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March
Issues:
Protect the Great Divide Region from Oil and Gas Exploration!
The Great Divide region of south-central Wyoming has become one of the primary targets of the oil and gas industry. The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Rawlins Field Office is beginning the process of revising its land use plan for this area, which will guide management of these public lands for the next 20 years. How oil and gas development occurs will be a primary issue.
The Great Divide region includes the eastern half of Wyoming’s fabled Red Desert, most of it public lands. This region is characterized by spectacular desert badlands, high rims, and one of the largest active sand dune fields in North America. There are vast areas of critical wildlife habitat and over 200,000 acres of potential wilderness.
Your comments to BLM are critical for ensuring the plan requires oil and gas development to be done in a responsible manner that protects critical wildlife habitats and potential wilderness areas.
Conservationists have developed a plan that meets these needs, the Western Heritage Alternative. Help support this plan.
Act now, time is short! The deadline for mailing comments is April 7. You can send the suggested letter, or send a personalized letter. Thanks!
Cut and paste the suggested letter. E-mail your comments to Rawlins_wymail@blm.gov or mail your letter to:
Kurt Kotter
Rawlins RMP Revision
Rawlins Field Office, BLM
P.O. Box 2407
Rawlins, WY 82301
Help Stop Construction of an Oil Pipeline
Tell the World Bank and the government of Georgia, "Public money should not be used to destroy the environment!"
Stop the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline from destroying the economically important and ecologically sensitive Borjomi Natural Preservation - the source of Borjomi bottled mineral water, which makes up 10 percent of Georgia's exports.
According to assessments by foreign and Georgian experts, the current proposed route for the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline greatly endangers the source of Borjomi Mineral Water - Georgia's most lucrative export.
Georgia's Minister of Environment, Nino Chkhobadze, rejected the proposed pipeline-route through Borjomi and urged an alternative route. She was forced to change her original position after Georgian President Shevardnadze received a coercive letter from BP Azerbaijan Associate President David Woodward telling him to expedite the approval of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment despite serious concerns relating to the pipeline route.
The sinking of the Prestige tanker off the coast of Spain has reminded the world of the devastating impacts of oil spills.
Support Georgian youth activists and tell the World Bank and the Government of Georgia that it is not too late to protect the Borjomi Natural Preservation!
For more information and to view the BP letter, go to:
http://www.foe.org/camps/intl/institutions/bakuceyhan.html
Send this letter to the World Bank and the Government of Georgia.
New TV Show Puts Human Face on Environmental Issues
Stay tuned! "Earth Focus," the new environmental video news magazine is on the pioneering satellite television channel, WorldLink TV.
You can check worldlinktv.org for listings.
"Earth Focus" is an environmental news magazine that puts a human face on environmental issues and legislation by featuring under-publicized stories about how environmental changes are affecting everyday people around the world. "Earth Focus" is a joint project of WorldLink TV and Friends of the Earth, and is produced by Planet Vox, a Washington, D.C. production company.
"Earth Focus" segments include our climate change lawsuit, the campaign against Kraft using genetically engineered corn, a new biodegradable packing
material called EarthShell and a legislative scorecard for the U.S. Congress.
WorldLink TV is available in 19.5 million U.S. homes as a free basic service on the DIRECTV® home satellite system (Channel 375) and on Echostar Communications Corporation's DISH® Network (Channel 9410).
WorldLink was recently featured in a New York Times article about its innovative broadcast of news footage from Arab countries.
Visit http://www.worldlinktv.org/programming/earthFocus.shtml
Stop Bush's Plan to Devastate National Forests
President Bush is trying to stop you from being able to protect our national forests! We need you to write the Bush administration and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and tell them not to weaken federal regulations that protect our national forests.
The plan will remove scientists and the public from participating in the Forest Service's decision making process for how all our national forests are managed, allowing for uncontrolled logging. It rolls back the regulations that guide the implementation of the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) of 1976, the nation's primary statute governing management of the national forests.
The rule is now open for public comment, so let your voice be heard!
Read the letter against the plan from members of Congress to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth: http://www.foe.org/new/fsletter.pdf
Then write your own letter and send it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
E-mail: planning_rules@fs.fed.us
USDA
FS Planning Rule
Content Analysis Team
P.O. Box 8359
Missoula, MT 59807
Fax: (406) 329-3556
For background information, read The Washington Post article, "Bush to Shorten Forest Environmental Reviews":
"The proposed regulations, which closely track recommendations by the timber industry, would reduce the number of scientific and environmental reviews required when 15-year master plans are developed for the 192 million acres of the nation's 155 national forests. The plans, similar to a zoning process, specify where recreation, mining and other development can take place."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48576-2002Nov27.html
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