The Clean Water Act protects bodies of water across the country, like those in our National Parks. Yellowstone National Park photo by Flickr user Jeff Gunn.

This Thursday, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. This landmark act has ensured, and will continue to ensure, that America’s waters are fishable, swimmable, and drinkable. Since its inception, the Clean Water Act has logged numerous successes: it has prevented pollution by providing assistance to publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities, and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.

**Help us celebrate this milestone and tell everyone how important clean water is to you!**

Facebook: This week change you profile picture to the image below and share it with your friends. Remind people that October, 18th we celebrate four decades of the Clean Water Act and the historic results this keystone legislation has achieved: healthier water to drink; cleaner streams, rivers and lakes in which to swim, fish and play; and dramatically lower rates of natural wetland loss.

Twitter: Tweet a message showing your support for clean water. Feel free to use some of the samples we have provided below or create your own.

* When tweeting be sure to use #CleanWaterAct.

Sample Tweets:

• For 40 years the #CleanWaterAct has protected America’s waters and ensured that they are fishable, drinkable, and swimmable. Thank you!
• 79% of Sportsmen favor restoring Clean Water Act protections http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9 #CleanWaterAct
• For 40 years, @EPAgov has worked to restore #CleanWater and protect the #CleanWaterAct. Let’s keep it that way.
• The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most extraordinary places in America. Let’s  protect the #CleanWaterAct
• The #CleanWaterAct, has doubled the water safe for swimming & fishing. Let’s keep working to #ProtectCleanWater
• 73% of Republicans favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to wetlands and waterways. http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9 #CleanWater
• Sportsmen – regardless of political party – favor restoring Clean Water Act protections to wetlands and waterways http://bit.ly/Sj5ez9
• The Great Lakes are the largest system of surface freshwater on earth, they deserve adequate protection. Protect the #CleanWaterAct
• The #CleanWaterAct is under assault from the biggest polluters around. @WhiteHouse, we’re with you to #ProtectCleanWater
• 117 million Americans whose drinking water is at risk count on @WhiteHouse @USACE_HQ and @EPAgov  to continue to protect the #CleanWaterAct

Hashtags:

• Always use #CleanWaterAct in your tweets. 
• Whenever possible make sure @MittRomney, @BarackObama or @WhiteHouse are included in your tweets.  Where appropriate use @EPAgov, @LisaPJackson, or @USACE_HQ (many local Army Corps Districts have their own Twitter handles)
• Other hash tags to consider using, in addition to #CleanWaterAct (space permitting): #ProtectCleanWater, #DrinkingWater, #CleanWater
• Please tweet this at least once: “For 40 years the #CleanWaterAct has protected America’s waters and ensured that they are fishable, drinkable, and swimmable. Thank you!“

*Follow us (@NWFCleanH2O) and other organizations working to protect America’s waters!*

If you care about clean water and would like future generations to have fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters, take action and help restore clean water today!

#Squirrels4Good are everywhere – can you help me help @nwf reach 10K mentions & I’ll give $10K? youtube.com/watch?v=IUqP8T…

— craignewmark (@craignewmark) May 1, 2012

Craig’s Pledge:

“Here’s the deal, for each time someone uses the hashtag, #Squirrels4Good on Twitter or on my Facebook page  or NWF’s facebook page, I’ll give $1 to the National Wildlife Federation up to $5K. I will also donate $1 for each new follower I get over the next couple of weeks.”

To celebrate #Squirrels4Good, here are a few things that make squirrels happy and set them free:

To Stop and Smell the Roses

A Nap in the Park

Ice Cream Cones

The Perfect Photo

The Last Cookie in the Cookie Jar

To Watch Funny Cat Videos

A Mid-Afternoon Stretch (and Snack)

To Squeak Up for What They Believe In!

How You Can Celebrate Squirrels

• Tweet using #Squirrels4Good or post about squirrels on NWF or Craig Newmark’s Facebook page.
• Share and re-pin your favorite squirrel photos on Pinterest
• Turn your garden into a squirrel-friendly Certified Wildlife Habitat with NWF

It’s easy: simply “like” this image to spread the message far and wide that we’re counting on President Obama to stand strong and reject this disaster in the making.

President Obama has said he will reject the Keystone XL pipeline permit, but Big Oil has responded by threatening “huge political consequences,” and some members of Congress have been scheming to fast-track this dangerous project.

The President must make a decision by February 21st–but we’re hearing an announcement could come much sooner than that.

Thanks to wildlife advocates like you, there has been a huge surge of national opposition to the Keystone XL. Now, more than ever, the President needs to know that Americans like you support him in standing strong against Big Oil and rejecting this disaster in the making.

