Defenders of Wildlife – 2011-03-02 00:51:17

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WASHINGTON (March 1, 2011) — This could be the week — the week when the Senate approves the most anti-environment, anti-wildlife legislation in the last fifteen years.

It’s a bill that would deny life-saving protections for wolves, polar bears, walruses and scores of other species. It’s a bill that would slash conservation funding, mean dirtier air and water and effectively shutter national wildlife refuges for lack of funding. It’s the most anti-environment bill in the last 15 years and we need your help to stop it.

We don’t have much time. Please call your senators and deliver this simple message:

This bill, H.R. 1, contains many awful elements, including provisions to:
* Eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Greater Yellowstone;

*Prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating emissions that cause climate change that now threatens polar bears and walruses;

*Slash funding for national wildlife refuges and the essential Land and Water Conservation Fund, which protect wildlife habitat across the country; and

*Complicate enforcement of the Clean Water Act that protects our drinking water and essential waters for aquatic wildlife.

Let’s stop this monster before it’s too late.

Make the Call for Wildlife

We don’t have much time. Please call your senators.

It’s a scorched-earth, anti-environment bill — and it passed the US House last Saturday. It’s quite simple: The House leadership is playing politics with our wildlife — and we can’t let them win.

Please make a contribution now to help stop this assault on our wolves and other wildlife by supporting our work on Capitol Hill, our efforts to mobilize activists across the nation and respond to other wildlife emergencies.

The House version of the Continuing Resolution — a must-pass federal funding bill — contains some of the most extreme anti-environment provisions in recent memory.

It is simply a wrong-headed, extremist approach to cutting the budget that will have grave consequences. The bill imposes sweeping cuts and policy changes to clean air, clean water, and land and wildlife conservation programs that protect our health and natural heritage — while leaving billions of tax dollars in place for Big Oil and other corporate polluters.

It strips vital protections for America’s wolves without safeguards to stop state plans in Idaho and Montana from targeting hundreds of wolves for elimination — and allows Congressional politics, not science, to decide the future of our most vulnerable wildlife.

We only have a few days to ensure that the Senate’s federal funding legislation — and any final bill — is cleared of these anti-wildlife provisions.

Will you support our work with an emergency contribution now?

Since last week, we’ve moved our campaign to the Senate where our seasoned advocates are working hard to ensure that these anti-wildlife provisions aren’t included in a final federal funding bill.

And since just yesterday, our nationwide network of grassroots activists have sent more than 50,000 messages to their senators, urging them to take a stand for our wildlife and wild places.

Our wildlife and wild places are facing the most extreme attack in the last 15 years — and we need your help to stop it.

Please help stop this assault on our natural heritage — support our work today.

Together, we can ensure our natural treasures are protected for future generations.

For the Wild Ones, Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife