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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
October 30, 2000
There is no quiet place in white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in the Spring or the rustle of an insect's wings. -- Chief Seattle Go now to your quiet place of nature and remind yourself what you're fighting for. -- anonymous
Table of Contents
1) STOP SNOWMOBILE ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDER
2) PROTECT THE GRAY WOLF
3) STOP ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS
4) HELP "CARA" BE FOR CONSERVATION, NOT FOR ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL PORK
5) SEND PRES. CLINTON AN E-POSTCARD ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING & ENERGY
6) PROTECT HORSESHOE CRABS -- COMMENT DEADLINE TOMORROW - OCT 31st!
Action Items
1) STOP SNOWMOBILE ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDER
In the waning days of the 106th Congress, three Western senators are using stealth political tactics to try to accomplish what the snowmobile industry could not do during two years of public meetings and input: ensure the perpetual use of these noisy machines in Yellowstone and other national parks.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY) and Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) are attempting to attach a rider to one of several end-of-term spending bills that would prevent the Park Service from reducing or eliminating use of these noisy and polluting machines in Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Olympic and Crater Lake national parks.
It's time for lovers of solitude, silence, and wildlife to stand up for the national parks. It's especially important that Senator Tom Daschle, senate minority leader, hear from those who believe in public land protection. One the major snowmobile manufacturers, Polaris, has a factory in Daschle's state, but there's more at stake here. More than 46,000 citizens in all 50 states commented on the use of snowmobiles in the parks, and that public process determined that phasing out snowmobiles is necessary to uphold laws, executive orders and regulations intended to protect our national parks.
TAKE ACTION: please call these senators today.
Sen. Tom Daschle 202-224-6441 tom_daschle@daschle.senate.gov
Sen. Craig Thomas 202-224-6441 craig@thomas.senate.gov
Sen. Ted Stevens 202-224-3004 senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov
2) PROTECT THE GRAY WOLF!
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposing to End Wolf Protection! FWS plans to significantly weaken protections by first "downlisting" the wolf from threatened to endangered and then "delisting" by completely removing the wolf from the Endangered Species List, even in places where wolf populations have recently declined. Once the population of wolves throughout seven western states reaches a mere 30 breeding pairs, delisting action would begin (the wolf would be completely delisted) and wolf management and future reintroduction efforts would be handed over to hostile western state governments. The proposal would also allow the FWS to enact special regulations that make it even easier for wolves to be legally killed by private individuals as well as by agency personnel.
TAKE ACTION: Please write and tell FWS it's WAY too soon to delist wolves! Comments must be received by November 13, 2000 Your comments on the proposal can be sent by e-mail to: graywolfcomments@fws.gov SUBJECT LINE MUST SAY "WOLF COMMENTS" Or, by mail to: Content Analysis Enterprise Team Wolf Comments 200 East Broadway PO Box 7669, Room 301 Missoula, Montana 59807 Or, by fax to: 406-329-3021 To send your message electronically from the Sierra Club website, please go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/takeaction/wildlands/index3.asp
3) Stop Last Minute Flood of Anti-Environmental Riders
Final Appropriations Bills Offer Last Chance to Attach Harmful Riders
Yes, the light above the Capitol is still lit which means Congress is still in town and unable to come to resolution over a handful of Appropriations bills. Negotiations at this hour are focused on the huge Labor-HHS appropriations bill.
This must-pass appropriation bill could represent the last chance for lawmakers to slip in pet projects. It is also a prime target for anti-environmental riders which are cropping up by the dozens. The Sierra Club has been closely tracking two riders that Appropriations Chair Stevens has been shopping around dealing with 1) Steller sea lions and 2) Snowmobile use in our National Parks. Also on the radar screen is a rider by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) dealing with the expansion of a military base at Fort Irwin in southern California that could encroach on prime desert tortoise habitat.
