Protect Montana/Canada National Park from Mining

Mountain-top removal coal mining and coalbed methane extraction are threatening a pristine area on the border of Montana and Canada.

Send a message to the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and ask him to protect this area!

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which spans the border between Montana and Canada, is a globally significant biological hotspot, protecting elk, moose, deer, mountain goats, bull trout and a host of other wildlife and plant species.

It is also one of the most intact and diverse ecosystems in this type of climate in the world.

Please speak up against threatening our wild lands with mining. Your voice can make a difference.

Sincerely,

Emily
Care2 and The PetitionSite Team

Greater Yellowstone in danger - act now!

A rugged land of sparkling lakes, 10,000-foot peaks and world-class wildlife habitat, Montana's stunning Lionhead Recommended Wilderness, just west of Yellowstone National Park, is a dazzling area of tranquility. The area is so rugged that the Forest Service proposed that it be off limits to all mechanized travel, including mountain bikes.

But the proposal to protect the rugged Lionhead area is in danger.

That's why Lionhead needs your help before July 18. Tell the Forest Service to do the right thing.

Mountain bike activists have mounted a campaign to convince the Forest Service to give in and give cyclists total access to wilderness quality lands.

Alternative trails – including many primitive roads outside recommended wilderness areas – are available for bike rides but no alternative will replace the Lionhead Wilderness.

Please urge Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson not to give in to proponents of mechanized trails.

Tell her to stand by her proposal to fully protect traditional hiking and pack trails and the Lionhead Recommended Wilderness.

Sincerely,
Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

Help protect Glacier National Park

Two proposed mining schemes could despoil the Canadian
headwaters of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park -- one
of the wildest places in North America and part of our Greater
Rockies BioGem.

We need your urgent action to block these disastrous proposals,
which would pollute the pristine Flathead River with
contaminated waste and threaten the outstanding fish and
wildlife of Montana's Glacier National Park.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and urge the Canadian government to prohibit industrial mining
activities and coalfield developments in the headwaters of
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Cline Mining Corporation is proposing to put an open-pit
coalmine just 25 miles upstream of Glacier National Park. The
mine would remove a mountaintop to create an open pit mine,
settling ponds and waste dumps in a pristine valley.

Meanwhile, BP Energy Corporation has proposed a massive coalbed
methane project (over 125,000 acres) that would require miles of
pipelines and wells producing hundreds of millions of gallons of
toxic wastewater. A dense network of roads would destroy prime
habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife.

The Flathead River, which originates in British Columbia and
flows south into Montana where it forms the western boundary of
Glacier National Park, is one of the most wild, biologically
rich places in the world.

The Flathead valley and river form the heart of the Crown of the
Continent ecosystem, which is home to wolves, grizzly bears,
wolverines and lynx.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and tell the Canadian government to protect Waterton-Glacier
International Peace Park from damaging industrialization.

Thank you for helping to save one of North America's most
valuable wildlife habitats.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

Yellowstone Bison Slaughter Tops 1,100

Bison once numbered in the tens of millions across the Great Plains until a wholesale slaughter nearly wiped them out.

Now some of America's last free-roaming wild bison are being slaughtered on a scale not seen since the 1800s. And hundreds more could to be killed.

Take action now! Write the Montana Promotion Division -- the state's tourism officials -- and speak out for sensible wildlife management of these American icons!

Each winter, Yellowstone National Park bison migrate from snow-covered highlands to lower elevations outside the park’s boundaries in search of food.

But because of an unfounded fear that bison will transmit a disease called brucellosis to domestic cattle, bison face a grim fate -- even though there has never been a documented case of a wild bison transmitting the disease to cattle.

Once these majestic animals cross park boundaries, federal and Montana state officials chase bison back into the park where food is scarce -- or they are shipped off to slaughter.

This year alone, more than 1,100 bison have been killed -- nearly a quarter of the wild population. This is no way to manage one of the most beloved icons of the American West.

Write Montana tourism officials today and tell them that you want Montana to stop killing America’s bison.

The Montana Promotion Division -- the state’s tourism department -- is our best ally in Montana to press state officials to stop the shameful bison slaughter.

Together we can help ensure that America’s wild bison will continue to roam the American West.

Thanks for all you do to protect wildlife and the places it lives.

Sincerely,

Mike Leahy
Rocky Mountain Region Director
Defenders of Wildlife

Tell the Park Service to Save Yellowstone's Buffalo, Not Slaughter Them!

Yellowstone's wild, free-roaming buffalo herd is under siege.

The Bush Administration is turning the herd's birthing ground into a killing ground for hundreds of mighty bison -- better known as American buffalo.

We must speak out against this cold-blooded cruelty NOW -- because every week, more of these noble creatures are being herded into cattle trucks to be slaughtered.

This winter alone, more than 1,200 wild bison have been brutally killed -- or shipped to slaughterhouses -- by the Montana Department of Livestock, with the cooperation and approval of the National Park Service.

And come May, newborn calves are just as likely to be killed as their mothers.

We cannot stand by and let this massacre continue: Send a protest message now.

Right now, it's still winter in Yellowstone, and these unsuspecting buffalo are following historic migratory routes in search of food at lower elevations where there is less snow.

When the buffalo venture near or beyond the park's boundary, they will continue to be rounded up and killed -- unless we start a national outcry.

What makes this sacrifice so senseless is that it's all to protect roughly 200 domestic cows and steers that graze near the park from the theoretical risk of a disease -- brucellosis -- that has never been transmitted from bison to cattle in a natural setting.

Even more tragic, newborn calves and their mothers will be rounded up this spring in their birthing ground of Horse Butte, Montana -- a completely cattle-free zone -- which means they are being killed for absolutely no reason.

Please speak out and stop the slaughter. Yellowstone's buffalo are a national treasure: America's last, free-roaming herd. The National Park Service should be their guardian, not an accomplice to their execution.

Already, more than 90,000 Americans have submitted protest messages demanding that the National Park Service call a halt to the killing.

But now with so many newborn buffalo about to be killed -- we need to do more. Please submit your protest message and help us stop the spring massacre.

Together, we must speak out to spare the lives of Yellowstone's surviving buffalo so that they can again roam wild and free.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President

Urgent: Greater Yellowstone Wolves Delisted - Act Now!

It happened today - the Bush administration has just eliminated federal protections for hundreds of endangered wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.

Please protest this decision now - it will only take a minute to send your message in support of protecting these wolves!

This decision leaves wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies at the mercy of outrageous state management plans that allow for the killing of as many as 1,200 wolves - 80% of all the region's wild wolves!

Idaho officials want to use aerial gunning to kill wolves in their state. Wyoming agencies have left the door open to the use of traps and poison to eliminate wolves. And officials in both states - and Montana - have proposed wolf hunts.

That's not responsible wildlife management. It's a recipe for disaster.

Please make your voice heard today and demand continued protections for wolves!

Thank you for your urgent action today!