| |
We're working to ensure that roadless areas in national forests remain off limits
to logging, mining and drilling.
|
Take today's e-action
Save Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park is one of America's most treasured and
pristine wild landscapes, home to grizzly bears, bald eagles and other
endangered species. Unfortunately, the park is threatened by oil and
gas drilling leases just outside its boundaries in the Flathead River
Valley.
The Obama administration has launched a new initiative to reconnect
Americans, especially kids, with our country's amazing natural beauty.
They're calling the initiative America's Great Outdoors and they're
looking for public input on the places that need more protection. We
think Glacier should make the list.
To help protect Glacier National Park, please add your name to our petition to Ken Salazar, President Obama's Secretary of the
Interior.
|
|
Recently...
Protecting Roadless Areas
This spring, holdover Bush appointees at the U.S. Forest Service are poised to allow mining, drilling, and logging in some of our most beautiful forests - in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Colorado. This threat is unfolding despite President Obama’s clear support for protecting these forests – indeed, all 60 million acres of pristine national forest – from such destructive activity. Unfortunately, the “roadless rule” that protects these forests has been held up in the courts, giving leeway to rogue Bush appointees who remain at the forest service. We are calling on Tom Vilsack, Obama’s new Secretary of Agriculture, to halt their plans immediately.
What's at stake
Our national forests protect clean water, preserve undisturbed wildlife habitat, and provide backcountry recreational opportunities for millions of Americans. Unfortunately, only a fraction of these forests remain undisturbed by extractive industries: 16,000 miles of roads already traverse their acreage.
In 2001, our staff and their allies won a remarkable victory with the enactment of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which placed 58.5 million acres of pristine forest land off-limits to road-building, mining, and virtually all logging.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration stripped away this vital protection in an effort to give away these pristine forests to the timber industry and other powerful special interests. Starting with the temporary exemption of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska—America’s largest pristine national forest—the Bush administration went after our forests piece by piece, undermining Roadless Rule protections. Legal protections for our forests have been batted around in court for the past several years, and as it now stands, forests from the Rockies to the Appalachians are not protected by the Roadless Rule. As a result, they are more vulnerable to the threat of development.
America needs nationally consistent protections that take America’s last pristine forests off the chopping block once and for all.
|
Take it to the next level
Tell us your story. Click here.
Recent actions and results
Protecting Our National Forests.
In May 2009, Environment America worked to halt imminent logging in some of our most pristine national forests.
|
|
