Fwd: Protect Western Wildlife - NRDC's Save BioGems News, January 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BioGems News <biogemsnewsletter@savebiogems.org>
Date: 2010/1/21
Subject: Protect Western Wildlife - NRDC's Save BioGems News, January 2010
To: sweetygirl2002@uol.com.br

If you have problems viewing this email, please click here to read BioGems News online   Hello, Anne! Read on to see the victories you're helping to achieve Hunters Take Aim Watch our new wolf video. BioGems Update A big thank you to BioGems Defenders who recently sent 16,000 messages urging the Obama administration to extend the polar bear's critical habitat to include all coastal denning areas. BioGems Defenders: 602,420 Action Messages Sent: 12,448,034 » See the timeline of victories we've won To Do Even More You can support NRDC's BioGems campaign to save these and other threatened wild places. » Donate Get Your BioGems Widget Have action alerts delivered to Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, and lots of other sites. Yellowstone/Greater Rockies Help Protect Rare Wildlife in the Rockies Along the border of Idaho and Montana, in the heart of the Centennial Mountains, lies a critical natural haven for grizzly bears, wolves and other imperiled wildlife. They can roam easily through this unspoiled strip of land, which connects ecosystems from Yellowstone to the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness, strengthening their genetic health and bettering their chances at long-term survival. But a Department of Agriculture sheep research project is blocking their safe passage. In the past year alone, government agents gunned down two entire wolf packs to protect the sheep station and other livestock interests. And, too often, when conflicts arise between sheep and bears, the bears are killed. » Tell the Department of Agriculture to halt its sheep-grazing program in the Centennial corridor. In the News   REPRIEVE FOR PRIZED ELK HERD Siding with NRDC BioGems Defenders and scores of other activists, the Bureau of Land Management has temporarily suspended a string of proposals for coalbed methane development in Wyoming's Fortification Creek area. Nestled in the sprawling Powder River Basin, these prairielands provide a crucial year-long range for roughly 200 elk -- one of the last remaining plains herds in the country. In recent years, BioGems Defenders sent more than 30,000 messages protesting the coalbed methane development in Fortification Creek, which is surrounded by some of the most aggressive mining in the country. As the BLM moves forward with further studies of the environmental impacts of gas drilling, we will continue to work closely with our local partners to ensure protection for elk and other wildlife in the area. NRDC CHALLENGES ARCTIC DRILLING SCHEME We are headed back to federal court with Earthjustice and our other partners to challenge Shell oil's renewed plan for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea. As early as this July, Shell plans to launch drilling activities just 20 miles from the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, our nation's premiere sanctuary for threatened polar bears. A 514-foot-long drill ship and an armada of support vessels and aircraft would patrol the waters emitting tons of pollutants into the air and thousands of barrels of waste into the sea. In 2008, NRDC court action defeated an attempt by Shell to drill in this same area, a key migratory route for endangered bowhead whales. Yet like their predecessors in the Bush administration, Interior Department officials recently granted Shell a preliminary drilling permit without closely exploring the effects of industrial activity on Arctic wildlife. There is no effective method for cleaning up oil spills in icy Arctic waters -- a major threat to polar bears and other wildlife. In a parallel courtroom battle, we are fighting to block Shell's proposal to drill three wells in the neighboring Chukchi Sea. Action Insider   TAKING A STAND FOR WOLVES When Interior Secretary Ken Salazar handed wolf management back to the states of Montana and Idaho, he paved the way for the first public hunting of wolves in decades. These hunts, combined with other state programs, have already killed 350 wolves -- and could ultimately destroy 40 percent of the northern Rockies population. Watch our new wolf video. Photo credits: Yellowstone - © Randy Beacham; elk © Randy Beacham » To read this newsletter on the BioGems website, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/newsletter