Spread the word on Facebook TODAY to urge President Obama to protect endangered wildlife against Big Oil.

Whooping cranes are one of the most critically endangered birds in the world, with only several hundred left in the wild.

Now, they could be placed in further peril by the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil through the same narrow migratory corridor that the cranes use each spring–putting the rivers, marshes, wetlands and streams on which they rely at risk of a toxic oil spill.

In addition, the Keystone XL pipeline would drive a massive expansion of Canada’s tar sands operations which are destroying enormous swaths of important habitat, producing lake-sized reservoirs of toxic waste, and worsening the devastating effects of global warming.

Help stop the next oil disaster for wildlife by showing President Obama that Americans don’t want the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Charl Roux photographed this tree frog in South Africa and entered it in the Amateur division of last year's National Wildlife Photo Contest.

Wednesday, June 15^th is Nature Photography Day – a day to explore nature through a camera lens and celebrate photos that inspire us to conserve wildlife and wild places.

I have always loved nature photos, and only recently got into learning how to photograph the great outdoors, myself. I’m still trying to get past the need to consult my camera manual each time, but you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy taking pictures, and nature offers a generous variety of subject matter.

Second only to the challenge and fun of snapping the photos, my favorite thing about nature photography is sharing pictures. You may find that other photographers have pictures of unique wildlife and places that you’ve never seen before or vice versa! Many of the 41^st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest entrants have opted to make their entries publicly shareable, and there are already so many amazing images to browse.

So, on June 15^th I’m taking a little extra time to peruse the scenery and wildlife on the trail behind National Wildlife Federation’s headquarters – probably while muttering “smaller f-stop equals more light” over and over – and I’ll share my results!

CELEBRATE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY WITH US!

Lake Matheson in New Zealand, taken by Michael Adler

If you are having trouble seeing items on our wall or uploading photos, you can share your photos with our National Wildlife Magazine Flickr group.

Please feel free to share your photos with us year round, but if you share this week in honor of Nature Photography Day, please tag your photos “NaturePhotoDay-NWM11“.

Thanks for your patience!

• Change your profile picture to one of your own nature photos and spread the word to your friends.
  • Sample status message: I changed my profile pic for Nature Photography Day! Raise awareness for wildlife conservation by changing your profile picture to one of your own nature photos and share the photo on www.facebook.com/photozone

• Share your nature photo on National Wildlife’s PhotoZone Facebook page. It could be a photo you take this Nature Photography Day or one you’ve taken in the past.

Check out our National Wildlife Photo Contest >>

• Browse, share and vote for your favorite images.
• Enter your own photos by July 14th for a chance to win!

Looking for some photography tips or ideas before heading outside with your camera? Visit PhotoZone’s Photography Tips Center for easy-to-follow advice from professional photographers.

That’s why we’re asking YOU to spread the word far and wide that cuts to our bedrock conservation programs are unacceptable.

Below is a list of facts about how wildlife and wild places depend on conservation programs. Please help us SPREAD THE WORD throughout the week by tweeting and posting these facts to your facebook wall:

The endangered Hawaiian monk seal needs conservation programs to aid in its recovery. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Don’t let congressional budget cuts mean aloha (goodbye) for HI’s endangered species. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

If it weren’t for the Endangered Species Act, bald eagles would have disappeared years ago. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

San Francisco Bay supports more than 500 species of wildlife and depends on conservation funding. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Restoring Clean Water Act protections for small streams and wetlands is vital for fish, wildlife. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Great Blue Herons and many other birds rely on protected wetlands for their survival. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Even as the icy habitat of polar bears melts, Congress wants to take away key protections. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund has conserved important elk habitat in the Rockies. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Fed. budget bill would allow 20 mil. acres of wetlands to be opened to polluters, developers.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

At risk: the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program, which prevents wildlife from becoming endangered.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Proposed restrictions on the EPA would make it harder to keep Florida waters clean. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Great Lakes endangered piping plover depends on funding to protect their breeding habitats. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Chesapeake Bay budget cuts would affect the 1 mil. swans, geese and ducks that migrate there.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Recovery of 21 Puget Sound threatened or endangered species depends on EPA funds.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Chinook salmon are at less than 10% of their historic levels in Puget Sound river systems.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

PA Game Commission is using federal funding to protect more than 30,000 bats. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Fed. budget bill could cut funding for research on bats and white-nose syndrome. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

Without federal funding, the now-common peregrine falcon would be extinct.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

In the US, fewer than 100 ocelots exist — conservation laws are needed for their survival.#ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

There are 21 endangered butterfly species in the U.S. — resources are needed to protect them. #ContinuingResolution
Tweet it! | Post to Facebook.

