BIiodiversity Broadcast May 2007
BIODIVERSITY BROADCAST
Email Newsletter for May 2007
Contents:
- Celebrate Endangered Species Day at ACPL
- Reminder: Save the Snowies from ORV Abuse *
- Reminder: Protect Wolves from Shooting
- Julie MacDonald Resigns Before Hearing
- Sage Grouse Stipulations Lay-Off a Ruse *
- Forest Service Goes Back to the Future
- BCA Celebrates Earth Week in Four States!
- BCA Volunteer Wins Service Leadership Award
- BCA Members Raise $ for Wildlife With iGive
CELEBRATE ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY AT ACPL!
Celebrate the first official Endangered Species Day with BCA in Laramie on Friday, May 18th, 2007, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm at the Albany County Public Library, 310 South 8th Street. Presentation is especially geared towards children and families. Our featured guests will focus on this year's Endangered Species Day theme, Effects of Global Warming on Endangered Species, as well as Native Species of Wyoming. Kathryn Symchych of the Laramie Raptor Refuge will introduce her feathered friend(s) and present a portion of her popular raptor program. Duane Short of BCA will demonstrate "What a Difference a Degree Makes." Trish Penny, Education Coordinator of the Laramie Rivers Conservation District will bring a special animal guest that loves to interact with children. Children's take-home materials will be provided. For more information contact Duane at: duane@voiceforthewild.org or call 307-742-7978.
REMINDER: SAVE THE SNOWIES FROM ORV ABUSE
Twenty-seven beautiful miles of Highway 130 in the Medicine Bow National Forest between Centennial to the Forest boundary near Ryan Park was designated as a National Forest Scenic Byway in 1988 and adopted as a State Scenic Byway in 1995. The U.S. Forest Service is considering management plans that would add and expand snowmobile parking lots, create new access paths, and construct a motorizedtrail around Hanging Lake. Peaceful and quiet non-motorized recreation experiences will become a thing of the past if the Forest Service promotes the area as a destination for motorized thrillcraft. Please write to advocate for quiet recreation and wildlife habitat protection in the Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan. Mail Comments by May 14th, 2007 to:Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, Attn: Frank Romero, 2468 Jackson Street, Laramie, Wyoming 82070. Read more about it at http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/mbr/projects/rec/.
REMINDER: PROTECT WOLVES FROM SHOOTING U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting comments for the proposal to remove Wyoming’s gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Please write to let them know that the removal of protections is acceptable only if the wolf is given “trophy game status” and not allowed to be killed for preying on elk or other wildlife . Send your letters by email, fax or U.S. mail before May 9th to: E-mail_WesternGrayWold@fws.gov (please include ``RIN number 1018- AU53'' in the subject line of the message), fax (406) 449-5339, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator, 585 Shepard Way, Helena, MT 59601.
JULIE MACDONALD RESIGNS BEFORE HEARING
Julie McDonald, appointed by President Bush to a position designed to protect endangered species, resigned on April 30, 2007. A recent Endangered Species and Wetlands report explains McDonald resigned in the wake of an Inspector General investigation that concluded she had seriously suppressed science that would protect endangered species. MacDonald’s resignation comes just days before a U.S. House congressional oversight committee was slated to hold a public hearing on her violations of the Endangered Species Act, censorship of science, and “brutalizing” of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff who dared oppose her. Bush plans to replace MacDonald with Todd Willens, who is equally dedicated to undermining endangered species conservation. Willens spearheaded Richard Pombo's anti-endangered species agenda and was later appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks on October 19, 2006. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon recently threatened to hold up confirmation of MacDonald's replacement until the Department of the Interior addresses MacDonald’s ethical violations. For more info, read our press release at: http://www.voiceforthewild.org/general/news/n1May07.html.
SAGE GROUSE STIPULATIONS LAY-OFF A RUSE
Oil and Gas Industry Tries to Hoodwink Public In an effort to gain public support for permanent removal of seasonal stipulations for wildlife, the oil and gas industry recently conducted a media blitz designed to make us believe workers were losing their jobs due to seasonal closures in oil and gas fields for sage grouse protection. The seasonal stipulations, which prohibit drilling during sensitive times for wildlife such as breeding, nesting, and raising young, have been in place in Wyoming for many years. It was no surprise to industry, which has been operating around the stipulations as long as they have been in place, that drilling operations would have to cease in the spring. Yet industry sounded the alarm and organized its workers to march on Bureau of Land Management offices to protest loss of their jobs. This was all a ruse; fortunately media and the public caught on quickly and called industry’s bluff. Soon thereafter reports appeared that the workers still had jobs and there really was no problem.
