Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Protect Panama’s Red Frog Beach and Bastimentos Island

Bastimentos Island, located in Panama’s Bocas del Toro province (on the Caribbean coast), shines as an ecological and cultural gem rich with coral reefs, dense tropical rainforests and indigenous communities. Among the diverse wildlife species of Bastimentos are night monkeys, three-toed sloths, numerous tropical bird and fish species as well as two distinct color variants of the strawberry poison dart frog — the namesake of the fabled Red Frog Beach.

Bastimentos Island boasts some of the Caribbean’s most pristine beaches, which are also critical breeding habitat for endangered leatherback, green and hawksbill turtles.

However, because of a massive, U.S.-fueled luxury-development boom, Bastimentos Island’s sensitive marine and terrestrial habitats are currently under siege due to the construction of Red Frog Beach Club, a high-end tourist resort.

Red Frog Beach Club, an American-based development corporation, is currently constructing phase one of its development plan, which includes condominiums and luxury villas on the northern coast of Bastimentos Island. And the company is seeking approval from ANAM, Panama’s national environmental agency, to begin construction on phase two of its massive, proposed residential resort, which would include up to 800 additional living units, luxury hotel facilities, and a large marina. Such extensive development would profoundly affect Bastimentos’ delicate rainforest, beach and coral-reef habitats and jeopardize the cultural heritage of the island’s indigenous peoples, who have consistently voiced their opposition to the Red Frog Beach Club project through direct protests and petitions.

Please join a growing international movement urging ANAM not to approve phase two of the Red Frog Beach Club resort on Panama’s Bastimentos Island.

——————-

Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity wildlife conservation nature Panama Red Frog Beach Bastimentos Island development tourism Caribbean coast tourist resort Red Frog Beach Club ANAM

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Protect the Yellow-billed Loon!

In response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now reviewing the yellow-billed loon for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The yellow-billed loon is one of the rarest and most vulnerable birds in the United States, with its primary nesting habitat in Alaska threatened by rampant oil and gas leasing and development.

Please let the Bush administration know you support protection of the yellow-billed loon and its critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act.

Yellow-billed loons! On Flickr! W00t!

———————–

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity wildlife conservation esa endangered species act endangered species Yellow-billed Loon Alaska birds

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Protect the Polar Bear and Walrus from Oil Exploration

The Bush administration is proposing to issue a blanket, five-year authorization to the oil industry to harass polar bears and Pacific walrus in the currently undeveloped Chukchi Sea off Alaska. Both the polar bear and Pacific walrus are imperiled by global warming, yet the administration’s only management response is to open up their sensitive habitats to oil development.

The Chukchi Sea is the stronghold for the Pacific walrus and home to one of only two polar bear populations in all of Alaska. But the Bush government plans to lease areas of the Chukchi Sea for oil development early next year, and oil leasing cannot occur without exploration activities that threaten to crush denning polar bears and their cubs, as well as harm walrus with seismic blasts, drill ships, ice-breakers, and the ever-present threat of oil spills.

Please let the Bush administration know that you support the protection of polar bear and Pacific walrus habitat in the Chukchi Sea.

——————-

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity wildlife conservation Alaska Chukchi Sea oil drilling polar bears Pacific walrus bears walrus oil development

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

U.S. Military Base in Okinawa Threatens Rare Dugongs

The critically endangered Okinawa dugong is under siege and needs your help.

The U.S. and Japanese governments are planning to destroy the best remaining habitat of a unique and critically endangered marine mammal — the Okinawa dugong. This dugong, a relative of the manatee, is a rare marine mammal that feeds in the seagrass beds and coral reefs of Okinawa’s Henoko Bay. Fewer than 50 individual dugongs remain in an area described by the United Nations Environment Program as “the most important known dugong habitat in Japan.” If the U.S. military proceeds with its Camp Schwab construction plan this exceptional, rare animal will lose the best habitat it has left and begin its last slide toward extinction.

Click here to learn more and take action.

Dugong sighting via Frank Gloystein

——————-

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity wildlife conservation Okinawa Japan Dugongs manatee Japanese dugong marine mammal Henoko Bay rare endangered flickr

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Furnace Creek Needs You Once More!

Act Now: BLM Approves Plan for Road Construction through Furnace Creek and White Mountains

Last fall, along with thousands of other conservationists, you wrote the Bureau of Land Management asking it to protect the White Mountains and the fragile riparian ecosystem of Furnace Creek from off-road vehicle damage and road construction. We need you to speak out once more to protect these special places.

Despite overwhelming public opposition to the plan to develop this unique oasis into a road, the Bureau of Land Management has approved a proposal to construct a new road through the heart of Furnace Creek. This new road would cut across the White Mountains Wilderness Study Area and invite motorized vehicles into other wilderness-quality lands of the White Mountains.

We can still fight this, but we need your help. Right now your voice is more important than ever if we are to protect Furnace Creek.

The deadline for public comments is June 8, so get to it!

Previous alerts are available here.

———————-

Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity furnace creek wildlife conservation blm Bureau of Land Management White Mountains Wilderness Study Area

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Keep Northern Wolves Protected

“Delisting” wolves means taking them off the endangered species list, ostensibly because they are recovered and no longer need its protection. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to designate all of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, plus the eastern third of both Oregon and Washington and a sliver of northern Utah, as a “distinct population segment” region where “recovered” gray wolves would lose their federal protections — even though only about 15 percent of this vast area actually has wolves in it. The rest of the area would be kept wolf-free.

Killing of wolves where they do exist would be increased tremendously. Federal predator control agents using poison, traps and aerial gunning — plus private hunters — would reduce wolves from around 1,300 to 600 or fewer. Any wolves traveling past the wolfless zone surrounding the small surviving population and miraculously wandering to an area outside the “recovered” zone would be subject to additional lethal persecution under proposed “take” permits the federal government would issue neighboring states, such as Colorado.

Will the wolves now living in the Yellowstone National Park region, central Idaho and northwestern Montana survive this plan? Geneticists point out that wolves in each of these three popoulations are largely cut off from each other. Such fragmentation bodes ill for long-term survival.

The gray wolf is not yet recovered in the northern Rocky Mountains, and the designation proposed by Fish and Wildlife Service will imperil the wolves further.

Please send comments by the end of the day on May 9, 2007.

———————–

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity wolves delist esa endangered species act endangered species wildlife conservation fws Fish and Wildlife Service gray wolves Wyoming Idaho Montana trapping hunting aerial gunning predator control

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

S.O.S.! Save Our Squirrel!

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to remove the West Virginia northern flying squirrel from the endangered species list, taking away all federal protections from this rare mammal.

The de-listing plan is based on a flawed review of the squirrel’s habitat and faulty models of what would be required for permanent protection for this species.

Please write to the Service by April 23, 2007 to encourage them to scrap the de-listing proposal. Follow the link to take action, or send your comments to:

Assistant Chief
Division of Endangered and Threatened Species
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Northeast Regional Office
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035
wvnfscomments [at] fws.gov
Fax: 413-253-848

——————-

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts Center for Biological Diversity wildlife conservation endangered species esa endangered species act flying squirrel West Virginia

UPDATE, 5/23/07:

See also: Tell the Bush Administration to Protect the Last 300 Beluga Whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet!, via the Natural Resources Defense Council.

————————

UPDATE, 5/18/07:

See also: Take Action - Beluga Whales Need Your Help to Survive, via the Ocean Conservancy.

————————

UPDATE, 4/22/07:

See also: Protect Alaska’s Beluga Whales by the Center for Biological Diversity. FYI: the action alert was released 4/20, so it appears that a decision was not yet reached as of Friday. Additionally, CBD gives an Campaign Expiration Date of June 19, 2007 - so get to it!

————————

Via Defenders of Wildlife:

Belugas on the Brink!

The Cook Inlet once teemed with up to 1300 beluga whales — a genetically distinct population of these white whales. But sadly, their numbers have dropped to around 300 — and they could vanish forever within our lifetime unless we act now!

Federal officials will decide soon whether to list the Cook Inlet belugas as an endangered species. But they need to hear from you.

Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to list Cook Inlet belugas as “endangered” and protect these creatures for future generations. A decision could come as early as April 18th — so please take action today!

————————

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts defenders of wildlife wildlife conservation whales beluga whales cook inlet NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service endangered species alaska esa endangered species act center for biological diversity nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Help Save the Delta Smelt!

Next week the California Fish and Game Commission will consider our petition to change the state listing of the delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) from threatened to endangered species status. The Center and other conservation groups submitted an emergency petition in February for endangered status under the California Endangered Species Act, due to catastrophic declines of the smelt population. This fish species is currently listed as threatened under the state law. […]

In recent years the delta smelt population has completely collapsed, and abundance levels the past three consecutive years have been the lowest on record. Delta smelt are on a rapid trajectory toward extinction and clearly need increased state and federal protection.

Please send a message to the Commission to immediately change the status of the delta smelt to endangered, on an emergency basis.

————————

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts center for biological diversity biodiversity wildlife conservation fish ESA endangered species act smelt Delta smelt California Endangered Species Act California

Via the Center for Biological Diversity:

Ask Gov. Bill Richardson to Save Mexican Wolves!

Our government is trapping and shooting endangered Mexican gray wolves to appease the livestock industry. Biologists have condemned the Mexican wolf predator control program as preventing recovery and called for allowing more wolves to stay in the wild, roam freely and raise their pups. The Bush administration has consistently ignored these scientists.

Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has authorized the trapping or shooting of the alpha pair of the Saddle Pack from the Gila National Forest in New Mexico — soon after shooting another member of the pack from the air in March.

Traps have already been set. If the male isn’t caught within two weeks, he’ll be shot. The female, who is likely pregnant and due to give birth by early May, will be caught alive.

With enough of a public outcry, both wolves can be allowed to stay in the wild and raise their pups together. But first, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democratic candidate for President, will have to be persuaded to stand up for the lobo.

————————-

Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts Center for Biological Diversity wolves New Mexico Bill Richardson conservation wildlife predator control Mexican wolves gray wolves