosperity, reduce our dependence on oil and coal, while tackling global warming at the same time" - Audubon.org

The EPA is accepting public comments on this finding until June 23—this is the first time the public has been asked whether we want to limit greenhouse gas pollution.

Send Comment through Audubon

The EPA has set up a website where you can get more information, including the proposed finding:
http://epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html.

Obama Must Pledge at July G8 to Keep Global Warming below Two Degrees

12-Jun-2009

Bonn, Germany (June 12)—"Slow progress at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn is proof positive that the world needs to hear U.S. President Barack Obama say he is pursuing a climate pact with a very good chance of keeping global warming below two degrees celsius, " said Annie Petsonk, Environmental Defense Fund International Counsel, on Friday.

"When President Obama goes to the July G8 meeting in Italy, he'll be on stage with world leaders asking him, 'Are you willing to commit and say we have to limit warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels?' "

"He has to be able to stand up and say yes. Because if he wavers, these talks will crumble into 180 government pledges that don't add up to stopping dangerous climate change," Petsonk said in Bonn, as the latest round of U.N. climate talks came to a close.

"The painstakingly slow progress we've seen in Bonn tells us that countries are waiting for Obama to come forward and say what science-based goal he is aiming for," Petsonk said.

"Right now we're just treading water," she said. "Because without that basic measure – without knowing how much warming the world's richest nation is willing to accept – nobody has any way of knowing how much negotiation and compromise is needed."

Petsonk said many nations were signaling, on the sidelines of the Bonn session, a willingness to move forward if the U.S. President shows he is committed to leadership. She pointed to Wednesday's announcement by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying Brazil is open to adopting a greenhouse gas emissions target if rich countries do more to curb climate change.

FROM NRDC

March 6, 2009

Tell the EPA to protect honey bees from a toxic pesticide

Bee pollination is responsible for about one-third of the food we eat, helping to produce about $15 billion worth of crops in the United States every year. But honey bee populations are in serious decline, with devastating losses caused by factors such as colony collapse disorder, parasites and pesticide exposure.

Even though the EPA classifies the pesticide imidacloprid as highly toxic to honey bees, it nevertheless approved its use in 1994. France banned several uses of imidacloprid in 1999 over concerns about its effects on bees, but here in the United States imidacloprid is still used heavily on many crops pollinated by honey bees, including broccoli, blueberries, carrots, grapefruit, cucumbers and avocados.

Although the EPA is currently reviewing its approval of imidacloprid as required by the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, the agency's work plan lacks many important details on how it will assess risks to bees. In addition, the EPA has put the review on an unreasonably slow timetable, with a final decision not expected until 2014. In the meantime, high-risk uses of imidacloprid will continue, threatening honey bees as well as other important pollinators.

The EPA is accepting public comments on this phase of the project through March 17th.

What to do

Send a message, before the March 17th comment deadline, telling the EPA to protect honey bees and other pollinators from high-risk uses of imidacloprid by strengthening its plans for risk, toxicity and exposure assessments.

Learn more

Take Action

The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth.

Forest Service Denies Appeal to Uphold Roadless Protection and Protect Wildlife Habitat and Climate in White Mountain National Forest

Newsflash

February 20, 2009 – Forest Service Denies Appeal to Uphold Roadless Protection and Protect Wildlife Habitat and Climate in White Mountain National Forest

NEW ENGLAND NATIONAL FOREST ROADLESS AREAS

In a region where large tracts of wild, unroaded land are rare, the importance of New England’s national forest roadless areas — to both wildlife and people — is immense. Many of these places are in recovery from historic forest clearing and agriculture. The renewal of the forest and the slow erasure of the scars of heavy human use offer hope for a wilder New England, one that could once again support large, wide-ranging carnivores such as lynx, wolves, and mountain lions, as well as many other species that do best in expansive, protected landscapes. New England’s national forest roadless areas also provide precious opportunities to reconnect with nature for the 70 million city dwellers that live within a day’s drive.

There are two national forests in New England: the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, and the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and western Maine.

The Green Mountain National Forest occupies 400,000 acres; about 100,000 of those are secured from logging, road building, and other heavy-handed development by their designation as federal wilderness. Roadless-area acreage outside of wilderness is roughly 80,000 acres, the majority of which was inventoried as part of the 2006 Forest Plan analysis. The leading threats to these roadless areas are potential expansion of off-road motorized recreation and increasing demand by private land inholders for road access across these areas.

The White Mountain National Forest is nearly 800,000 acres in size, containing about 148,000 acres of designated wilderness and approximately 368,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas. While the 2001 Roadless Rule — instituted by the Clinton administration to protect national forest roadless areas nationwide — has kept logging at bay on about 213,000 roadless acres, the remaining 155,000 roadless acres, which were identified later in the 2005 Forest Plan, are vulnerable to road construction and timber sales. The Forest Service asserts that it isn’t obligated to provide the same level of protection to the recently inventoried roadless areas as those identified at the time of the Roadless Rule. Based on this rationalization, the agency has released a multitude of proposals to log in roadless areas on the White Mountain National Forest — including in places directly adjacent to designated wilderness.

Unfortunately, until permanent legislative protections are put in place, none of New England’s roadless areas are secure from the human-caused intrusions that degrade habitat and destroy the tranquility of wild places. The Center is hard at work to ensure that the integrity of these roadless areas is preserved for wildlife and future generations. Our efforts include commenting on and sometimes litigating against timber sales and road-building projects; supporting local, grassroots efforts to oppose roadless area intrusions; and public education. Most recently, we joined with the Sierra Club to appeal the Forest Service’s plans for the Mill Brook and Kanc 7 projects, proposed logging projects that would together damage more than 1,000 acres of roadless areas in the heart of the White Mountain National Forest. The Forest Service denied our appeal of the Mill Brook Project — but we’re not finished fighting to enforce the 2001 Roadless Rule across all of New England’s pristine roadless areas.

Center for Biological Diversity