Watch Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of National Wildlife Federation, as he reacts to the vote from the Platte River in Nebraska–a vital stopover for hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes threatened by toxic oil spills from Keystone XL:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At a time of record-breaking temperatures and increasingly devastating extreme weather events, our leaders need to stand up against dirty and dangerous energy projects. With your voice today, we can hold the senators accountable who sided with Big Oil over their constituents interests.

On Twitter?

Find your senators in the list below and remind them that Americans don’t want the Keystone XL pipeline by tweeting at them:

Protect caribou by telling the Obama administration to address Keystone XL’s impacts on wildlife, habitat and climate change.

But, as in previous years, big polluters and their allies in Congress are desperately trying to insert additional measures unrelated to the budget that would weaken protections for our wildlife, air, water, and climate.

Your senators need to hear from you TODAY—urge them to oppose anti-wildlife amendments in the budget.

Among the dozens of reckless amendments being considered are proposals that could:

• force the approval of the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, despite the disastrous impacts it would have on the climate crisis and wildlife, including woodland caribou in Canada;
• undermine the federal government’s authority to move forward with limiting carbon pollution that causes climate change;
• slash funding for programs that safeguard crucial habitat for wildlife and prevent endangered species like ocelots from heading for extinction;
• increase oil and gas drilling on federal lands, which will increase our dependence on dirty fuels and endanger critical habitats;
• prevent the administration from moving forward with clean water safeguards that are critical for healthy fish and wildlife

At a time of record-breaking temperatures and increasingly devastating extreme weather events that are putting wildlife and our communities at risk, it’s crucial that we shift away from high-carbon fossil fuels and towards cleaner energy sources. Yet some members of Congress are allowing big polluters to misuse the federal budget to approve their pet projects such as the disastrous Keystone XL pipeline, at the expense of wildlife and ecosystems.

It is urgent that your senators hear from you TODAY so they know the grassroots base will hold them accountable if they side with polluters over their constituents’ interests. With your voice, we can win this critical fight and continue to create a brighter future for America’s cherished wildlife.

How could you not want to protect this?

The Wildlife Grant program was created by Congress in 2000 thanks to strong support from the Teaming with Wildlife Coalition. The Wildlife Action Plans that states write to qualify for this funding have already identified over 10,000 species that are at-risk, their key threats, and the conservation needed to ensure their continued survival. In the old conservation adage, the goal of these plans is to keep common species common. As a bonus, NWF is also working to ensure these plans are “Climate Smart” by incorporating climate adaptation into new and existing plans. Funding for the SWG program is thus vital for current and future conservation.

Horseshoe crabs are important parts of the local fishing industry and medical research. They also simply look cool.

Conservation Funding in Action

The great thing about the State Wildlife Grant program is that it already has a proven track record. When people think of my home state of Connecticut, they often see just another suburb of New York. Even here, however, a variety of species — from the prehistoric horseshoe crab to the adorable (yet imperiled) New England Cottontail rabbit — have benefited from the research and conservationSWG funding has provided.

In my adopted home of Maine, where I studied at the University of New England, grant funding was used to survey and protect important waterways and terrestrial habitats vital for the survival of moose and a variety of rare species. Although Maine touts itself as “The Way Life Should Be,” the state has faced challenges in protecting its wildlife in the past. In the late 1970s, the region almost lost its population of Bald Eagles, the symbol of America. Thanks in part to active conservation funded by the Wildlife Grant program, the population increased ten-fold to over 300 nesting pairs in recent years.

We should keep these guys around, if only to avoid having to pick a new national bird…

New Student Guide Offers Steps for Peer to Peer Campus Sustainability Training

March 30 – NWF and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) have released a new step-by-step guide to creating student peer-to-peer sustainability education programs—often known as “Eco-Rep” programs—on college campuses. Authored by Champlain College Sustainability Director Christina Erickson, “Student Sustainability Educators: A Guide to Creating and Maintaining an Eco-Rep Program on Your Campus” takes readers through the design, implementation and evaluation stages of an Eco-Rep program.

House Attacks on Wildlife, Air and Water Wouldn’t Close Budget Gap

March 29 – The U.S. House of Representatives today is expected to pass the budget plan written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). A National Wildlife Federation analysis shows the plan would gut investments in natural resources that already make up only a tiny fraction of federal spending.

