(Photo: Tarsandsaction)

Growing Momentum Against Keystone XL

While Rep. Terry’s measure (H.R. 3, the “Northern Route Approval Act”) passed as expected, this vote was yet another sign that momentum is growing to reject dirty tar sands, protect our communities from disastrous spills, and turn towards cleaner, renewable energy choices. And despite all the theatrics in Congress, the ball remains in President Obama’s court—where it belongs. Both the facts and the political winds support doing the right thing by saying NO to an unneeded tar sands export pipeline that would put our heartland at risk for spills and send us in the wrong direction on curbing carbon pollution.

Just last month, more than 1 million comments from Americans requested that the State Department reject Keystone XL.  Given the anti-environmental makeup of this Congress, the Terry bill was expected to pass by a wide margin, but numbers like these obviously made lawmakers take note.  As NWF president and CEO Larry Schweiger said about the KXL pipeline:

It’s the wrong approach to put a foreign energy company ahead of more than 1 million Americans who have expressed concern for our nation’s wildlife, energy security and public health.

Indeed it is.  The risks of Keystone XL are huge; the reward is 35 permanent jobs in exchange for higher gas prices, oiled wildlife and communities, and another step towards climate calamity.

The Tar Sands Industry’s Plans for Your Backyard

The Great Plains aren’t the only region threatened by reckless tar sands pipeline expansion:

• In 2010, an Enbridge, Inc. pipeline ruptured in Michigan, spilling a million gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River. Three years and close to $1 billion later, the cleanup continues. Enbridge is laying the groundwork for pipeline expansions that would dwarf Keystone XL and put the Great Lakes watershed in danger of another spill.  We need to say no to this proposal as well.
• Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline, reversed to carry tar sands oil, spilled into an Arkansas neighborhood in March, forcing dozens from their homes and oiling hundreds of animals including birds and turtles.
• Now, Exxon and Enbridge want to reverse a pipeline through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to carry tar sands oil to the international market.  The entire New England delegation voted against Rep. Terry’s Big Oil giveaway bill, and the message from New England is clear: it wants a clean energy future, not oil spills.

The endangered Whooping Crane is one of many iconic species at risk from tar sands development. (Photo: flickr.com/Naturesfan1226)

And this doesn’t even begin to get at the Florida-sized area in Alberta being mined and leveled to extract this dirty fuel.  Habitat for iconic wildlife—like Woodland Caribou, Gray Wolves, Black Bears, and 190 migratory bird species including the endangered Whooping Crane—is being destroyed, putting these species in peril, polluting rivers, and endangering the health of indigenous communities.

The message that tar sands is a bad deal is getting through.

More and more Americans are coming around to the fact that Keystone XL, while a great deal for foreign oil companies, is bad news for the rest of us. As Elizabeth Kolbert put it in an important new article in The New Yorker:

Once Keystone is built, there will be no putting the tar back in the sands. The pipeline isn’t inevitable, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s just another step on the march to disaster.

It’s past time for Pres. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to look at the facts.  We don’t need tar sands oil.  We don’t need more spills.  And we can’t afford to doom our children to the carbon pollution from increased tar sands expansion. People are starting to get it.  It’s time for the President to match his words on climate with deeds.  Saying no to Keystone XL is a good place to start, and the time to start is now.

Every voice counts! Tell President Obama to reject the climate-destroying Keystone XL pipeline.

Many move-out programs rely on volunteers. Top: CCU volunteers with a few random finds from Campus Salvage (image courtesy Sustainability Initiative of CCU). Bottom: Skidmore College volunteers help with 7th annual Give+Go (image courtesy of Riley Neugebauer, Sustainable Skidmore).

• Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina:  Campus Salvage. In its fifth year, Campus Salvage collects just about anything, including clothing, furniture, mini fridges, cleaning products, school supplies and non-perishable food. The purpose of the program is to collect unwanted, good items from the 3,000 students moving out from campus and save it from going into the landfill. There are five locations of PODS setup throughout the residence halls during move-out week. Items are either donated to local charities (men’s and women’s shelters, animal shelters, food banks, etc.) or sold at the Community Sale. The Campus Salvage Community Sale is open to the public a week after collection and includes between 12 to 15 PODS full of donated items from students. Most items are $1 each, with the exception of high ticket items such as mini fridges and microwaves. A lot of the people that come to the sale include public school teachers and parents with children heading to college in the fall. Campus Salvage grows more popular every year and it’s very rewarding to be able to keep all these items out of our local landfill!–description thanks to Jennifer Sellers, Sustainability Coordinator at Coastal Carolina University

• Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY:  Give+Go. Skidmore College recently launched the seventh annual “Give+Go,” a two-week program that collects and donates items left behind by students at the end of each academic year. The program prevents thousands of pounds of usable items from going into the landfill by donating them to organizations that support individuals and families in need, including the NY/NJ Chapter of Goodwill and Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.), a local organization that supports over one thousand racetrack workers in Saratoga Springs, NY.  In order to collect unwanted items, Sustainable Skidmore partners with the college’s waste hauler and Goodwill. These organizations provide collection bins for each residence hall and apartment building on campus. Goodwill and B.E.S.T. also assist in collecting donations during two of the busiest move-out dates. Volunteers provide the majority of the labor required to make Give+Go possible each year. Over the two-week collection period, Skidmore staff, faculty, and students volunteer time during lunch and on weekends to collect items from the campus residence halls. Nearly 20 volunteers came to campus on Saturday May 11th, to sort through and collect items for B.E.S.T. and Goodwill. The final collection day for this year’s Give+Go is the day after commencement.–description thanks to Rachel Willis, Sustainability Fellow at Skidmore College

In addition to the help these types of move-out programs provide to the community, some programs save students money and eliminate the need to buy new by hosting back-to-school yard sales. In addition, student-run move-out programs build valuable skills in leadership and event management!

• Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin: SCRAM! Sustain. Conserve. Recycle. And. Move-out. SCRAM! is the move-out theme at Northland College. The Sustainability Office figured a clever acronym and a recognizable mascot (Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch) would attract more attention from the students and encourage residents to be thoughtful about their move-out habits. In an attempt to limit waste, Northland College is boosting opportunities for single-stream recycling and donations. SCRAM! runs in the final week before dorms close. As part of the program, each residential building is equipped with two side-by-side 12 yard dumpsters. One is for trash, one is for recycling. Each building also has a designated indoor space for donations (clothing, linens, furniture, housewares, etc). The donation sites are located in convenient, well-traveled locations (namely 1st floor lobbies and lounges), to increase participation. The majority of the donated items are added to the inventory of the ReUse Room. The ReUse Room is located on campus and is set up as a secondhand store – the only difference is that everything is free! If and when the ReUse Room reaches capacity, the rest of the goods are donated directly to the community.–description thanks to Sarah Christofferson, Sustainaibility Fellow at Northland College

• University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH:  Trash 2 Treasure. Approximately half of the 13,000 undergraduates attending the University of New Hampshire live on campus; each month they throw away about 25 tons of trash. However in May, that number rises dramatically to 120 tons due to move-out waste. In 2010, UNH had 13 extra 30-yard dumpsters delivered to campus just to handle move-out waste. The mission of the Trash 2 Treasure (T2T) program, started by the UNH Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC),  is to reduce this move-out waste and reduce UNH’s overall contribution to landfills. Each May, T2T collects all of the usable stuff that students donate or throw away (all T2T members are official dumpster divers!), store and clean it over the summer, and then hold a 3-day yard sale during move-in weekend, selling it all back at reasonable rates to incoming and returning students. The income generated from the yard sale is used to pay for the costs of running the program over the next year. This model makes T2T the first student-run, self-sustaining program of its kind. T2T’s founder Alex Freid, and other T2T leaders are now working with students at other campuses to build similar, self-sustaining programs and the overall movement of students committed to waste reduction as part of the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN).–description adapted from “About UNH T2T;” additional information thanks to Alex Freid, Founder and Executive Director, PLAN

Tell us how YOUR campus reduced waste during move-out 2013. Share photos on our facebook wall or comment below.

Related Reading:

• Find out how to bring PLAN to your campus: http://www.postlandfill.org/
• Graduate with zero carbon debt! NWF and CarbonFund.org partnership to bring your campus premium-priced carbon offset opportunities.
• Like Campus Ecology on facebook, and follow @CampusEcology and @YouthforClimate on twitter.