TAKE ACTION TODAY: Stop the Stealth Attack on Wildlife >>

Broad-headed skink on tree snag

At the beginning of November, my friend Debi of Go Explore Nature posted this update on her Facebook page:

“I’m thankful for nature’s many splendors all year long, but the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday encourages a little more thoughtfulness. This month, I’ll be sharing some of the many reasons I am thankful for the time I spend with my kids exploring nature. I hope you’ll join in!”

I’ve enjoyed reading her daily reflections and appreciate the reminder to count the blessings in my own world. Here are a few:

I’m thankful my yard and the woodland it borders support local wildlife such as this broad-headed skink (left) and other once new-to-me species. It’s nice getting acquainted with these animal visitors, for such gives me the opportunity to nurture my sense of wonder and that of my kids. Make your garden a home.

I’m thankful for the American goldfinches that captivate my neighbor. He said he wouldn’t have stopped to admire them had he not spent time bird-watching with my family. Take time to share nature’s wonders and your fondness for them. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

I’m thankful for my son, who calls regular “bug club meetings”—backyard explorations focused on the wee critters of our habitat. We tune in to insects, as well as one another. Disconnect from electronic media, step outside and connect with your loved ones. (I find myself laughing more when I’m outdoors. How about you?)

I’m thankful for the teacher who said yes when this mom full of daydreams asked if she was up for gardening. A community-supported schoolyard habitat project grew out of that conversation. We created an outdoor classroom! If you can dream it, you can do it. Believe. BEGIN!

As Debi noted, nature hosts many splendors. Which ones bring YOU joy?

“I was trying to capture a good photo of a particularly bright moon,” writes the California-based photographer. “In the dark I almost ran face first into this spider. It was late October, and this made a good Halloween shot with the spider in the foreground and the moon behind it.”

//

We need your help!

Here are a few ways you can help by supporting us online. If you can think of others, let us know!

1.) Become our Friend: If you aren’t already part of the National Wildlife Federation family on Twitter, Facebook, Change.org, or any other site that you frequent regularly, we’d love to connect and band together to keep up to date on these issues.

2.) Join and Recruit People to NWF’s Facebook Cause: “Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill” by joining the cause, recruiting your friends, sharing photos and videos, and even starting a birthday cause to ask for donations to help Gulf Coast wildlife in lieu of gifts.

3.) Update Your Blogs/Sites: We’re posting the latest oil spill news (for wildlife) on http://www.nwf.org/oilspill and if you can’t be present to volunteer, the next best thing you can do is share your experience in terms of what news or coverage you’ve seen. If you have a blog post that you’ve written and would like NWF to see it, please send me an email at brigidad [at] nwf.org so that I can spread the word.

Here are a few additional pages that may offer up some great answers:

• How to Help With Volunteer Efforts
• Compare the Exxon Valdez to the BP Oil Spill
• How Crews are Cleaning Oiled Wildlife
• Ranger Rick Parent’s Guide: How to Talk With Kids About the Oil Spill

4.) Speak up for Wildlife: Taking action is an incredibly important way to help be proactive against future disasters. Edit and send this message to your senators demanding cleaner energy options. After you do, pass the page onto your friends to spread the word.

5.) Share Your Photos and Videos: On the ground along the Gulf Coast? Share your photos and videos on Flickr by tagging them SPILL_NW10.

6.) Share Your Status: Donating your support and time is another way that really makes a difference. If you don’t have the money to text, donate to Causes or otherwise–consider how much you can do just by spreading the word! Donate your Facebook status or Twitter updates and be sure to tag @NWF or @National Wildlife Federation.

Sample Messages to Re-Tweet and Repeat:

How the BP Oil Spill could hurt animals–and how you can help: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill
—
Volunteer with the National Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams: http://www.nwf.org/oilspill
—
Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill by joining NWF’s Facebook Cause: http://www.causes.com/oilspill

Please comment below if you have any ideas for other things people can do to help wildlife online. We truly appreciate all of you who have helped during this important time.

The conversations that lead towards a sustainable society happen in many places–classrooms, coffeeshops, offices, student centers, fields, and mountains. More than any of these, however, the future of climate change activism is happening on the Web. Unlike many traditional forms of disseminating information, social media facilitates an all-way communication hub that make yesterday’s newsletter look like a dirt donkey path.

In some ways, sustainability and social media are diametrically opposed: sustainability is necessarily the stuff of real-life and intensely local concerns, whereas social media spans the globe with virtual connections. In practice, however, these two seemingly disparate elements of campus life often partner each other quite elegantly as international knowledge fuels and supports local practices.