“The vast majority of Americans believe the federal government has a fundamental responsibility to help ensure that our air is clean, our water is safe to drink and our treasured National Parks, refuges and other public lands are protected for this and future generations,” said Josh Saks, legislative director of the National Wildlife Federation.

EPA Proposes Historic Limits to Industrial Carbon Pollution

March 27 – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first-ever national carbon pollution limits for new power plant smokestacks. These long-awaited new air pollution standards are essential for reining in the climate change-causing carbon pollution that is increasingly endangering the nation’s public health and wildlife.  The new air pollution standards are the result of a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that found carbon dioxide and other air pollution from cars, power plants, and other sources is subject to the Clean Air Act. Despite that ruling and a subsequent 2011 Supreme Court ruling reinforcing the decision, it is expected that a number of big polluting utilities and coal interests will fight the standard.

Warming Winters Threaten America’s Outdoor Traditions

March 27 – Near-record warmth in the winter of 2011-2012 left both wildlife and outdoor enthusiasts scrambling to adapt – and it’s just a preview of what’s to come in a warming world, according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation. On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk tells the stories of how 2011-2012’s warm winter impacted hunters and anglers across America and details the steps we need to take now to protect those traditions for future generations.

Hill Ads Praise 76 Senators for Passing Gulf Restoration Amendment

March 27 – Capitol newspapers will run full-page color ads this week by six Gulf restoration advocacy groups thanking the 76 Senators who approved legislation to dedicate 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines from the parties responsible for the Gulf oil spill to restoring the Gulf.

The ad copy says:

“On behalf of our members nationwide, we thank the 76 Senate leaders who voted in favor of restoring the ecosystems and economies of the Gulf region by passing the RESTORE Act as an amendment to the transportation bill.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Politico: EPA hits greenhouse gas emissions from power plants
• Bloomberg: EPA Introduces First Greenhouse-Gas Limits for Power Plants
• The Los Angeles Times: Hunters, anglers report warming winters bad for wildlife
• Erie Times-News: Report examines effect of warmer winters on outdoor economy in Pa., other states
  
• Public News Service (NM): Warming Winters Hurt New Mexico Wildlife
• Public News Service (CO): Carbon Pollution Puts CO “On Thin Ice”
• The Times Picayune: Photos document BP oil still contaminates “cleaned” Louisiana marshes, state officials say
• Michigan Live: U.S. Coast Guard adopts ballast water standards to combat invasive species

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

Robert Postma

Just the name wolverine evokes images of a ferocious fighter, able to take down prey many times its size. However, the U.S. government isn’t one of them.

The largest of the land-dwelling weasels, this predator has been named a Gulo gulo (from “glutton”) for its supposed voracious appetite. But much of what it eats it hasn’t actually killed itself but found as carrion while on the prowl. The wolverine’s long, shaggy coat allows it to survive in harsh arctic and subarctic environments in Alaska, boreal northern Canada, Europe and Asia, as well as in the alpine northern Cascades in Washington and Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Its incredible sense of smell can find prey beneath snow, its claws and teeth can tear apart even frozen carcasses and it can travel for hundreds of miles in a week scoping for food.

Their built-in survival gear, however, cannot protect them from being vulnerable to climate change. Wolverines need deep snow that lasts well into late spring to build dens for their newly born kits. But snow is melting earlier, and the wolverine’s formerly continuous forest is being fragmented into disconnected islands of limited habitat. As few as 250 wolverines may be left in the contiguous United States, of which only 35 individuals are thought to be successfully breeding. The population needs sufficient continuous, snowy habitat to find mates, reproduce and survive.

Dying in Wait

Putting the wolverine on the U.S. Endangered Species List could help preserve habitat vital to the species’ survival. Yet, as ferocious as this mighty woodland warrior might appear, the wolverine cannot muscle its way onto the list. It is among at least 252 “candidate species” waiting to get the protections the Endangered Species Act and its list affords from a variety of threats, such as overhunting, pollution and habitat destruction. The Endangered Species Act and its list are tools that have proven their worth. They have pulled animals back from the brink of extinction, including our nation’s iconic American bald eagles, wolves, Florida panthers and black-footed ferrets, just to name a few.

