In 1998, Congress passed a law specifically prohibiting a road through designated Wilderness in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Despite this prohibition, Congress approved a bill in 2009 (P.L.
Shopping mall parking lots are full, store lines are long and FedEx delivery men are working overtime. Americans are by and large incredibly generous and thoughtful people and the Christmas season provides an outlet for that expression. Still, I can’t help but think that most of the fruitcakes, holiday sweaters and video games being wrapped up and put under trees over the next few days will only provide temporary happiness for their new owners after this holiday season has come and gone.
On Monday, June 28, the Obama administration will hold a listening session as part of its America’s Great Outdoorsinitiative in the Longleaf pine region of South Carolina.
This summer, the Obama administration is organizing a series of “listening sessions” on America’s Great Outdoors to hear our best ideas for developing a new conservation strategy for protecting and connecting us to nature.
If you live in or care about the Chesapeake Bay now is your time to participate in one of the Obama administration’s listening sessions on America’s Great Outdoors.
This past summer, the Wilderness Society Alaska office and our Native Alaskan partners had reason to celebrate: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its intent to choose the “no action alternative” in its upcoming final decision for the proposed Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge land exchange in Alaska.
Alaska is ground zero for global warming. Temperatures here are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and the kinds of things scientists have been warning about for years — hotter and drier summers, more wild fires, insect outbreaks, and unusual weather patterns — are already posing some unprecedented threats for the state’s natural resources.
It’s “break-up” here in Alaska, that time of year when the ice and snow that has covered our lakes, rivers, and trails all winter breaks up and begins to melt away. I complain about muddy trails, but I am willing to endure wet feet in order to watch — and listen to — my favorite streams and rivers coming to life. I am reminded of a quote by Henry David Thoreau: “Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything.”