Photo: Emma Cassidy/tarsandsaction

• It’s the most extreme KXL legislation the House has voted on. That’s really saying something, considering the half-dozen other terrible bills that have popped up over the last couple years. Not only would it remove the decision from the President’s hands, but it would override the authority and oversight responsibilities of the US State Department, the Department of the Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has an important role to play in the State Department review, would also be ignored.
• It relies upon outdated science. Imagine if your doctor wrote you a prescription based on your medical chart from years ago — inconceivable, right? But that’s essentially what Rep. Terry wants to do for Keystone. The State Department issued an analysis in 2011 for the first Keystone XL application, but TransCanada (the pipeline builder) revised its route and submitted an application for a new project in 2012. Despite this, H.R. 3 would use the 2011 analysis to fulfill legal requirements.
• Just in case there was any doubt about its anti-environment intentions, Rep. Terry’s bill would force all legal challenges to go through one of the country’s most conservative courts, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
• It’s essentially an earmark, which is to say a favor for a specific company (TransCanada). But it would also set a dangerous precedent for other tar sands pipelines that the industry is pushing around the U.S. — in the Great Lakes watershed, the farm belt, Gulf coast, and even New England.

Regardless of your opinion of the pipeline itself (and let’s not forget just how dangerous KXL is for wildlife and our climate) this bill is a massive overreach by Big Oil’s allies in Congress. The White House, by law, is supposed to oversee international pipelines, and while we’ve had our disagreements about how well they’ve conducted their review, at least it’s given citizens the opportunity to weigh in. In April, over a million public comments were submitted in opposition to the project — but Rep. Terry’s bill would throw those comments into the proverbial paper shredder and put a big rubber stamp on TransCanada’s application.

As Larry Schweiger, NWF’s president and CEO, put it:

This bill puts the interests of a foreign energy company ahead of more than 1 million Americans who have expressed concern for our nation’s wildlife, energy security and public health. It is a bad bill that caters to polluters, not people.

Given how anti-environmental the House of Representatives has become, we expect this bill to pass, but there are still a number of key Congressmen and women who could vote either way — and how they vote sends an important message about their conservation values. Your voice can help! Call or email your representative and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act.

To learn more about the threats posed to wildlife and public health by pipelines like Keystone XL, visit NWF.org/tarsands.

May 16- Late last evening, the House Committee on Agriculture passed its version of the 2013 farm bill.

“We commend Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN) for crafting a bipartisan reauthorization of the farm bill,” said Julie Sibbing, director of Agriculture and Forestry Programs, National Wildlife Federation. “While we appreciate the difficult task of drafting a bill to achieve deficit reductions, the committee missed important opportunities to save taxpayer dollars through commonsense conservation measures for soil, water and wildlife.”

Notably absent in the House Committee bill was a provision included in the Senate committee bill that would link soil and wetlands protection to crop insurance premium subsidies. Major agricultural and conservation groups recently joined with Senate lawmakers to support reasonable soil and wetland protection requirements crafted to work better for producers.

NWF: McCarthy Deserves Clean Vote

May 16- Gina McCarthy’s nomination as Environmental Protection Agency administrator now moves to the full Senate after the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today approved her. Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

“Gina McCarthy has already been approved once by the Senate and since then has only strengthened her record as a non-partisan voice for sensible reductions in pollution to protect America’s wildlife, clean air and water, and public health. The full Senate should give her a clean vote as soon as possible. We’ve already wasted enough time watching polluter allies play political games with her confirmation process.

• Take action and tell your senators you support Gina McCarthy to serve as America’s next Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Shortsighted Senate Water Bill Will Damage Rivers and Wildlife, Fleece Taxpayers

May 15-  Today, the Senate voted 83-14 to pass the Water Resources Development Act of 2013, S.601.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in response:

“This shortsighted bill will leave Americans at greater risk of flooding, damage our rivers and wildlife, and fleece taxpayers. Apparently, all it takes is a classic Washington pig roast to break the gridlock in the Senate.