The Wolverine’s Other Opponent

This past summer, key leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives sideswiped animals both on the Endangered Species List and those species waiting for its protection with a potentially fatal blow. An “extinction rider” to the 2012 budget bill was proposed that would have prevented the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money to implement some of the most crucial sections of the Endangered Species Act, including listing any new species, designating habitat as critical to a species’ survival or changing the status of any species from threatened to endangered.

This bold attack on wildlife was met with fierce resistance from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). With the help of our supporters and wildlife champions in the U.S. Congress, NWF  led an effort to stop this dangerous proposal. By a vote of 224 to 202, the measure was defeated with bipartisan support on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Despite this victory, the battle is far from over. The “extinction rider” is only a preview of what could be in store for wildlife from Congress. National Wildlife Federation expects the attacks on imperiled species to come harder and faster in the coming months.

Speak Up for Wolverines

Help protect wolverines and other imperiled species by sending a strong message to Congress to stop the stealth attacks on wildlife. Even the mighty wolverine and all of those lying in wait for protection need us to be fighting in their corner.

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back.  Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7% to 0.6% of federal spending.

Arboreal Salamander, via Bill Bouton/Flickr

In all of your accidental or not-so-accidental  salamander sightings, have you ever seen two that were identical?

With more than 500 species across the world that span the colors of the rainbow with speckles, spots, stripes, and some that can even morph colors, each one is pretty unique. Despite their endless multicolored diversity,  they all have (at least) two things in common: 1) tails and 2) just like us, they need water to survive.

While many species of salamander can drop off parts of their body to escape danger and regenerate them later (seriously, how cool is that?), there’s no escaping polluted water. For the last year, however, members of Congress have been doing their darnedest to take the bite out of our strongest water safeguards, the ones that protect our water as it travels from the mountain top to the creek near your house, where you spot the salamanders scuttling.

Here are just two examples of Congress’s attacks on salamanders and our water:

Mountaintop Removal Pollution

Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive method of extracting coal that has had far-reaching environmental effects in a region of incredible biodiversity; it has already buried and polluted more than 2,000 miles of streams. According to the Environmental Protection Agency:

“The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others…the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns.”

If it continues unabated, by the end of the decade it will cause a projected loss of more than 1.4 million acres of habitat that is home to fish and freshwater wildlife such as salamanders, bird species, and people.

Fire Salamander via Strocchi/Flickr

Despite the clear threat to water and wildlife, efforts in Congress are underway to block EPA oversight of mountaintop removal. This would shield the coal mining operations from EPA review of proposed mining permits, most of which don’t require assessment of potential impacts on endangered or threatened species.

By preventing the EPA from conducting permit reviews based on the best science for our own ecological safety, Congress is accelerating the destruction of Appalachia’s lands and waters and endangering the unique and extraordinary biodiversity of the region, from flying squirrels and peregrine falcons to cougars and salamanders.

Thwarting Protection Against the ‘Unacceptable’

The Clean Water Act (CWA) has faced its very own deluge of attacks this year, but this one in particular would strip the EPA of its ‘Veto Authority’ under section 404(c) of the CWA to prohibit or restrict certain pollution discharges that would have an “unacceptable adverse effect” on our water, fish or wildlife. EPA has used this authority sparingly – only 13 times since the law was enacted in 1972. It is reserved for truly bad projects where the discharger cannot or will not curtail the impacts on our water resources.

This attack would force EPA to ignore the scientific evidence of the harms caused by destructive dumping proposals. The EPA’s 2011 veto of the Spruce Mine permit, one of the largest mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia, encouraged this amendment, but it would prevent the agency from blocking any project, not just mining, which would have unacceptable environmental impacts.

Sounds unacceptably dangerous to me.

Speak Up for Salamanders

Help protect salamanders and other wildlife by urging Congress to support programs that mitigate the consequences of water pollution on wildlife. Stop these sneaky attacks before our rainbow of salamanders vanishes for good.

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back. Congress is in recess and members are back in their home districts. Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7% to 0.6% of federal spending.

A pair of northern pintails takes flight in Delaware's Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Larry Hitchens.

It’s easy to see why the northern pintail is known as the “greyhound of the air.” A long, slender, small-headed and long-necked duck—propelled by narrow, elongated wings—the sleek pintail seems designed for speed. This quick and graceful flier stands out easily in a mixed-species flock of ducks.

