The following are current events in conservation. We would like to urge our visitors to act on these issues and to keep us informed of new alerts that should be posted here. Please send information to Pam Mikula.

Protect New Jersey's Wild Shores
Arctic Refuge in Danger
Karner Blue Butterfly's Pine Bush
Stop Exxon's Harassment of Gray Whales
Grizzly Program in Jeopardy
Highway Poses a New Threat to Brazilian Rainforest
Vancouver Island Marmot

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Protect New Jersey's Wild Shores
New Jersey's Holgate Beach provides an extraordinary experience for solitude and bird-watching. But illegal dune buggies and other off-road vehicle threaten that experience, as they violate Holgate Beach's federally designated Wilderness status. Now, legislation introduced in Congress would change the Holgate Wilderness boundary to legitimize off-road vehicles there.

 

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Arctic Refuge in Danger
The Arctic refuge -- our most magnificent wildlife sanctuary -- is the only remaining 5 percent of Alaska's North Slope not already open to drilling. Oil exploration there would be like drilling in Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon. Big Oil wants to drill on the refuge's coastal plain. That's the biological heart of the refuge.

Save the Pine Bush
The Pine Bush, located between Albany and Schenectady, NY is an inland pine barrens sand dune containing over 300 species of vertebrates, 1,500 species of plants and over 10,000 species of insects and other invertabrates. Of high importance, it is home to the federally endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. This habitat is quickly being destroyed.

Stop Exxon's Harassment of Gray Whales
The dwindling numbers of Western Pacific Gray Whales may be in great peril of starvation this winter. Over the last month, the Exxon Corporation has been conducting seismic explorations around the Russian island known as Sakhalin. This is an area of the Pacific that is the last known feeding grounds for the Western Gray Whale. Find out more.

Bitterroot Grizzly Reintroduction Plan Killed by Gale Norton
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is stopping a citizen-run initiative to bring grizzly bears back to public land in the remote Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana. Scientists say this important project – already approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after seven years of planning – holds the key to the long-term survival of grizzlies in the Lower 48 states.

Vancouver Island Marmot
Marmots have disappeared from parts of Vancouver Island, particularly in the northern and western extremes of their historic range. The total population remains concentrated, with 75% of all animals found within an area of 40 square kilometres. Despite colonization of new habitats created by logging, total population has declined by 50-60% in the past decade. More colonies declined or became extinct in recent years than were formed.

The Recovery Team views the current situation as precarious. Disease, bad weather and predators could change the overall population quickly, and perhaps irrevocably. Visit the Recovery Team's website to see what you can do to help.

Highway Poses a New Threat to Brazilian Rainforest
The Brazilian rainforest is, without question, one of mankind's major environmental assets. So much so that such relevant data as biodiversity and rates of destruction are at the fingertips of every concerned citizen. Nevertheless, a construction project co-sponsored by BID (Interamerican Development Bank) is threatening an appreciable portion of the rainforest in southern Brazil. BR-116 is one of Brazil's major highways. It will become even more important as a vital link of the MERCOSUR free-trade area, joining the principal cities of the member countries. For this reason duplication of the highway is being planned between the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Florianopolis. In order to meet the sponsoring agencies' schedules, design work is proceeding at breakneck speed. In one particular case, such haste may well be the reason for an impending ecological disaster.