It would cost an estimated $60 billion to build all the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects currently on the books. Today, the Senate has added to the backlog while undermining the process that identifies which projects provide real value. Time and time again, commonsense environmental reviews have shed light on expensive, damaging proposals that are not in our national interest.The Water Resources Development Act is vital for helping to restore national treasures like the Everglades and the Mississippi River Delta. Unfortunately, language in this bill undermines the bedrock environmental principle that the federal government should look before it leaps. For example, this bill will allow the Army Corps to fine other federal agencies up to $20,000 a week if they aren’t able to meet the new rushed deadlines for environmental review.”

• Read more about the Water Resources Development Act and how it effects wildlife.

National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There Movement Announces Partnership With The American Camp Association

May 14- NWF  is pleased to announce a new partnership with the American Camp Association (ACA). Through this partnership, NWF and ACA will promote the importance of reconnecting families with the outdoors, particularly through Be Out There’s Great American Backyard Campout, which encourages families across the nation to gather outdoors and camp on June 22, 2013.

“NWF and ACA are committed to getting millions more children to play outdoors on a regular basis. This relationship is a win for American kids, because together we will help families raise healthier and happier children who have a lifelong commitment to protecting wildlife and the natural world,” said Meri-Margaret Deoudes, vice president of Be Out There at NWF. “Through this new partnership, ACA will help NWF’s Be Out There movement share resources that inspire parents to make nature a part of their family’s everyday lives.”

Senate Farm Bill Protects Soil, Water, Wildlife

May 14-The National Wildlife Federation commends Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-MS) for their leadership in crafting and moving out of committee a strong, bipartisan reauthorization of the farm bill.

“The Senate farm bill includes an historic agreement between agriculture and conservation organizations to ensure that basic soil and wetland protection requirements were extended to apply to crop insurance premium subsidies,” said Julie Sibbing, director of Agriculture and Forestry Programs, National Wildlife Federation.

“NWF thanks the Committee members for their support of the agreement, especially Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who successfully offered an amendment to attach these provisions to crop insurance on the Senate floor last year and who stood up for the agreement in committee today.”

• Take action and ensure that worthy Farm Bill conservation programs are reauthorized at appropriate levels, structured to achieve maximum wildlife and environmental benefits, and fully funded during the annual appropriations process.

Senate Water Bill Expensive, Damaging

May 13- On Monday, spokespeople representing three very different backgrounds and perspectives offered up their opinions of the Water Resources Development Act (S.601).

• Download the audio of the telepresser here.

 And now here are highlights from NWF in the news:

• Los Angeles Times- Senate approves bill that would benefit L.A. port
• Parents Magazine- Raise a Nature Lover
• Politico- Morning Transportation: Senate passes WRDA
• Miami Herald- Senate overwhelmingly approves water infrastructure bill
• Florida Today- Senate authorizes Port Canaveral widening
• Billings Gazette- Guest opinion: Good FWP planning can help resolve bison battles
• The Shreveport Times- Vitter says water bill will help Louisiana
• CNBC.com- Wind farms get pass on eagle deaths

For more visit www.nwf.org/news

North Atlantic Right Whale (flickr/MyFWC Research)

By way of celebration, let’s turn to a shining example. With climate change as a leading threat to wildlife, it is increasingly critical that we transition to clean and renewable energy sources and stop filling our air and water with dangerous pollution. NWF strongly advocates for the development of offshore wind energy projects in America’s waters. There is incredible potential along our Atlantic coastline to generate clean, renewable energy and it is time for us to start investing in this plentiful resource.  Of course, all energy development has some impact on wildlife habitat and our staff is actively working to ensure wildlife are protected as we pursue this critical clean energy source.

How could offshore wind development impact the severely endangered North Atlantic right whale?

With a global population estimated between 350 and 400 individuals, loss of even a single North Atlantic right whale stands to impact the survival of the species. Highly sensitive to underwater sounds, the surveying process typically employed for offshore wind projects could well disorient or disrupt the whales as they migrate through the area of the mid-Atlantic that has been designated for offshore wind development. Straying from their path could send travelling mothers and calves into harm’s way. NWF takes endangered species conservation very seriously, so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work in search of a solution.

Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, England’s southeast coast (flickr/nuon)

This agreement has a lot to say. Yes, it gives those of us concerned with wildlife protection an opportunity to advocate for an energy solution knowing that the wildlife we care about are being protected.  And yes, it confirms that the wind industry can lead a responsible transition away from fossil fuels.  It also says something much bigger: that when we come together and discuss overlapping challenges with a shared goal in mind, something truly sustainable can come out of it—a whole solution, far stronger than the sum of its parts.

With a mission to protect wildlife for our children’s future framing all that we do, responsibly sited offshore wind development is the only kind we will advocate for.  Thanks to bold industry leadership and the immeasurable benefits of innovative collaboration, that will be quite alright.

Speak up for right whales, sea turtles and other endangered wildlife! Tell the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to move forward with efforts to develop offshore wind energy off the Atlantic Coast with strong measures to protect wildlife.

“Gina McCarthy has already been approved once by the Senate and since then has only strengthened her record as a non-partisan voice for sensible reductions in pollution to protect America’s wildlife, clean air and water, and public health,”  says Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. ”The full Senate should give her a clean vote as soon as possible. We’ve already wasted enough time watching polluter allies play political games with her confirmation process.”

The protest by polluter allies on the committee didn’t win them any friends. Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under President George W. Bush, told Amy Harder of National Journal, “They looked like sore losers when they walked out the way they did.”

Learn more about Gina McCarthy and her work to protect wildlife and connect children with nature at StandWithGina.com.

Tell your senators you support Gina McCarthy to serve as America’s next Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Learning how to cook is one of the most valuable skills you can ever obtain.  These skills were once passed down from generation to generation, but now millions of people lack even the most basic skills — as a result, it’s costing millions of lives and billions of dollars to cope with the increase in diet-related diseases. We need to get back to basics and share our cooking skills and knowledge so that everyone has access to good, nutritious food from scratch.

Food Revolution Day is a global day of action for people to make a stand for good food and essential cooking skills. It’s a chance for people to come together within their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities to cook and share their kitchen skills, food knowledge and resources. Food Revolution day aims to raise awareness about the importance of good food and better food education for everyone.

Eco-Schools USA, through our Sustainable Food and Healthy Living pathways, are proud to support and participate in Food Revolution Day.

What can you do for Food Revolution Day at school: 

• Get students excited about fresh produce by planting fruit and vegetable seeds on the day.  Cress is a nice and easy starting point, as well as lettuce or tomatoes.
  

  Food Revolution Day

• Download the Food Revolution Day Yogurt Pops recipe and give students a healthy dessert idea by showing them how to whip up the ingredients and freeze them in plastic molds.  Click the link to find other recipe ideas.
• Bring different fruits and vegetables into class and get students to taste them and guess what they are.  If they’re older get them to do a blind taste test.  Also discuss seasonality of fruits and vegetables – eating seasonally is a good thing – produce tends to be cheaper and tastier and it’s better for the environment!
• Arrange a tour of the local farmer’s market.
• Utilize the tools found at our Eco-Schools USA Food Revolution Day page.
• Need more ideas? Check out this Food Revolution Day School Ideas Google Hangout.

Watch and join Jamie Oliver along with millions all over the world in the fight for REAL FOOD!

Click here to view the embedded video.

A guest post from the Food Revolution Day team in the UK!

Global analysis of where the diversity of vertebrate animals would most benefit from aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Figure from Warren et al., Nature Climate Change 2013.

We already knew that the rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns brought about by climate change was bad news for the world’s rare and endangered species, likely pushing many to extinction. A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change now finds that even their more common and widespread relatives are in danger. An international team of researchers, lead by the UK’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, looked at nearly 50,000 plant and animal species worldwide and compared how their distributions align with current climatic conditions as well as possible future conditions.

They found that more than half of plants (57%) and more than a third (34%) of vertebrate animals would lose the majority of their climatically suitable habitats in the absence of serious actions to reduce carbon pollution.

Reductions in suitable climatic ranges for such a large number of the world’s plants and animals would not only lead to considerable losses of many unique life forms, but would have far-reaching and likely devastating effects on the many ecological benefits that people derive from our natural ecosystems.

Although comparisons between current species ranges and future climates have been carried out before, there are a couple of things that distinguish this new study.

