Deadline
March 13

 

 


BLM Pushes to Drill ANWR

A majority of Americans support protections for the Arctic Refuge. Yet in 2017, after decades of bipartisan support, Senate Republicans forced a rider into their tax bill to mandate an oil and gas leasing program in the Refuge.

The Bureau of Land Management has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to lease lands to oil and gas interests within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain.

We need to send the message that the American people do not want the nation's largest wildlife refuge sacrificed for short term profits. Please make your comments today!

Deadline March 13

Key Talking Points (links to more below)

  • Drilling in ANWR could set a horrible precedent for future resource extraction on America’s wildlife refuges, Wilderness, national parks, and monuments.
  • Seventy percent of American voters oppose drilling in the ANWR.
  • Ninety-five percent of the Arctic is already open to oil & gas drilling. There is no need to defile additional lands that have been designated for protection.
  • ANWR is America’s largest wildlife refuge, providing habitat and birthing grounds for native caribou, polar bear and migrating birds from across the globe. Oil drilling would threaten the existence of more than 700 plants and animals.
  • The massive infrastructure needed to extract and transport oil would fragment vital habitat and disrupt wildlife.
  • Drilling in ANWR is high-risk and produces dirty oil.
  • Development would potentially discharge more below-ground carbon reserves, further contributing to a warming climate.
  • Drilling would threaten the way of life and human rights for indigenous tribes who rely on caribou and other wildlife for sustenance.

Resources
BLM explanation of EIS
How this impacts wildlife
Why the Trump Admin is in such a hurry
Environmental Defense Fund Talking Points

 

 


Legislators: Stand Strong Against the Border Wall

It’s time to thank our legislators who have held the line and prevented funding of the border wall thus far. It’s also time to remind them why they need to stand strong, especially in light of the Executive Order declaring a national emergency:

  • Walls, fences, and barriers fragment sensitive ecosystems, disrupt animal migration patterns, cause flooding, and divide communities and tribal nations.
  • The Trump administration waived more than 36 environmental, public-health and tribal-sovereignty laws in order to rush border-wall construction.
  • The border region is host to a diverse array of threatened, endangered and rare species, including the jaguar, ocelot, Mexican gray wolf, arroyo toad, Peninsular bighorn sheep, Sonoran pronghorn, cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, and Quino checkerspot butterfly.
  • 93 vulnerable species would be affected by wall construction and related infrastructure. It would degrade and destroy critical habitat for 25 species.
  • Border communities don’t want the wall. Thirty-six states, cities and counties passed resolutions opposing the border wall.

Resource: A report on border wall impacts


 


Public Lands Protection Package Introduced

Kudos to Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet and Representative Joe Neguse, who introduced the Colorado Outdoor Recreation & Economy (CORE) Act, a public lands package that combines several proposals to protect iconic Colorado landscapes into a single bill.

CORE will protect approximately 400,000 acres of wild places across the state, including:

  • 60,000 acres of the San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests as Wilderness or other key protections
  • The nation’s first National Historic Landscape in the Continental Divide and Camp Hale wilderness proposals
  • The state’s largest aspen grove in the Thompson Divide
  • The addition of Curecanti National Recreation Area as a unit of the National Park System

Please thank Sen. Bennet and Rep. Neguse and encourage your congressional representatives to support this Act, which protects wild habitat, watersheds, and outdoor recreation opportunities for all Americans.

Senator Michael Bennet
Washington D.C. office: (202) 224-5852
Contact Info HERE

Representative Joe Neguse
Washington D.C. office: (202) 225-2161
Contact Info HERE

More information HERE and HERE

JOIN or DONATE
Help us protect our wild places and our planet.

Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
P.O. Box 2924 - Durango, CO 81302
Visit us at greatoldbroads.org - Email Us or call 970-385-9577

Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter