Nearly 400 Kansas Schools to be Recognized as Part of Eco-Schools USA Agreement

April 20 – Nearly 400 pre-K-12 Kansas schools will be nationally recognized for their achievements in ‘greening’ school buildings and grounds, conserving natural resources and integrating environmental education into their curricula as part of an agreement between the Kansas Association for Conservation & Environmental Education (KACEE), Kansas Green Schools Network, Project Learning Tree GreenSchools! and NWF’s Eco-Schools USA programs.

Participating schools now have access to a wealth of resources, including supplementary hands-on activities and lesson plans, investigative studies and equipment, teacher professional development and grant opportunities to improve their school—indoors and outdoors—and save their school money. This agreement will also help many more schools start on the path to providing a more healthy and safe learning environment for students and staff, as well as grow students’ interest and academic performance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Two Years Into Oil Disaster, Promise to Restore Gulf Remains Unfulfilled

April 19 – Friday marks two years since the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers. The rig sank and the resulting gusher would eventually release nearly 206 million gallons of oil. The disaster dealt a new setback to a Gulf ecosystem already struggling with years of wetlands degradation and the destructive power of Hurricane Katrina.

“Two years later, the oil remains, the promises are forgotten, and Congress still hasn’t done its job,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Now that both the House and Senate have voted on the RESTORE Act, it is time to get a strong bill, without poison pills, to the President’s desk. The only fair and right solution is for fines from the oil disaster to be reinvested in the Gulf region to help the people and communities hurt by the disaster. A healthy Gulf ecosystem will lead to economic recovery.”

Transportation Bill Hits Dangerous Detour

April 18 – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a second 90-day extension of the existing transportation bill. The bill would extend transportation funding through September 30.

“House leaders are grandstanding on the Keystone pipeline once again for their oil company allies, but this effort to take the decision out of the hands of safety regulators should die in conference,” said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president for conservation and education of the National Wildlife Federation. “The Senate has already voted down this poison pill during their debate on the transportation bill, and the White House yesterday issued a veto threat if Keystone and other polluter loopholes are included in the bill.”

America’s Great Waters Coalition Designates New Waterways to Advocate for Restoration Needs

April 18 – From the Great Lakes to the Colorado River, from Puget Sound to the Everglades, our Great Waters are the lifeblood of our nation, providing critical jobs, drinking water, and amazing recreational opportunities for millions of people. Today, the America’s Great Waters Coalition adds the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin and the St. Johns River in Florida to its list of Great Waters. In addition, the Coalition is expanding the already recognized New York/New Jersey Harbor to include the Hudson River.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Public News Service:  Report Recommends Mud Pies for Earth Day
• UPI: Lawmakers try again with Keystone XL
• The Grand Rapids Press: Question of the day: Are today’s kids too afraid of dirt?
• The Environment Report: Stopping Hitchhikers in Ballast Tanks
• The Ledger-Enquirer: Chattahoochee basin named one of America’s Great Waters

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

NBCs Today: Don’t Poison Tar Sands Wolves – Watch

March 16 – Alongside hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie in the 8 a.m. hour of “The Today Show” on Friday, March 16, National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski and live wolves discussed how wolves are in mortal danger from tar sands! The national network program is the largest U.S. audience yet to learn about the impending wildlife catastrophe since the poisoning story surfaced.

Wild wolves and caribou have thrived in balance in Canada for generations in the country’s vast boreal forest, but now oil companies have moved in to extract tar sands oil. As fossil fuel activity destroys habitat for caribou herds, Canadian wildlife officials are expected to poison thousands of wolves with strychnine-laced bait and shoot them from helicopters. Strychnine is a deadly poison that causes an excruciating death. NWF is calling on the Canadian and Alberta governments not to scapegoat wolves, and to manage their environment responsibly.

Watch David’s Today Show Segment

Bipartisan Transportation Package a Major Conservation Victory

March 14 – The U.S. Senate today passed a sweeping transportation bill on a bipartisan vote.

“The Senate transportation bill is a laudable bipartisan milestone at a time when Congress seems otherwise paralyzed and deadlocked,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “The bill will help rebuild America and create thousands of new jobs in the process including in transit, bike paths and programs to help get kids to and from school safely. Most notably the bill includes two of the most important conservation investment measures in decades – the RESTORE Act, which would dedicate BP fines and penalties to Gulf restoration, and a long-term reauthorization and new funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.”

Read NWF’s joint statement with our Gulf Coast restoration partners here and the Vanishing Paradise statement here.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• The Los Angeles Times: Louisiana’s ambitious coastal vision
• Bloomberg: BP Reaches Estimated $7.8 Billion Deal With Spill Victims
• The Hill: Don’t let the sun go down on solar plan
• The Edmonton Herald: Pipeline a ‘major’ U.S. election issue

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

RESTORE Act needs support from a distance now

February 17 – The longer Congress twiddles its collective thumbs about passing the RESTORE Act, the greater the potential loss to all Americans.

BP’s oil well poured some 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing wildlife, local businesses and a couple of tourism seasons. Another 770,000 gallons of chemical dispersants were added to the poisonous soup.

It will take billions of dollars to repair the damage.

House Giveaway to Big Oil Jeopardizes America’s Wildlife

February 16 – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed HR 3408, the natural resources section of the transportation bill. The bill would open up millions of acres of protected offshore federal waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, and in Alaska’s salmon factory, Bristol Bay. It requires the Interior Department to sell 125,000 acres of commercial oil shale. The bill also mandates the selling off 400,000 acres of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas companies and requires the building of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

“This bill would recklessly jeopardize some of America’s most iconic wildlife, from the Arctic’s polar bears to the Atlantic’s humpback whales, while forcing the approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline even before a route is determined,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

Senator Inhofe Seeks to Roll Back Clean Air Victory

February 16 – Senator James Inhofe has threatened to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution (CRA) to strike down the EPA’s mercury and air toxics standards for power plants as soon as today. The CRA is a wrecking ball that could permanently prevent national standards for mercury and air toxics. The new mercury rule was decades in the making and is expected save thousands of lives and improve wildlife habitat while creating jobs. POLITICO has reported that Sen. Inhofe called the new standard “a killer.”

“Senator Inhofe has it backward on what the “killer” is in this situation. EPA and public health and environment groups all agree that the overdue mercury and air toxics standard will save as many as 11,000 lives, while reducing dangerous mercury exposure to children and pregnant mothers who consume fish laced with the toxic substance,” said Joe Mendelson, NWF climate and energy policy director.

Healthy Kids From Day One Act Would Address Inactivity, Fight Childhood Obesity

February 16 – A longtime champion of measures to get America’s kids outside and moving has initiated another plan to make sure the indoor childhood scourge is short-lived.

Senator Mark Udall (CO), lead sponsor of the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act focused on getting kids outside, introduced the Healthy Kids from Day One Act today to establish a pilot program to address obesity and inactivity among young children.

The three-year program will initially operate in five states, supporting “child care collaboratives designed to reduce the prevalence of overweight/obesity among children from birth to age 5″ by focusing on healthy eating, physical activity and reducing screen time.

National Sportsmen’s Groups to Congress: ‘Restore Mississippi River Delta and Gulf Coast Now’

February 16 – A group of more than 650 hunting, fishing and outdoor sporting businesses and organizations are sending two sign-on letters to Congress today with a clear message — restore the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf Coast, a vast complex of wildlife habitat that has faced high rates of landloss and suffered further degradation after the unprecedented 2010 oil spill. The letter comes at a critical time for Gulf restoration, as news reports indicate that BP is attempting this month to pay $20-$25 billion to settle with the Justice Department on all charges related to the spill.

Coalition to Congress: ‘Do Not Waver in Support for Great Lakes Programs’

February 15 – Days after the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2013 budget, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is urging the U.S. Congress to hold the line against cuts to Great Lakes restoration programs that are producing results in communities across the region.

“President Obama’s budget keeps Great Lakes restoration on track,” said Jeff Skelding, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “Now we’re looking for the U.S. Congress to not waver in its commitment to restore a resource that more than 30 million people depend on for their drinking water, jobs and way of life.”

Study: Southeast biomass has carbon spike before long-term climate benefits

February 14 – A new study of southeastern forests in the U.S. finds that in the long run, burning wood instead of fossil fuels to make electricity can reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but not soon enough to prevent worsening the conditions leading to global climate change.

The study also shows that as the industry expands in the Southeast, biomass energy will increasingly come from cutting standing trees instead of using wood residues from sawmills and other sources, emphasizing the need to balance forest ecosystem health and related values, such as drinking water and wildlife habitat, with renewable energy objectives.

Public lands advocate, manager takes helm of NWF’s Rocky Mountain Regional Center

February 13 – Ann Morgan, who has extensive experience in public lands policy and management in government and nonprofits, is the new executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Rocky Mountain Regional Center in Boulder.

Morgan started Monday in her position, which will include overseeing NWF’s efforts to conserve the public lands and wildlife that are integral to the great Western landscapes. She joins NWF after six years as vice president of the public lands department at The Wilderness Society. Before that, Morgan served as state director of the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado (1997-2002) and Nevada (1994-1997) and was an adjunct professor and research fellow at the University of Colorado’s Natural Resources Law Center.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Radio: A nationwide radio tour with Ryan Stockwell, Manager Agricultural Programs featuring the benefits of cover crops was completed this week. Ryan did a total of 9 interviews on the top agricultural radio networks in the nation. His interviews reached hundreds of stations (over 600) while exploring the benefits of cover crops to the land, water, wildlife and farmer’s bottom line.  Ryan was also interviewed by the USDA Radio Network and was heard on farm news programs nationwide via this trusted source.
• The Denver Post: EPA wants further review of water-diversion project to protect Colorado River
• E&E News: Could the Southeast create a 50-year debt of greenhouse gases by burning wood?
• Insurance Journal: 41 Senators Urge Action on Flood Insurance Reform

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

According to the Alaska Dispatch, a well being drilled by Spanish company Repsol hit a methane gas pocket, which triggered the blowout.  A crew of specialists all the way from Texas is traveling to the site, but meanwhile the well is spewing drilling mud–42,000 gallons and counting.  An expert from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation explained that the drilling mud “is hazardous to the tundra.”

Should Big Oil Be Allowed to Drill (And Spill) in Places Like the Arctic Refuge?

credit, Susanne Miller/USFWS

Some misguided members of Congress are using the excuse that extracting dirty fuels from a beautiful and untouched national treasure will pay for highway projects.  But, thanks to people voicing their outrage across the country, some elected officials are standing up against the transportation and energy bill (H.R. 3408) that would bring ruin to wildlife and wild places.

The “terrible” transportation package in Congress opens up new drilling areas on the East and West Coast, off the coast of Alaska, and in the pristine coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, which is home to iconic wildlife like polar bears, caribou, Arctic fox, wolves, and more. House Republican leadership are using rare procedural tricks to split the bill up because many Members take serious issue with drilling impacts, so they may lack the votes to pass it all at once.

Representatives object to drilling off the coast of places like California and along the Atlantic coast, where oil spills and well blowouts, like in the Gulf spill and right now in Alaska, threaten communities that depend on tourism. Other lawmakers worry that a provision to grant industry 2 million acres of public land for oil shale speculation would generate zero energy, zero revenue, and zero jobs. A group of House Republicans even sent Speaker Boehner a letter requesting that Arctic Refuge drilling be taken out of the bill, continuing a legacy of moderate support for this pristine wilderness.

All of this new drilling revenue is supposed to pay for a chunk of the $260 billion transportation bill.  But there’s one minor detail:  much of this revenue is speculative and wouldn’t even pay for 1% of the total cost.  Groups like Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Taxpayers for Common Sense agree that it is a fiscally irresponsible approach to paying for highways, bridges, and mass transit with imaginary money.

But Pipelines Transport Oil, Not People

The transportation package also requires approval of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline permit within 30 days,  which irresponsibly overturns a recent decision by the President to deny the permit.  This pipeline would move dirty Canadian tar sludge through the heartland of the U.S. to export to foreign countries, making the America complicit in the destruction of wilderness habitat in Alberta’s boreal forests and the senseless  poisoning of wildlife to make room for the pipeline. The transportation legislation, if passed in its current state, would also fuel  climate change that is already causing severe drought and economic damage in the United States.   Building the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would threaten America’s clean water supplies, raise gas prices in the U.S. and result in a net loss to American jobs.

The legislation also waives environmental review for many projects, takes away dedicated dollars for public transportation and even defunds a program to establish safe routes for kids to get to school.

Big Oil is already double-dipping into our wallets.  It is making record profit through taxpayer-funded subsidies and every time we pay at the pump–the industry doesn’t need another expensive gift from us.

Help Protect Wildlife from Arctic Drilling

Arctic wildlife are already suffering from loss of sea ice from global warming.  The lives of species like the ringed seal and the polar bear would be at even greater risk from an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean, which would be virtually impossible to clean up in the remote and rough, frigid waters.  The blowout on Alaska’s North Slope is a perfect example: a crew of specialists had to be called up from Texas to try and control the well.

