Climate Recovery Partnership News and Events

Sierra Club Defends Over 400,000 Acres of Land in Oregon

The Oregon chapter joined forces with federal agencies and influenced forest management actions across 412,826 acres on four national forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in 2010. The Sierra Club appealed two projects threatening the Ochoco National Forest. Additionally, the Club successfully negotiated settlements with the United States Forest Service—avoiding costly litigation and protecting 2,804 acres of old growth forests, roadless areas, and salmonid water systems. The chapter also led field trips to threatened areas, presented educational slide shows, and engaged volunteers as part of their efforts to halt short-term threats to forests, wildlands, and wildlife habitat east of the Cascade Crest in Oregon while building a larger and more empowered constituency for their long-term protection.  

(Photo: Ochoco National Forest courtesy of Karl Johnson)

Freezing Shell’s Arctic Drilling Plans

The Sierra Club won a massive victory this week when Shell announced the cancellation of its Arctic drilling plans for the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea for the rest of 2011. For the past five years, the Royal Dutch Shell company has tried to begin exploratory drilling in the Alaskan Arctic--and not even last year’s BP Oil Disaster managed to quell its enthusiasm for underwater oil.

The Club and our allies in both conservation and Native Alaskan organizations (such as the Native Village of Point Hope, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, and NRDC) have led the way to stop Shell’s efforts in the region by challenging drilling permits and leases. We also have continually reminded the public of one simple truth: as we have seen from Exxon Valdez to BP, oil companies like Shell have never demonstrated that they are capable of cleaning up the own messes:

“It’s irresponsible for Shell to be pursuing dangerous offshore oil development when they know they can’t clean up oil spills in the Arctic’s broken sea ice. Instead of putting our children’s heritage at risk, we should be investing in the clean energy economy, which will create jobs, fight global warming, and leave our last wild places intact,” said Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club Alaska Program Director.

Shell has blamed its delayed drilling pursuits on what what it perceives as unnecessary and burdensome government regulations. With $3.5 billion invested in Arctic exploration programs in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, the company intends to resume its efforts in 2012.

We will continue ours as well.

More at The Los Angeles Times

Gray Wolf Back on Endangered Species List

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy sided with 13 conservation groups, including Sierra Club, when he decided to reinlist the gray wolf as an endangered species. Prior to the ruling, more than 290 gray wolves were killed during the 2009 hunting season in Montana and Idaho. The gray wolf is listed as an endangered species in Wyoming but not in Montana and Idaho due to the Bush Administration's policy that species can be listed as endangered is some states but not in others. As a result of the ruling, fall wolf hunting season is off the table and the fragile wolf population (there are only 1,700 wolves in the Northern Rockies) can stabilize.

To learn more about the gray wolf ruling, read an article by Independent Record here.

170,000 Acres in the Arctic Protected

In late July, the Obama Administration agreed to protect 170,000 acres of critical habitat in buffer zones south of Teshekpuk Lake (located in northern Alaska) from oil and gas leasing. The precious ecosystem is the biological center of the western Arctic, inhabited by species like the caribou, Canada Geese, and Black Brant. This has been a major goal of Sierra Club’s Arctic campaign for over 10 years!

To read more, visit National Geographic's article on the topic here.  

Sierra Club Expands Habitat for Canada Lynx

Sierra Club won its Canada lynx lawsuit after a federal judge found that critical habitat areas in the West had been arbitrarily omitted from protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). In 2009, the FWS issued a critical habitat designation for the lynx but left out thousands of acres of critical habitat in the Southern Rockies, Idaho, and Montana. The new ruling by Judge Donald Malloy states that FWS must propose a revised habitat designation. If the revised designation includes the expanded area, it would give the unique, high-altitude residing cat more habitat and a better chance of survival in the face of global warming.

Read more here at Sierra Club's Lay of the Land webpage.