• Scale – this research looked at a huge number of species around the world, focusing on those that currently are widespread and abundant.
• Dispersal capacity – Rather than assume that species would be capable of keeping pace with rapid shifts in climate (as many past studies have), the researchers incorporated estimates of realistic dispersal capacity for different groups of plants and animals.
• Carbon reduction – the researchers also evaluated the degree to which common species would suffer range contractions under various scenarios for carbon reduction, in order to quantify the biodiversity benefits of climate mitigation.

Understanding the implications for biodiversity of varying levels of carbon in the atmosphere takes on particular significance in the wake of last week’s news from the Mauna Loa Observatory that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have topped 400 parts per million for the first time in at least three million years.

Providing More Time to Adapt

Dealing with the underlying cause of climate change (climate mitigation), and addressing the impacts of climate change (climate adaptation) have often been viewed as separate approaches to addressing global warming, and some environmentalists have even considered a focus on adaptation as undercutting the urgency of reducing carbon emissions.  This study clearly demonstrates the tight and complementary relation between climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. These researchers found that early aggressive action on carbon reduction has the capacity to greatly reduce the projected impacts on common species—with losses reduced by 60% under the most stringent carbon reduction approaches. At the same time, reducing these pressures would have the effect of increasing the likely success of adaptation efforts, and lengthening the time—by up to 50 years—for society to put climate-smart conservation strategies into place.

Drawing on the Power of Networked Biological Data

This study was only possible thanks to an enormous investment over the past two decades to computerize and network together the world’s biological collections.  Natural history museums and botanical gardens around the world have for centuries served as biological archives, with their preserved specimens documenting the distribution and condition of the world’s biological diversity. In order to make this historical record more accessible and useful to society, these institutions have been investing in the laborious task of digitizing these collections and linking them online in something called the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).  Indeed, the US node for this network—known as BISON—was just launched in April by the US Geological Survey. This global network now links together millions of plant and animal distribution records, and served as the primary source for the biological data on which this new and groundbreaking study of climate change was based.  It is truly an example of how better access to the historical record can shed new light on the future of biodiversity.

Wildlife in a Warming World

Although this new study focuses on how these changes are likely to play out over the next 70 years, impacts of climate change on our wildlife are already here.  National Wildlife Federation considers climate change to be the conservation issue of the twenty-first century, and recently issued a report—Wildlife in a Warming World—that details the many ways in which our wildlife already are being affected. In addition to advocating for meaningful action to reduce the carbon pollution driving global warming, NWF is working to identify ways to better safeguard our wildlife and their habitats in the face of climate change. There are many things that conservationists and natural resource managers can do now to help wildlife survive in the face of these threats, and our recently published Quick Guide to Climate Smart Conservation summarizes the findings of a broad collaboration of adaptation experts convened by NWF.

An Urgent Call to Action

While there is much that we can do to prepare for the impacts of climate change on people and wildlife, this new study makes clear that even with aggressive action – on both mitigation and adaptation—we stand to lose a substantial amount of our biological heritage. This has profound implications not only for the diversity of life on Earth, but for the very ecological life support systems, like water and food production, that humans rely on. The study underscores the urgency with which we need to achieve real and meaningful reductions in carbon emissions, if we wish to leave our children with a planet still capable of inspiring awe in our wildlife and wild places.

Speak Up for Polar Bear Cubs: Urge President Obama to start limiting carbon pollution that comes from coal fired power plants — our nation’s largest source of carbon pollution.

NWF: Inexcusable for EPA Nominee to be Denied Fair Vote

May 9- Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans announced a boycott of today’s hearing on the confirmation of Gina McCarthy as Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said on Thursday:

“Given Gina McCarthy’s long record of non-partisan public service, it’s inexcusable for her nomination to be politicized by senators prioritizing industrial polluters over public health protection. She’s answered every question put to her and her record of protecting America’s wildlife, clean air and water, and public lands is rock-solid. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee should set aside partisanship and instead serve the American people by giving Gina McCarthy the clean up-or-down confirmation vote she deserves.”

Take Action to support a speedy decision.