The Stevens sea lion rider would stymie Endangered Species Act protections for the endangered Steller sea lion. Since the 1960s, the population of Steller sea lions has declined by well over 80 percent (140,000 in 1960 to 16,259 in 1998). The proposed rider would delay efforts to recover the Steller sea lion for at least two more years, placing them that much closer to extinction.
Yet another Stevens rider would subvert the National Park Service's ability to protect our parks. The rider would proclaim snowmobiling "an established, traditional and legitimate means of visitor uses and enjoyment" and permanently force the noisy and polluting machines into pristine parks such as Yellowstone (ID, MT, WY), Mt. Rainier and Olympic (WA), Zion (UT), and Acadia (ME). Sen. Daschle has a so-called compromise version of this rider that would force the Park Service to accept snowmobiling in 28 parks for the next year and allow it to continue in Yellowstone for the next three years.
The proposal by Rep. Lewis would expand the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin in southern California by 131,000 acres - directly into "critical habitat" for the desert tortoise and other species protected by the Endangered Species Act. The desert tortoise is already in bad shape, as many of the remaining Southern California populations have been ravaged by disease, and federal land managers have failed to adequately protect tortoise habitat. Further encroachment into desert tortoise habitat could take that species one step closer toward extinction.
These harmful riders are now part of an infamous list of 221 riders that may ultimately be attached to the final spending bill left to be approved, Labor-HHS Appropriations. That list includes many issues that Sierra Club activists have been working on for years, including:
Animas La Plata Project "The Colorado Ute Settlement Act" Emigrant Wilderness Preservation Act of 1999 Steller Sea Lions San Rafael Swell NCA Environmental Streamlining Act (S 3173) TEA-21 eligibility for Alaska Native Corporations Beverage Alcohol Exclusion (EPA) West Mojave Desert CA Transfer Jurisdiction "Ft. Irwin Expansion" Snowmobiles in National Parks National Uniformity of Food Act Dioxin Assessment GE Contaminated Sediment Rider Deep Draft Dredging Cost Share Change Beach Renourishment Recreation Policy Change Flood Control Policy Change Army Corps Expansion of Jurisdiction for Environmental Infrastructure Huna Totem Corporation, S 426 Alaska Native Corporation Consultation in Forest Planning University of Alaska Land Grab (S. 744, and H.R. 2958) Alaska Native Cemetery and Historical Sites
The White House has been strong in expressing their opposition to any environmental riders and has sent a strongly-worded letter to the Hill. There are also sign-on letters from both Democrats and Republicans urging Appropriators to reject this latest crop of riders. But you can add your voice to the choir:
TAKE ACTION:
-- Call the White House Comment line at (202)456-1414 and urge President Clinton to continue to stand tall against backdoor attacks on our environment and veto any bill that contains anti-environmental riders.
-- Call Your Representatives in Congress through the Congressional switchboard (202)224-3121 and urge them to reject anti-environmental riders and pass clean spending bills.
4) MORE "CARA" FUNDING WORKS ITS WAY INTO APPROPRIATIONS - HELP MAKE SURE IT'S FOR CONSERVATION, AND NOT FOR ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL PORK
The road toward dedicated "conservation" funding took another turn last week, unfortunately mostly in the wrong direction. As you may know, the Interior appropriations bill enacted earlier this fall provided enhanced funding levels for many important conservation programs (including at least $550 million/year for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund) and included provisions that will encourage the Congress to consistently fund these programs for the next six years. This funding initiative was largely styled after the popular "Conservation and Reinvestment Act" ("CARA"), but fortunately dropped out dangerous provisions from CARA that would have threatened our fragile coasts with increased oil drilling and the construction of destructive infrastructure projects. While the Interior bill funding does fall far short of our goal of obtaining long-term full funding ($900 million/year) for the LWCF, the Sierra Club was pleased to see a significant increase in funding go through without the anti-environmental provisions of CARA.
