| In This Issue of the Sierra Club Insider: Marines and the Endangered Species Act The Bush Administration's Attack on the Endangered Species Act Interactive Endangered Species Map: Find Out What's Near You! Update: Grizzly Bear Petition Signatures Making an Impact Poverty & the Environment in Washington, D.C. and Houston EXPLORE: Video - Inner City Outings Goes Sledding ENJOY: New Cartoon! Check out the Runner-Up Candidates for Interior Secretary PROTECT: Keep the Endangered Species Act Strong View an online version of this email at www.sierraclub.org/insider. Having trouble receiving the Insider? Try adding us (insider@sierraclub.org) to your Address Book. Find out how. |
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March 21, 2006
Boots on the Ground, Birds in the Nest When you think of the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Marine Corps probably isn't the first group that comes to mind. But the Corps has proven to be an excellent caretaker for the native plants and animals on its bases. In Hawaii, it has helped raise the population of endangered Hawaiian stilts from 60 birds 22 years ago to 160 today. How'd that happen? Just before nesting season, the Corps conducts "mud ops" training exercises with amphibious assault vehicles on the Nu'upia Ponds wetlands. By churning up the ground, they kill invasive pickleweed and provide better nesting sites and feeding opportunities. The Corps has also helped on the mainland with the desert tortoise in California and the red cockaded woodpecker in North Carolina.The Department of Defense sponsors range tours of its installations, promoting interaction between the environmental community and the armed services to protect native habitats and species while balancing the military's demands for on-site training. The tours began in 2000, and Maribeth Oakes, the Sierra Club's Lands Program Director, believes that the program is becoming increasingly productive. Read Maribeth's journal of her experience on last week's range tour to three facilities in Hawaii.
Endangered Law
Protecting Species and Habitats Near You
Going to the Mat for Grizzlies If you click on the Great Plains section of the Endangered Species Map (above), you'll see a grizzly bear staring back at you. There currently are about 1,000 grizzlies in the contiguous United States -- just one percent of the population when Lewis and Clark explored the American West. Yet the Bush administration wants to remove ESA protections on grizzlies in Yellowstone area.  "If Endangered Species Act protection is taken away, one-third of the habitat that grizzlies currently use would be opened to exploitation and development," says Heidi Godwin, of the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Project. "Do we really want to gamble the hard-won progress we've made when we're just starting to see this species come back from the brink of extinction?"Last week, Godwin delivered more than 25,000 comments in support of continued grizzly protections (many of them from Insider subscribers) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, raising the total comments to more than 150,000. Supporters of grizzly protection note that implementing the proposed changes would actually cost more than continued ESA protection. Help us continue to protect the bear by ensuring the Endangered Species Act remains strong. Environmental Justice in Anacostia and Houston  Meanwhile, Grist continues spotlighting the intersection of poverty and the environment in a series of articles on environmental justice. It recently examined efforts to revitalize the poor and polluted neighborhood of Anacostia in Washington, D.C. Jim Dougherty, a member of the D.C. Sierra Club told Grist, "Washington has always been a tale of two rivers, what you could call the white river and the black river." As the article explains, "While the Potomac has been blessed with plentiful green space, with the Jefferson Memorial and the Marine Corps War Memorial gracing its banks, the Anacostia has been home to the jail, incinerators, and power plants."But a movement is afoot to restore the Anacostia river and neighborhood, and the city has adopted the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative to make it happen. While some worry that this improvement project mighty bring about a gentrification that uproots the poor, Sierra Club environmental justice organizer Linda Fennell notes that it has already brought "an increased level of energy, with communities advocating for better libraries, better parks." And in Houston, Rhonda Adams has started Project GROW to help children in that city's disenfranchised Fifth Ward document and interpret their neighborhood Superfund site. Adams works under the umbrella of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, which she started with her husband Reginald Adams, a Sierra Club organizer. She lives near the Superfund site, as well, and tells Grist, "I have a young child of my own and I realize that one day we will have to rely on these children to become the stewards of the community." Grist is featuring a slideshow of participants in Project GROW along with examples of the art these children produce.
View previous editions of the Sierra Club Insider at the Insider Archives. |
A TV Salute to the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings
 Nine-year old Leslie Valtierra took a sledding trip earlier this year, and touched snow for the very first time, courtesy of the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings program. (The snow felt harder than she expected.) In February, ABC7, a San Francisco Bay Area TV station, saluted the ICO program, which gives low-income kids -- who "wouldn't be here any other way" -- a chance to experience the great outdoors, and its volunteers, like insurance salesperson Ariak Larkin, Engineer Will Chi, videographer Jerry Roney, and biologist Allison Chin. The snow trip Valtierra went on took about 400 volunteer hours to put together, shared by seven volunteers. You can watch the video and find out more about the Inner City Outings program, active in 50 cities across the country. 
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The Rall Perspective
President Bush has announced his nominee to succeed Gale Norton at the Department of the Interior. Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is unlikely to warm the hearts of any environmentalists -- Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope called the choice "Sour Wine in New Bottles" in his weblog. But whom did the President have to rule out before going with Kempthorne? Cartoonist Ted Rall has a few ideas.  |
PROTECT
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Keep the ESA Strong
Endangered Species Act protections have helped animals like the American alligator, the peregrine falcon, and the Peninsular bighorn sheep. But legislation being considered in the Senate would gut the act, removing tens of millions of acres of protection, pay developers whatever they demand NOT to kill endangered species, give special interests special access to decision-makers, and let politicians decide what constitutes science. Tell Congress to let the Endangered Act do what it was designed to do: protect America's wild heritage.  |