Sportsmen Back Sensible Fracking Regulations

May 8 – As the Interior Department prepares to release new federal fracking regulations, a sportsmen’s coalition is urging officials to make sure the rules will adequately protect air and water quality, fish and wildlife.

The update to oil and gas drilling methods on federal and tribal lands is the first in about 30 years, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development noted Tuesday. Meanwhile, the process of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has significantly changed, opening previously inaccessible land to development.

“The reality is the technology and methods have changed since the original rule was put in place. Today, millions of gallons of fluids and chemicals are injected underground at high pressure,” said Brad Powell, Senior Policy Director for Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen Conservation Project. “We know there are a lot of good companies doing the right thing. But it’s critical to have safeguards in place. We can’t run the risk of contaminating groundwater or surface water and endangering people, fish and wildlife.”

Learn more about the negative environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing here.

National Wildlife Federation Expert Appointed to New Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resources

May 8 – The National Wildlife Federation’s Director of Climate Change Adaptation, Dr. Bruce Stein, has been selected to serve as a member of the newly-established federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science by Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

“We urgently need to understand how climate change will impact wildlife and their habitats, so that we can take appropriate actions to enhance their chances for survival,” said Stein. “The Department of the Interior is working hard to improve the scientific basis for wildlife conservation in an era of global warming, and I am honored to have been invited to serve on this new Advisory Committee.”

“Responding to climate change and its effects on our natural and cultural resources is an important priority for the nation,” said Secretary Sally Jewell. “This committee embodies our commitment to working closely with our partners to strengthen our efforts to develop sound science that will help inform policymakers, land managers and the public in making important resource management decisions.”

The new committee will provide guidance on the Interior Department’s climate change adaptation science initiatives, including the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and the recently established Department of Interior Climate Science Centers.

Read Bruce Stein’s profile and learn more about NWF’s climate-smart conservation work.

Senator Chambliss Honored for Farm Bill Conservation Leadership

May 8 – Georgia Wildlife Federation, the state’s oldest and largest conservation organization, and National Wildlife Federation, the nation’s largest conservation organization, today recognized U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) in his Capitol Hill office with a Conservation Service Award for his leadership in promoting natural resource conservation in the Farm Bill. Presenting the award were Todd Holbrook, president and CEO of Georgia Wildlife Federation and Matt Nichols, chairman of GWF, with Jim Lyon, vice president for Conservation Policy for National Wildlife Federation.

In presenting the award, Holbrook cited Senator Chambliss’ leadership in last year’s Farm Bill floor debate, when the Senator successfully sponsored an amendment to re-attach basic natural resource protections to crop insurance premium subsidies. The protections—called conservation compliance—require subsidy recipients to forgo draining wetlands (Swampbuster) or farming highly erodible lands without a soil conservation plan (Sodbuster).

“Senator Chambliss’ leadership on this issue has been critical to protect our natural resources and Georgia taxpayers’ wallets,” said Holbrook.

Click here to learn more about the Farm Bill and how it effects America’s wildlife habitats.

Planting the Seeds for Gardening With Kids

May 8- Spring isn’t just a beautiful time to enjoy the outdoors, it is also a great time to get outside with your kids and start your own family garden. A new guide, titled “Get Your Family’s Garden Growing”released by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) shows just how easy and fun it can be to garden with your kids. The new guide is part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There movement and is being released in celebration of May is Garden for Wildlife Month.

Report: Advancing Landscape-Scale Conservation in North America’s Coastal Temperate Rainforests

May 6- North America’s resource managers and conservation practitioners protect and preserve our lands, waters, and wildlife in the face of land use change, development pressure, and now, climate change. To help ensure our resource managers and conservationists will be able to protect and preserve the places and wildlife we cherish in light of climate change, National Wildlife Federation worked with the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) and University of Washington Climate Impacts Group to identify climate change-related challenges, needs, and opportunities for conservation in North America’s coastal temperate rainforests and coasts. The 195 resource managers, conservation practitioners, and researchers we engaged requested four types of support to address the challenges they face: decision-support systems and tools; collaboration and other capacity-building activities; new or different science, data and information; and, science communication and outreach.