It is no secret that the Bureau of Land Management and industry want to permanently eliminate all seasonal protections for wildlife in Wyoming, as the Draft Resource Management Plan for Wyoming's Pinedale Field Office of the Bureau demonstrates. Eliminating seasonal protections would hasten the demise of the already rapidly declining wildlife populations in southwest Wyoming. Industry ought to cease drilling in sensitive wildlife habitat year-round; that way there would be no confusion about jobs and no loss to our natural heritage.
FOREST SERVICE GOES BACK TO THE FUTURE
Wildlife and habitat protections that were lost or weakened under Bush's 2005 Forest Management Regulations have now been restored to higher standards from 2000! To satisfy a recent U.S. District Court ruling, the Forest Service's Washington Office announced that the older 2000 planning rules and regulations will replace the 2005 rule. The Forest Service is once again required to consult public input. The Service is once again compelled to provide the public a Range of Alternatives. Planning stages of management are once again held to standards of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Service must now identify indicator species (sensitive forest natives whose health and wellbeing reflect the wellbeing of the whole forest) and collect and analyze data about their health before approving any project with an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement. BCA once again tips its hat to our conservation partners that made this victory possible!
For greater detail, visit: http://www.voiceforthewild.org/general/newsletter/theVoicefortheWild_Winter2005.pdf, and read “The End of Forest Planning” on page 8. Just remember (and be glad!), those bad 2005 rules and regulations are being replaced!
BCA CELEBRATES EARTH WEEK IN FOUR STATES!
BCA staff and volunteers built support for Wyoming wildlife and wild places with information tables and displays at events in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and South Dakota during Earth Week! In addition, BCA presented Red Desert slideshows throughout Laramie, WY during the week. Maggie Schafer, Outreach Organizer, represented BCA on Friday, April 20th, at the University of Wyoming’s Earth Day celebration in Laramie. On Sunday, April 22nd, Suzanne Lewis, Conservation Advocate, traveled to Rapid City, SD, to participate in the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Earth Day Conference, and Maggie Schafer tabled at the Earth Fair in City Park in Ft. Collins, CO. BCA volunteer Heather Prine, tabled at EarthJam in Salt Lake City, UT. BCA’s final Earth Week appearance was made by Duane Short, Conservation Advocate and Wild Species Program Director, at the Eco-Fair in Jackson, WY, on Sunday, April 28th.
BCA VOLUNTEER WINS SERVICE LEADERSHIP AWARD
Alyssa Wechsler, BCA volunteer, board member, and University of Wyoming student, won the UW Leadership in Service Award for her work with BCA. Alyssa has made a great difference in our work for many years and now serves as a board member and volunteer coordinator. As recipient of the Leadership Service Award, Alyssa will receive $250 and a commemorative plaque for her dedication to wildlife and wild places. Congratulations, Alyssa!
BCA MEMBERS RAISE $ FOR WILDLIFE WITH "IGIVE"
BCA members have discovered the benefits of doing their online shopping through iGive.com, and are supporting our work with their Mother's Day bouquets, summer travel bookings, and computer purchases! After signing up to receive coupons and advertisements by email from iGive (about one per week), BCA members click on links to businesses that have committed to donating a percentage of purchases to BCA. From Dell Computers to Expedia, Gardens Alive to The Body Shop, hundreds of online businesses in all categories are registered. Membership at iGive.com is free and easy. To learn more, visit http://www.igive.com:80/html/igivenews2.cfm.
* It has come to our attention that two items in the Bio-Broadcast require clarification.
In the article "Save the Snowies from ORV Abuse," we mistakenly stated that the Forest Service proposes to create a motorized trail around Hanging Lake. However, the proposal does include upgrades to the hiking trail that circles Hanging Lake, as well as creation of a snowmobile parking lot beside Hanging Lake, and extension of the snowmobile corridor from Green Rock to Hanging Lake. We still think the Hanging Lake trail should go through a trail design process as does any other trail, and we encourage you to request that the Forest Service not create a new snowmobile parking lot and not extend the snowmobile corridor to Hanging Lake. We expect that the Service, with their limited enforcement budget, might have a hard time preventing a wide trail around Hanging Lake from being used regularly by snowmobiles which will be parking nearby.
In the article "Sage Grouse Lay-Offs A Ruse" we stated that the Bureau of Land Management would like to do away with seasonal wildlife stipulations altogether. This article got the attention of Wyoming Bureau of Land Management staff, who dislike the language we used. It is true the Bureau of Land Management has never explicitly published a public proposal to do away with seasonal wildlife stipulations across Wyoming. It is also true that in some areas of Wyoming, the Bureau still supports seasonal wildlife stipulations. In the Pinedale Resource Management Plan Revision Draft Environmental Impact Statement, however, the Bureau proposes to allow drilling year-round in areas that were formerly protected by seasonal wildlife stipulations for big game winter range and sage grouse seasonal habitat. And the Bureau has recently approved a majority of requests from oil and gas companies to waive seasonal restrictions. Thank you to everyone for paying attention!
