Sierra Club Lands and Wildlife Victories in 2010

The Sierra Club’s investment in protecting wildlife and wild places contributed to the following victories in 2010. Thank you for helping us in these endeavors by volunteering, taking action, and following us in 2010. We look forward to a great year in 2011.

-In wake of the BP oil spill, over 1000 ‘Hands Across the Sands’ events were held worldwide, where we joined hands to oppose offshore oil drilling and promote a clean energy future.

-The Obama administration announced a ban on all new drilling for the next 7 years in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic waters.

-We released a report with Environment America about the economic value of keeping our oceans and coasts free from offshore oil drilling.

-19,000 miles of streams, 5 times the previous length, and 490,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs, 3 times more than previously ordered were designated Bull Trout critical habitat

-Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Greater Yellowstone region were placed back on the Endangered Species list. We also helped block efforts to delist the wolf.

-We presented the Obama administration with a vision for how America's outdoors should be managed as they face the threats of climate change. We engaged in ‘America’s Great Outdoors’ listening sessions across the country, where hundreds of Sierra Club members and young people weighed in on the future of our wild lands and wild places.

-We brought over a hundred Sierra Club lands advocates to Washington DC in 2010 to meet with elected officials and lobby to protect our lands and wildlife and promote wilderness legislation

-We expanded our social media networks by creating a lands team Twitter account, keeping you up to date on lands and wildlife news and issues around the country. Follow us! @WildLegacy

-The Obama administration announced a full Environmental Impact Statement of the Beaufort Sea before drilling is allowed in Alaska

-The administration also set aside almost 200,000 square miles as critical habitat for the polar bear in Alaska, an action that will make it harder for oil companies to drill offshore

-We celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and called on Obama to designate the Refuge as a National Monument  http://www.arcticlove.org

-Over 140,000 of you signed a letter to Obama, asking him to designate the Arctic Refuge as a National Monument. We also held house parties in all 50 states to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary

-Following years of grassroots pressure from Sierra Club and our colleagues in the conservation community, the Obama administration decided not to offer oil and gas leases immediately south of the biologically productive and vulnerable Teshekpuk Lake.  Although lasting protections for the region are not yet in place, this decision marked a significant victory for Alaska's wildlife and one of the most ecologically important wetlands in the circumpolar arctic.

-The Obama administration outlined a plan for ending old growth logging in the Tongass National Forest, our country's largest and wildest national forest.

- Sierra Club helped defeat legislative proposals that would have opened the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling, mandated construction of more than 300 miles of border walls along our international border with Mexico, opened our national forests to incentivized biomass production, privatized more than 75,000 of the Tongass National Forest, and handed over Native American sacred lands in Southeast Arizona to a mining company.

 

 

 

Happy 50th Anniversary to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!

 
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was first established as the Arctic National Wildlife Range on December 6, 1960 by President Eisenhower for its “unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values.”  2010 marks the 50^th Anniversary of the Refuge, a National treasure that has become close to the hearts of many Americans. Protecting the Arctic Refuge has been a priority for the Sierra Club's Resilient Habitats campaign, devoted to helping wildlife and wild places survive in the time of global warming. America's Arctic is especially threatened by climate change. Average temperatures are rising twice as fast here as anywhere else in the world with devastating effects on sea ice, tundra, permafrost, forests, and wildlife.

The Refuge is home to more than 200 wildlife species including polar bears, musk ox and caribou. The coastal plain serves as the birthing grounds for the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the most important land denning site for our country’s threatened population of polar bears. Every year, people in all 50 states and across six continents see birds in their own backyards that begin their lives on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge.

During the 50^th anniversary of the Refuge, President Obama has the opportunity to further protect the coastal plain of the Arctic by designating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a National Monument. By protecting the Arctic Refuge as a National Monument, President Obama will help eliminate threats like oil drilling and give caribou, bears, and other wildlife a fighting chance in the face of climate change. Sierra Club members and supporters around the country have been urging Obama to make this commitment. All 50 states hosted a 50th anniversary house party and over 140,000 Americans signed a letter to Obama to make the Arctic Refuge a Monument. Sign the card and watch a video of baby Arctic animals at http://www.arcticlove.org

 

Sierra Club in Gold Butte, Nevada

These beautiful photos were taken by Par Rasmusson, a Sierra Club volunteer in Nevada. The Sierra Club and dedicated volunteers like Par are working to add federal protections to this region.  
 
 Photo credits, Par Rasmusson

Mammoth Tusk Found in Proposed Tule Springs National Monument

A seven foot long Columbian Mammoth tusk was discovered in the proposed Tule Springs National Monument near North Las Vegas in early December. Thousands of fossils have been found in this area, which contains the single largest assemblage of Ice Age fossils in the Southwest, spanning geologic history from 7,000 to 200,000 years ago. Recent paleontology studies and inventory contracted by the Bureau of Land Management and a 2009 site-survey of the area commissioned by the National Park Service for the Department of the Interior confirm the area's significance and draws attention to the increasing degradation in the region. The area and ecosystem are facing threats from urban encroachment, recreation demand, illegal dumping of residential and industrial waste, and vandalism and looting of the irreplaceable paleontological resources. 
Justin M. Bowen/Las Vegas Sun

The proposed Tule Springs National Monumentcontains many threatened or endangered plants and wildlife as well. Four unique and imperiled plants call the region home, including the Las Vegas buckwheat, Merriam's bearpoppy, the Las Vegas bearpoppy, and the halfring milkvetch. The Upper Las Vegas Wash provides important habitat for the threatened desert tortoise, burrowing owls, kit foxes, and several other wildlife species that are recognized for protection.

The proposed boundaries of the new National Monument would connect four federal designations, the Desert Wildlife Refuge (US Fish and Wildlife Service), the new Tule Springs National Monument (managed by the National Park Service), Red Rock National Conservation Area (Bureau of Land Management), and Spring Mountain National Recreation Area (US Forest Service). The connection of these federal lands would preserve and maintain important wildlife corridors from impeding urbanization.

 Read more about the unique fossils in the proposed monument site here.