Legal Loopholes

But even the speedy pintail cannot escape threats facing its North American breeding habitat. One of the earliest-breeding waterfowl species, the northern pintail nests on the ground in open areas near shallow seasonal wetlands. As a result of two Supreme Court decisions, these wetlands no longer are guaranteed the protections they had for decades under the Clean Water Act.

Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 to protect “waters of the United States.” For nearly 30 years, both the courts and the agencies responsible for administering the law interpreted it broadly to safeguard virtually all of our nation’s waters. But the court decisions, the first in 2001 and the second in 2006, ignored congressional intent by narrowing the act’s focus, putting in doubt protection for seasonal water bodies that pintails and scores of other species rely on.

“Duck-Nesting Basket” at Risk

Particularly critical to pintails and other ducks is the Prairie Pothole Region. Located in south-central Canada and the north-central United States—chiefly the Dakotas, Montana and Minnesota—more than 3 million potholes created by glaciers during the last Ice Age are scattered throughout the region. Most of them are seasonal, filling with rain and snowmelt each spring.

More than half the U.S. and Canadian population of nesting ducks breeds in the Prairie Pothole Region. “The pothole region is absolutely crucial to migratory waterfowl,” says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetlands biologist Tom Dahl. “This is the duck-nesting basket of the North American continent.”

Restoring the Clean Water Act

To restore protection for millions of acres of prairie potholes and other wetlands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released draft Clean Water guidance. With the comment period over, the Obama administration is ready to move forward on the guidance but, through a rider attached to the Interior and Environment appropriations bill and other 2012 budget bills, Congress is trying to block the administration’s attempt to restore the Clean Water Act’s protections.

Pintails need your help. Once among the continent’s most abundant ducks, the birds “have suffered a disturbing decline since the 1950s,” notes Ducks Unlimited. “More than any other North American waterfowl species, the northern pintail population has suffered from persistent drought and loss of grassland habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region.” More than half the potholes themselves have been drained for agriculture, and the Clean Water Act loophole means the rest are even more vulnerable to destruction.

Speak up for Northern Pintails and Other Wildlife

Help northern pintails by urging the administration to restore Clean Water Act protections for the waters so crucial to these ducks, and by urging Congress to stand aside and let the expert agencies do their job to protect the nation’s waters.

Learn more about:

• The Supreme Court decision that weakened the Clean Water Act
• The Prairie Pothole Region in North America
• The Obama administration’s attempt to restore the Clean Water Act protections
• How the otter is also threatened

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This  four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back. Congress is in recess and members are back in their home districts. Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7%  to 0.6% of federal spending.

via Tollers/Flickr

Polar bears may be Arctic icons, but even their animal rock-star status can’t always sway Congress to protect wildlife.

Global warming is melting habitat the big white bears depend on to survive, but recent and upcoming votes by the nation’s lawmakers could make the situation even worse.

This year, some members of Congress have taken a sledgehammer to America’s bedrock environmental safeguards, shattering protections that have been in place under Republican and Democratic administrations for decades.

Congressional Attacks

For polar bears, Congress has focused its attack in two ways:

1. Pushing for drilling in vital polar bear habitat:

In February, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, putting polar bears and their onshore denning habitat at risk. More recently, House members tried to push aside the federal Clean Air Act permitting process to allow Shell Oil to rush forward with ”exploratory drilling” off of Alaska’s coast.  As NWF has reported, an oil spill in this area would be devastating to polar bears and other Arctic species.

2. Blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from controlling carbon pollution:

Congress has considered and voted on a slew of anti-EPA amendments aimed at hamstringing the agency’s court-ordered responsibility to control carbon pollution. According to scientists, we must take swift action to reduce carbon pollution if we hope to save polar bears from extinction.

Even though polar bears are one of the fiercest creatures on the planet, they are helpless against these attacks.

Speak up for Polar Bears

Help protect polar bears and urge Congress to support programs that mitigate the consequences of climate change on wildlife.  It’s not too late for lawmakers to try and make things right, but like Arctic sea ice, time is a resource we’re also running out of.

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back. Congress is in recess and members are back in their home districts. Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7%  to 0.6% of federal spending.