Download the full report: Advancing Landscape-Scale Conservation: An Assessment of Climate Change-Related Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities for the NPLCC (pdf)

Read the Wildlife Promise blog: 4 New Insights for Climate-Smart Conservation

And now here are highlights from NWF in the news:

• ABC News: Hiking With Babies and Tots: Trail Options Grow
• NPR: Big Ag Agrees to Conserve Cropland, But At What Cost?
• Fairfax Times: Middle schooler wins national youth environmental reporting award
• Port Clinton News Herald: More massive algal blooms likely
• Times-Picayune: Using the Mississippi River to rebuild Louisiana’s coast: David Muth
• Sierra Sun Times: Ranger Rick and The National Wildlife Federation Visit Sierra Foothill Charter School
• Denver Post: Creek spill an overdue wakeup call
• North Country Public Radio: NWF expands challenge to new invasive rules
• Journal-Sentinel: Wildlife Federation sues to allow New York state to toughen ballast standards

For more visit www.nwf.org/news

Following Montana’s administrative laws and regulations, department staff did their job and rejected Arch Coal’s application in early April of this year, sending a 41-page deficiency notice to the company.

Mike Rowland, Arch Coal’s Montana Director speaking in Lame Deer, MT at a public hearing on the proposed Otter Creek coal mine.

Words and phrases used over and over again in the deficiency notice include: must be submitted, inadequate, misleading, mis-represented, contradictory, not acceptable, unacceptable, inconsistencies, missing CAD data, correct this information, incorrect, discrepancy, unclear, correct this statement, confusion, does not adequately address, resubmit, inappropriate, insufficient, error, improper, missing, DEQ does not agree and cannot be verified. I’m not taking these words out of context. Read it for yourself. These phrases and words were used consistently in the document referring to Arch Coal’s data or analysis of the data.

Arch Coal will argue that it is common for mining permit applications to be returned to the company for more details or for minor reworking of the document. This is true.

What isn’t common, in Montana at least, is for a mining company to change the language of the laws and administrative rules in their permit application to “lessen their commitment.”

Yeah, they did that.

Rewriting Montana laws

Now, either Arch Coal has people working for them that are not qualified to produce a permit application or they intentionally changed the language of the regulations to see if they could slip one by the state of Montana and lessen their responsibilities to the land, water, air and citizens. Arch is used to working in Wyoming so my hunch is it’s the latter of the two.

On page 24 of the deficiency notice, Department staff write,

It appears that in some instances, OCC (Otter Creek Coal Co.) recites the applicable rule verbatim, and in other instances, modifies or omits rule language.

Then again on page 24, DEQ states,

OCC has again added the qualifier, “where feasible” to the permit language in the following paragraph (17.24.631(3)(b). OCC’s version of ARM 17.24.631 is not acceptable and must be modified: there is no ‘where feasible’ provision in the rule.

And on the final page there is one last sentence from Environmental Quality staff,

DEQ has noted that OCC has changed the language of the rules throughout the application to lessen the commitment required by the rules. As a reminder, OCC will be held to the standards set forth in the ARM l7.24.XXXX first and foremost, before the commitments in the permit application.

Where Feasible?

I think it is important to take a moment and think about what they did. It is something that takes a level of arrogance that is almost unimaginable to the average person. But then again, when you are acting on behalf of a large corporation like Arch Coal — with its numerous subsidiary companies — and no individual has to actually take responsibility for the actions of said corporation, I guess any discomfort at breaking rules gets dispersed among enough people that it is no big deal.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just follow laws “where feasible.” Oh, I’m sorry officer, I was speeding through a school zone because slowing down just didn’t seem feasible.

What else is mind-boggling is that the small article in the Montana newspapers about the deficiency notice stated that Montana regulators were just asking for more information about the mine. The article completely ignored that Arch Coal didn’t submit entire required sections of the permit and rewrote Montana’s administrative rules.

It is understandable that Arch Coal is in a hurry. Port proposals to export coal to Asia on the west coast are dropping like flies and they don’t have a domestic market for their coal. They are in a race against time, history and the citizens of southeastern Montana, and Arch Coal is losing.

Thank the Montana Department of Environmental Quality staff

If you have a moment go ahead and send a thank you to the staff at the DEQ who did such a great job reviewing Arch Coal’s permit application.

DEQCoal@mt.gov