Wildlife need you to speak up for them and tell their member of Congress that the entire transportation package is a bad deal for wildlife, our clean air and water, and the future of public transportation.

Urge your decision-makers to make the right choice to protect wildlife from drilling >>

A new report was released last week which outlined how obesity threatens America’s future. The report revealed that obesity rates climbed over the past year in 16 states, and not a single state reported a decline in the proportion of excessively overweight residents. Over 2 million children in America are obese and more than 30 % of people in more than 12 states are obese. In only four years, ELEVEN states joined that startling statistic. This dramatic shift over just a few years is frightening, so I couldn’t help but wonder, what is causing this striking change?

While iPads, 3D TV’s, video games, and computer games are all glamorous accomplishments by modern technology, time spent outdoors playing, biking, hiking, walking, etc. has progressively taken a back seat. Children ages three to twelve spend 1 % of their time outdoors, and 27 % of their time just watching TV. Incredibly, children are now actually GAINING weight over summer break! A time once spent solely on outdoor activities like swimming, hiking,and just being outside, is now putting American children’s health at risk.

Granted, childhood obesity is certainly a complex multi-faceted problem, which needs to be tackled from a variety of angles. However, a very easily-identifiable starting point is increasing the amount of time we spend outdoors, whether it’s playing, sightseeing, or even something as routine as commuting to work or school. So how do we address these issues in a meaningful way as a nation?

Luckily, Michelle Obama has made this issue a priority and launched the Let’s Move Outside campaign in a fight to address and end the childhood obesity epidemic. The First Lady rightly points out,

“Today, children experience a very different lifestyle. Walks to and from school have been replaced by car and bus rides. Eight to eighteen year old adolescents are spending an average of 7.5 hours a day using entertainment media instead of going outside.”

While the First Lady has brought the sweeping obesity epidemic to our nation’s attention, key Congressional leaders are taking steps to cut off dedicated federal funding for bicycling and walking; a cut that impacts both recreation but also safety.

House Transportation Chairman John Mica (R-FL) announced today that his transportation bill will eliminate dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, including Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program. This will discourage states from choosing to spend their dollars on these activities that are “not in the federal interest.”

Not in the federal interest? Funding for biking and walking projects only accounts for 1.5% of the federal transportation budget and yet make up 12 percent of all trips in the US. The spending by our government shows us very clearly that they’re not interested in investing in fun and low-cost ways for people to work towards a healthy lifestyle by only allowing us funding to support more than 4 billion bicycle trips and 40 billion walking trips a year, including trips to work, school, shopping and for recreation and tourism.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the lead Republican negotiator on the transportation bill, declared that one of his TOP THREE priorities for the transportation bill is to eliminate ‘frivolous spending for bike trails.’

Frivolous? In the past 6 months, TWO of my fellow co-workers were badly injured while riding their bikes to work because of the lack of safe biking trails in Washington, DC. Need more numbers? Two-thirds of all pedestrian deaths are on federally funded highways. One-third of children’s traffic deaths happen when children are walking or bicycling and are struck by cars. Bicycling and walking programs build sidewalks, crosswalks and bikeways—improving accessibility and saving lives. Any transportation cuts that affect the safety of children who opt to work/bike to school instead of taking the bus or car, should be targeted as negligent, short sighted and costly in the long run.

Cutting the funding to these programs not only makes it more difficult to encourage youth to get outside and walk or bike safely but it ultimately limits transportation alternatives, leaving no choice but to jump in a car. When obesity-associated annual hospital costs for children and youth are tripling over just a decade, we have a problem. If we expect people to adjust their lifestyles, they need clean, safe places to go outdoors and safe routes to get there.

What could be more of a federal priority than the health and well being of our children? Is cutting a that incredibly small figure of 1.5% of the federal transportation budget showing us how little the government cares about the health and wellness of our future workforce? Does the cost of bike trails really compare to the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of obesity associated hospital cost for children and youth? How short sighted is Congress to think that it is OK to spend millions/billions of dollars on health care costs for children and adults for obesity-related illnesses while not spending even a fraction of this cost for recreation improvements that would serve as preventative measure and limit obesity related disease?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a statistic, so I’m going to grab my bike and hit the trails before the feds take them away!

Join me, and take action: Contact your Members of Congress!

Join in the mission to advocate for and promote safe bicycling and walking to and from schools and in everyday life throughout the United States.

Learn more about the Be Out There movement to get kids outside. Find outdoor games, activities, and health tips for your children this summer!