Many colleges and universities already use social media to communicate about climate change and sustainability with their students, alumni, and other institutional investors. The wide variety of media available allow a school to blanket their target audiences with comprehensive coverage. Recently a class at American University on interactive media created a social media and discussion site for an American Forum on “The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World.”

Features at the site include video interviews with AU students on the topic, a Twitter feed that student attendees and public radio listeners post to, a Facebook group, a news aggregator on climate change, and various topic driven discussion boards with topics ranging from policy options to evaluation of news coverage. This multifaceted approach multiplied the impact of the event with minimal additional organizing, therefore efficiently extending the ability of the school to affect public thinking about climate change.

The Web 2.0 world breaks down boundaries; much of the information shared to inform and engage students and other institutional investors around sustainability issues on campus comes from outside organizations or informal person-to-person communications. (This is often called “tribesourcing”.) Tribesourcing is particularly prevalent on twitter, where the practice of “retweeting” relevant bits of information or links causes interesting news to travel like wildfire-when food activist Michael Pollan recently suggested on Twitter that college students go vegan to affect climate change, his message was retweeted dozens of times within the hour to spread to audiences across the nation.

For many schools, it is often unclear with whom the responsibilities for social media should reside, which departments will be involved, and what new position(s) should be created. The long-term likelihood, though, is that social media and sustainability can be integrated and adopted at every level. This parallels the decentralization of information that has been driven by social media and the ability for students and others to produce their own content and to become active participants in media, rather than passive consumers.

Social media allows students to connect and collaborate with activists around the globe, both reducing the need for travel and allowing connections to be made that otherwise would be nearly impossible. And yet, this is just the first part of the process. Attracting a “fan” or “follower” is one thing; getting that person tangibly involved is another. While a valuable storytelling tool, social media is still the tool or the medium, not the change or the action.

Properly used, social media engages and encourages contributions as it moves people up the ladder of engagement. In the American Forum on climate change, contributor Matt Nisbet suggested participants frame climate change in less environmentalist terms, but rather in terms of health and stimulation of the economy through green jobs. His comments attracted feedback, acclaim, resistance, and criticism on twitter, facebook, and the American Forum website. It was, in other words, a resounding success.

Resources: The Many Faces of Social Media

There are many forms of social media, with new options coming onto the market all the time. Here are just a few of the ways that campuses are using social media for sustainability:

• Popular facebook pages for sustainability offices at universities, like the one at New Mexico State University and for single-aspect initiatives, such as Recycle-Mania at Rice University or the Knox College Ride Board, a student-run initiative which boasts a fan base of 20% of the school’s enrolled population.
• Brief educational videos on Youtube, such as the Emory University sustainability video series.
• Lengthy educational videos for those who wish to delve deeply into issues of sustainability. Many of these can be found on Ustream , which hosts videos in a longer format than Youtube. The site offers series of videos from the University of British Columbia’s Office of Learning Technology and Institute for Sustainability Research and Education, Hosei University. Stand alone videos such as Working with Green Roofs from Portland State University allow access to university-level sustainability education to any student at any school at any time.
• Co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, Current.com hosts College Current Issues: Sustainability where student/citizen journalists can upload videos to the website and, following a voting process, potentially have them aired on its television-channel counterpart. Download a podcast or email Current to request a DVD copy for classroom use or to schedule an on-campus speaking appearance by one of their journalists.

See More:

Luring Students With the Promise of Green: ClimateEdu

Welcome to the University, Here’s Your Green Guide: ClimateEdu

His appearance at the talks is considered especially important given that healthcare continues to dominate the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has promised to move forward with healthcare reform hoping to hold votes in December. The timing of these votes could directly interfere with the Copenhagen meetings, preventing Senate climate leaders John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) from traveling to Copenhagen and build support.

Obama’s announcement also coincides with the announcement of a provisional greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020 in the range of 17% below 2005 levels. These levels will be placed on the bargaining table at Copenhagen and closely parallel with levels included in the House climate bill passed earlier this year, as well as the Senate bill that will likely reach the floor in the spring.

Possibly due to the youth campaigns that have urged Obama to action,the White House will host a Clean Energy Economy Forum with youth leaders from around the country on Wednesday, December 2 from 4:00-7:00 pm. Campus Ecology’s own Praween Dayananda will be in attendance, along with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, and other Administration officials. The forum will address the benefits of the clean energy economy for younger generations and the role young Americans have in being leaders in and benefiting from those opportunities.

The forum will be webcast live here, and will also be open to the public through a Facebook application which allows the public to watch and discuss the event live. The White House will be keeping up with the chat, taking questions, and incorporating feedback from chat participants during the event.