Protect Alaska's Bristol Bay - NRDC's Save BioGems News, May 2010

If you have problems viewing this email, please click here to read BioGems News online   Hello, Raul! Read on to see the victories you're helping to achieve BioGems is now on Facebook! Join us on our BioGems Defenders Facebook page. BioGems Update A big thank you to BioGems Defenders who contributed more than $4,000 to buy two dozen bear-proof dumpsters for the Yellowstone area. BioGems Defenders: 595,014 Action Messages Sent: 12,894,143 » See the timeline of victories we've won To Do Even More You can support NRDC's BioGems campaign to save these and other threatened wild places. » Donate Get Your BioGems Widget Have action alerts delivered to Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, and lots of other sites. Bristol Bay BioGems Defenders join forces to stop Pebble Mine We're escalating our campaign to stop construction of the disastrous Pebble Mine in the heart of Alaska's pristine Bristol Bay watershed. A consortium of foreign mining companies, including Anglo American, has proposed a 2,000-foot-deep, two-mile-wide gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay, a true wildlife Eden that is home to the world's largest sockeye salmon streams, bears, whales, seals and eagles. The mining giants' plan for Pebble Mine includes five colossal earthen dams to hold back an estimated 10 billion tons of mining waste, laced with toxic chemicals. NRDC is joining with Native groups, led by Nunamta Aulukestai ("Caretakers of the Land"), Alaskan fishermen, sportsmen and conservationists to protect Bristol Bay from the Pebble Mine project. BioGems Defenders contributed more than $120,000 to run a full-page ad in the New York Times that helped generate more than 100,000 signatures on a Petition of Protest, which NRDC and Native Alaskans delivered to Anglo American's shareholders meeting in London on Earth Day. Now we're turning the pressure up on another mega-corporation that is backing the Pebble Mine project: the Mitsubishi Corporation. We need BioGems Defenders to create a similar wave of protest leading up to Mitsubishi's shareholders meeting on June 24. » Tell Mitsubishi to abandon the Pebble Mine project and spare this wildlife Eden In the News   NORTHERN ROCKIES WOLF HUNTS FINALLY END Wolf hunts have now ended in both Idaho and Montana, but tragically not before 260 wolves were killed. The states declared open season on wolves after they were stripped of their federal Endangered Species Act protections last spring, despite massive public opposition to that decision. The loss of so many wolves is a setback to wolf recovery in the northern Rockies. NRDC will continue its courtroom fight to restore endangered species protection to wolves in both states. A decision on our lawsuit against the Interior Department is expected later this year. EPA MOVES TO CURB MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a bold new set of policies aimed at limiting water pollution from the horribly destructive practice of mountaintop removing mining. The impacts of such coal mining on Appalachian waterways and communities have been profound -- to date, nearly 2,000 miles of streams throughout the region have been obliterated. Citing new research conclusively demonstrating that burying streams with mining waste causes permanent loss of ecosystems, the EPA issued new measures to protect 95 percent of aquatic life and freshwater streams in central Appalachia, which includes our Cumberland Plateau BioGem. HUNTING TAKES MAJOR TOLL ON GRIZZLIES ALONG CANADIAN BORDER A new report released by NRDC and the David Suzuki Foundation reveals that the number of grizzly bear deaths in British Columbia is on the rise -- and the leading cause is trophy hunting. Between 2004 and 2008, bear deaths in many parts of the province regularly exceeded the human-caused mortality limits set by the government. The disturbing death toll poses a serious threat to the future of the endangered grizzly population in the lower 48 states, which depends on populations in Canada for survival. Based on the study's findings, NRDC has called on Premier Gordon Campbell to close existing loopholes in the Wildlife Act that allow for grizzlies to be shot by trophy hunters in British Columbia's parks, and to establish protective no-kill zones. Action Insider   CONNECT WITH OTHER BIOGEMS DEFENDERS ON FACEBOOK BioGems is now on Facebook! Find us on the BioGems Defenders Facebook page, where you can join discussions with other Defenders and get the latest news and updates on our campaigns. Photo credits: Bristol Bay Landscape - © Robert Glenn Ketchum; wolf - © John and Karen Hollingsworth, USFWS