Unfortunately, some in Congress are pressing to have the worst parts of CARA tacked on to another appropriations bill. As a result, the Commerce, Justice, State (CJS) appropriations bill recently passed by both the House and Senate includes an additional $420 million for various ocean and coastal "conservation" programs. While this proposal, also styled after CARA's coastal provisions, sounds good on paper, a large chunk of this money could actually be spent on infrastructure projects that would destroy fragile coastal wetlands and fish habitat, and would cause pollution in sensitive coastal waters.
TAKE ACTION:
Billed as "conservation funding," ocean and coastal funding in the CJS bill could add up to nothing but anti-environmental pork if not designed properly. President Clinton has promised to veto the CJS bill for other reasons. Please contact the White House and urge him to carry out this threat if the bill reaches his desk. More importantly, urge him to include concerns about ocean and coastal funding in his veto message. Specifically, the President should insist on a standard to ensure that coastal funding is used to restore and protect coastal environments, and not for projects that will do further damage to our valuable and threatened coastlines.
Information for contacting the White House can be found at the end of this message.
5) SEND PRES. CLINTON AN E-POSTCARD ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING & ENERGY
A new report by the world's leading climate scientists paints a frightening picture of the Earth's climate unless we begin cutting global warming pollution now. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) raised the estimated temperature increases and stated clearly that human-caused pollution has already begun warming the globe. Climate experts now predict that the Earth's average temperature could increase by up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100!
TAKE ACTION: Concerned about global warming changing the world's climate, disrupting weather systems, causing drought, floods, spreading disease and threatening the survival of countless species? Use Climate Voice to send President Clinton an e-postcard urging him to use November's climate summit to reduce the pollution that causes global warming. Climate Voice is a new cooperative campaign between environmentalists around the world to build pressure for more action against global warming at November's Climate Summit.
This November, when climate negotiators gather in The Hague, Netherlands they will either strengthen or weaken the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. We need to use Climate Voice to send the world's leaders the message that we want them to honor the commitment made under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions of global warming gases.
You can send a Climate Voice E-postcard from the Sierra Club's global warming web site and clicking on the link "It's time to turn down the heat": www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming Send President Clinton an e-postcard today!
6) PROTECT HORSESHOE CRABS -- COMMENT DEADLINE TOMORROW - OCT 31st!
Your help is urgently needed to ensure that horseshoe crabs (HSC) get their marine reserve off the mouth of the Delaware Bay. We need your help to get the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to declare this a Reserve immediately. Although the Reserve is supported by the Governors of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) it is up to the NMFS's to establish the Reserve and they must hear from you by October 31.
BACKGROUND AND TALKING POINTS:
The HSC is a bottom dwelling arthropod that utilizes estuarine and continental shelf habitats. Its range in North America extends from the Gulf of Maine to the Yucatan Peninsula with the Delaware Bay hosting the worlds largest concentration of spawning HSC's.
The HSC is estimated to be approximately 400 million years old and they play an important ecological role in the food web for migrating shorebirds, finfish, and the Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles, a federally listed (threatened) species.
HSC's are also beneficial to humans in that they have been used in eye research, surgical sutures wound dressing development and detection of bacterial endotoxins in drugs and intravenous devices.
Since 1995 the conservation community started working to establish a fishery management plan (FMP) to try and establish sustainable harvest quotas and provide essential habitat protection for the HSC's. The reason for this was our fear of overexploitation of an unregulated fishery.
Horseshoe crabs are harvested for bait in the American eel, whelk (conch),and catfish fisheries. In 1998 an FMP was established by the ASMFC. Although this FMP is a step in the right direction it still has a long way to go.
During the period in their lifcycle when they are outside of the Delaware Bay and on the continental shelf commercial trawlers are taking many of them before they can reach sexual maturity to spawn.
This is a major reason the Reserve is needed. In doing this it will help assure that the juveniles and virgin adults will stand a better chance of survival. To NMFS's credit it is important to note that they recognize that the scientific data is incomplete but that all signs point to a decline in the species and because of that are exercising the precautionary principle and erroring on the side of conservation.
