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  • Grand Canyon Victory: New mining ban at last!

    January 11, 2012 By Jennifer Dickson

    Grand Canyon National Park is part of the Grand Canyon watershed

    Credit: National Park Service

    We’re happy to report the Interior Department has announced a prohibition on mining at the Grand Canyon and the surrounding watersheds for the next 20 years.   Read more

Latest Posts

“Drilling for Highways” is a Wrong Turn for Highways and Public Lands

February 9, 2012 By David Moulton

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Credit: Lincoln Else

America needs its roads and bridges – without them, we couldn’t get to work, ship goods, and get to the wild places where we love to go hiking, biking, and camping.  But we also need to get away from climate-change causing fossil fuels – not make ourselves more dependent on them.  This is the lesson that the House Republicans don’t seem to learn.  They’re now trying to make a mess of a bill meant to rebuild our bridges and roads by forcing the addition of several drilling bills into the final legislation. Read more

Why are there public lands? Good question.

February 6, 2012 By Emily Diamond-Falk

Editor's Note: The following piece appeared in the Las Vegas Sun on Saturday, February 4, 2012.  Why are there public lands? Good question. William H. Meadows Read more

Assault on wilderness fails in the polls

January 31, 2012 By William H. Meadows

Colorado Rockies

Credit: Ann Morgan

Half a billion acres. Thirteen bills -- ranging from giving away our great outdoors to mining in the Grand Canyon -- that would attack our nation’s lands and waters have been introduced this Congress. Our wilderness is under siege, and it seems as though the House leadership thinks that the American people support this inherently anti-American assault on our nation’s natural legacy.  Read more

National Parks Dive Into Five Year Action Plan

January 24, 2012 By Lucy Lieberman

North Cascades Backcountry Ranger

Credit: Lucy Lieberman

America’s National Parks, one of the greatest conservation legacies in the world, contain more than 84 million acres of American treasures, from untouched wilderness to historic battlefields marred by war - all protected by the National Park Service. Read more

Keystone XL Pipeline Denied! Send a letter to Obama here

January 20, 2012 By William H. Meadows

Big thanks to protesters who spoke out against the destructive Keystone pipeline

Credit: Tarsandaction, Flickr

President Obama has denied the controversial Keystone XL pipeline permit, preventing the enormously destructive project from carving up wild places from Canada to the Gulf. What Obama’s decision means: - Prevented: The destruction of millions of acres of Canadian boreal forests. - Prevented: Oil spills in the American heartland. - Prevented: Tons of climate change causing pollution. Read more

State-by-State Wilderness Under Siege

January 19, 2012 By Emily Diamond-Falk

Alabama "The Great Outdoors Giveaway" would strip existing protections from 13,000 acres of Alabama National Forest The "End the National Monuments Act" would strip the President of his authority to designate national monuments The "Motorize our Wilderness Act" would open over 41,000 acres of Alabama Wilderness Areas to motorized vehicles Alaska Read more

Can Hollywood’s “Big Miracle” inspire people to help protect the Arctic Ocean?

January 13, 2012 By Tim Woody

A 1988 effort to rescue three whales trapped by ice inspired the movie "Big Miracle," which is set in the Arctic.

Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Hollywood will bring Alaska’s Arctic to theaters nationwide next month when Drew Barrymore stars in the movie “Big Miracle” about the 1988 effort to rescue three endangered gray whales trapped by sea ice off the coast of Barrow, the northernmost community in the United States. Read more

The Numbers Don’t Lie – BLM lease sales undercut industry claims

January 12, 2012 By Neil Shader

Gas well in Wyoming

Credit: BLM

To hear the oil and gas industry tell it, we just aren’t drilling enough. Read more