Action for Animals 5/6
We're not into Fix our Forests, we ARE into ESA, and we love whales, STILL.
1. We’re ALL gonna call our senators and tell them to oppose HR 1897.
Remember how our evil overlords who we elected who actually work for oil and gas were gonna vote to kill the Endangered Species Act on Earth Day? Rep. Westerman, my personal nemesis who does not know I exist, has not, according to More Than Just Parks, actually fallen back, he is simply wearing down the holdouts to bring that thing back VERY SOON for a vote.
I love this from the More Than Just Parks piece embedded below:
“Whoever your senators are, call them. Both of them. Republican or Democrat. The ask is the same: a public, on-the-record commitment to oppose HR 1897 and any package that contains any provision of it. Don’t accept “I’m watching this closely.” Don’t accept “I have concerns.” Don’t accept anything short of a public commitment, before the vehicle exists.
The Endangered Species Act is not a chip to cash in for permitting reform. It’s not a bargaining tool. It’s the law that has prevented the deliberate extinction of American wildlife for fifty-three years, and you don’t want any part of it traded away for solar permitting or anything else.”
Line by line script for either Dem or Republican senators in that same piece above all the way at the bottom, too.
2. We’re not into the Fix our Forests Act, and here’s why:
“The problem here isn’t that FOFA has no merit, but that in the hands of the Trump administration it becomes a incredibly powerful tool to erase vast swathes of national forest without 1) environmental review, 2) Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections, or 3) legal challenge.” (via Jason Anthony)
Ask your Senator not to support it for those reasons! (202) 224-3121
3. Call Governor Walz (651-201-3400) and tell him no mining in the Boundary Waters!
From Michael Khamis:
The sulfuric acid stays in the Boundary Waters, which holds 20% of all fresh water in the entire U.S. National Forest system. Sulfide-ore copper mining has contaminated water at 100% of sites where it has been attempted.
🗳️ 675,000 Americans commented. 95% said protect it. Congress threw it all out using a procedural maneuver never used this way before in U.S. history.
🎣 Hunters and anglers fought this. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Trout Unlimited, B.A.S.S., Pheasants Forever and more. The people who use this land.
4. The critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale needs our help.
Tr*mp just backed Jared Golden (who has voted the wrong way on every single environmental issue in his brief tenure) bill to delay any action on reconciling the lobster fishery in Maine with the plight of these whales who primarily die from fishing gear entanglement. And those entanglements are on the rise! I’m opposed to this delay in action. And I think long-term it’ll be real bad for the lobstering fishery to have any role in driving whales extinct! The bill is with the House Resources Committee now (who will love it) and we need to ask our reps to oppose it.
Some sample language: "Another seven years would absolutely result in more entanglements and more death for the right whale, which is only going to make it harder to make gains in conservation at the end of that extended period," (from Rachel Rilee at Center for Biological Diversity.)
GO GET ‘EM! For critters!!!