TAKE ACTION: Please fax a short letter to:
Mr. Richard H. Schaefer, Chief, Intergovernmental and Recreational Fisheries National Marine Fisheries Service 8484 Georgia Avenue Suite 425 Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-427-2014 (T) 301-427-2313 (F)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Mike D'Amico Sierra Club Wild Atlantic Project mike.damico@sierraclub.org (E)
TAKE ACTION: Help Stop Last Minute Flood Of Anti-Environmental Riders
Final Appropriations Bills Offer Last Chance to Attach Harmful Riders
Hard to believe but true, Congress cannot seem to wrap up their business and go home. Republicans, Democrats and the White House are unable to reach agreement on a handful of Appropriations bills to fund our federal government's operations for the next fiscal year.
These remaining must-pass Appropriations bills represent the last chance for lawmakers to slip in pet projects. They are also prime targets for anti-environmental riders which are cropping up by the dozens. The Sierra Club has been closely tracking two riders that Appropriations Chair Steven's has been shopping around dealing with 1) Steller sea lions and 2) Snowmobile use in our National Parks. It was rumored that these harmful riders would find a home in the Commerce State Justice Appropriations bill. That bill passed last night however, free of either provision.
The Stevens sea lion rider would stymie Endangered Species Act protections for the endangered Steller sea lion. Since the 1960s, the population of Steller sea lions has declined by well over 80 percent (140,000 in 1960 to 16,259 in 1998). The proposed rider would delay efforts to recover the Steller sea lion for at least two more years, placing them that much closer to extinction.
Yet another Steven's rider would subvert the National Park Service's ability to protect our parks. The rider would proclaim snowmobiling "an established, traditional and legitimate means of visitor uses and enjoyment" and permanently force the noisy and polluting machines into pristine parks such as Yellowstone (ID, MT, WY), Mt. Rainier and Olympic (WA), Zion (UT), and Acadia (ME). Sen. Daschle has a so-called compromise version of this rider that would force the Park Service to accept snowmobiling in 28 parks for the next year and allow it to continue in Yellowstone for the next three years.
These harmful riders are now part of an infamous list of 221 riders that may ultimately be attached to the final spending bill left to be approved, Labor-HHS Appropriations. That list includes many issues that Sierra Club activists have been working on for years including:
Animas La Plata Project "The Colorado Ute Settlement Act" Emigrant Wilderness Preservation Act of 1999 Steller Sea Lions San Rafael Swell NCA Environmental Streamlining Act (S 3173) TEA-21 eligibility for Alaska Native Corporations Beverage Alcohol Exclusion (EPA) West Mojave Desert CA Transfer Jurisdiction "Ft. Irwin Expansion" Snowmobiles in National Parks National Uniformity of Food Act Dioxin Assessment GE Contaminated Sediment Rider Deep Draft Dredging Cost Share Change Beach Renourishment Recreation Policy Change Flood Control Policy Change Army Corps Expansion of Jurisdiction for Environmental Infrastructure Huna Totem Corporation, S 426 Alaska Native Corporation Consultation in Forest Planning University of Alaska Land Grab (S. 744, and H.R. 2958) Alaska Native Cemetery and Historical Sites
The White House has been strong in expressing their opposition to any environmental riders and has sent a strongly-worded letter to the Hill. There are also sign-on letters from both Democrats and Republicans urging Appropriators to reject this latest crop of riders. But you can add your voice to the choir:
****TAKE ACTION****
1) Call the White House Comment line at (202)456-1414 and urge President Clinton to continue to stand tall against backdoor attacks on our environment and veto any bill that contains anti-environmental riders.
2) Call Your Representatives in Congress through the Congressional switchboard (202)224-3121 and urge them to reject anti-environmental riders and pass clean spending bills.
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|