Coloradans and conservationists have been working for over 20 years to achieve permanent protection for Browns Canyon. The campaign to protect this precious landscape showed its strength this December when a standing-room-only crowd, gathered for a Bureau of Land Management public meeting, sent a clear and urgent message to the federal government: Keep this beloved gem forever wild…make it a national monument!
Now, thanks to the tireless efforts of conservation-minded people like you, Browns Canyon is permanently protected. President Obama named the stunning 22,000 acres of Browns Canyon a national monument.
The area needs protection because mining and livestock operations want to expand in Browns Canyon. Expansion of these activities would spoil irreplaceable habitat for wildlife and people for generations.
National monument designation protects Browns Canyon by preventing new mining claims and mineral leasing, and assuring no new road construction damages the area’s watershed or wildlife.
That’s a good thing! Especially for these 5 species, who call Brown’s Canyon home and deserve it to be wild forever.
1) Reclusive Prowlers: Bobcats
Twice as large as house cats and bearing characteristic stubby tails, bobcats live six to eight years and have few predators but humans. The shy and reclusive creatures are skilled wilderness hunters. They hunt by sight and sound (not smell), and are sprinters that must abandon a chase if it lasts more than a few seconds. Browns Canyon is a bobcat paradise.
2) Crash of the Titans: Bighorn Sheep
Bighorn sheep also call Browns Canyon home. These great animals have a compact, muscular body with chocolate brown fur trimmed in white on the muzzle, rump and belly. Agile climbers, bighorn sheep are well equipped for climbing the steep terrain that keeps their predators, like mountain lions, at bay. Their wide-set eyes are situated well forward on their head, providing a wide arc of exceptional vision. Bighorn Sheep groups protect themselves from predators by facing different directions, allowing them to keep watch on their surroundings. Bighorn sheep were brought back from the brink of extinction with the help of conservation efforts, but today are struggling once again.
3) My, What Big Ears: Mule Deer
Mule deer thrive on the plant growth in Browns Canyon. Among the most beloved and iconic wildlife of the American West, mule deer get their name from their big, mule-like ears. In summer, mule deer are tannish-brown and in winter they are brownish-gray in color. They have a white rump patch and a small white tail with a black tip. Colorado’s mule deer populations have plummeted in the past few decades due to coal mining, oil and gas drilling and new roads and buildings that destroy and fragment their habitat.
4) Extremely Loud & Incredibly Large: Elk
An elk rut is something you will never forget. A “rut” is name of the elk mating period, and it is a spectacular opportunity to view elk bulls pursuing herds of elk cows in ritual courtship. The sound of bulls bugling and antlers from rivals crashing together is truly incredible. Most elk populations in the United States live on federally managed lands (national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, etc.) It is one of the largest species of deer in the world, and one of the large mammals in North America.
5) Ravenous, Opportunistic Eaters: Black Bears
Wild areas with little human footprint, like Browns Canyon, are perfect habitat for bears. Typically solitary animals, black bears roam large territories. Despite their name, black bears can be black, brown, or even white. Black bears are omnivorous. Their diet includes roots, berries, meat, fish, insects, larvae, grass and other succulent plants. They eat ravenously all summer and fall to build up fat reserves and survive the long winters dormant in their dens. They are also very attracted to human garbage, livestock food and pet food, and can quickly become habituated to these easy food sources. This often results in the bears being killed as nuisances…so don’t feed the bears!
Celebrate success! Add your voice to our Browns Canyon National Monument campaign now
National Wildlife Federation supporters have been advocating for the future of polar bears and other wildlife across the country throughout the fight—putting critical pressure on President Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency, and members of Congress. Now, we are seeing the results of your perseverance.
Strong Momentum in the Right Direction
In the last weeks, we’ve seen President Obama announce exciting plans to spur solar energy development and boost energy efficiency. Both measures help reduce energy use from fossil fuels while creating jobs. We’ve also watched as the National Climate Assessment helped change the conversation from preparing for climate change in the future, to understanding how climate change is already impacting wildlife, ecosystems and communities.
Each of these steps is leading up to the major announcement slated for Monday, June 2, when the Environmental Protection Agency will release its proposal for first-ever limits on carbon pollution from our nation’s existing power plants. Curbing carbon pollution from our single largest source—power plants—is a huge step in the right direction for wildlife. The EPA’s proposed rule can help us move away from dirty sources of energy like coal to clean sources like wind, solar and energy efficiency. The value to wildlife of this strong momentum on climate action cannot be understated.
The Word Is Out on Polar Bears’ Struggles
Thanks to your dedication and efforts to speak up for wildlife—the word is out about the impacts of climate change to polar bears and our most at-risk species.
Right now, polar bears living the western Hudson Bay of Canada, in the southern edge of their range, are on land for the summer. Polar bears’ main source of food is seals that they hunt from sea ice platforms, but a summertime fast is a normal part of life for polar bears in the Hudson Bay area.
What’s not normal for polar bears in the Hudson Bay is the increasing length of time they have been forced to go without food because their sea ice has veered off course. In recent years, warming temperatures have caused ice to melt earlier in the spring and freeze later in the fall—forcing polar bear to go without food an average of two weeks longer. Polar bear cubs and their moms are especially vulnerable to the impacts of this lengthening time without food.
Your Efforts to Raise Awareness are Working
The fight to protect polar bears is a long one, but your efforts to help raise awareness is working. It is now no secret that polar bears’ future is uncertain, and your advocacy is building critical momentum for the pollution limits that will give them a brighter future.
Together, we can keep this momentum going for pollution limits that are crucial to the future of America’s wildlife.
Speak up for polar bears: tell the Environmental Protection Agency that you support the ground-breaking limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants!
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Featuring poignant stories of communities facing the impacts of climate change across the globe, investigative-journalism style reporting with leading conservationists and reporting from the field, and breathtaking cinematography, Years of Living Dangerously is poised to start new conversations about climate change and mobilize people to action.
Opportunities to Learn and Teach
The series is a powerful learning opportunity for students—who are the next generation of wildlife conservationists and climate activists—to analyze the science of climate change, learn how to distinguish facts from opinions, and investigate solutions.
The National Wildlife Federation was asked to team up with Years of Living Dangerously as the official educational partner of the series. We are providing educational resources and learning opportunities on the issues presented in the series for middle school, high school, and university students and instructors.
Visit our Climate Classroom site to share the series and learning opportunities with the students, teachers and parents in your life to help develop you peoples’ leadership skills and environmental knowledge that is necessarily to successfully confront the challenges before them.
Together, learners of all ages can share their own stories and investigate climate change impacts and prompt solutions in their community.
Coming Together at Watch Parties
You can join others near you this Sunday evening at house parties to watch the series premier.
Our friends at 350.org are helping people across the country organize house parties where people can come together to share this experience with their friends and neighbors. Find a watch party near you or host your own.
After the series premiere, log onto the Years of Living Dangerously Google Hangout to engage directly with the producers, scientists and celebrities in the show—including Ian Somerhalder, Bill McKibben and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
Take Action to Cut Carbon Pollution
Cutting carbon pollution from U.S. power plants that burn fossil fuels is a critical piece of fighting climate change.
Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward to address the carbon pollution from the coal fired power plants across the nation by setting strong limits on carbon pollution that power plants emit—and the EPA needs to hear from you.
The dirty fuel industry is using its tremendous profits to misguide the public on climate change, and stall action by our leaders. But, we can show the overwhelming support for action on climate change to protect wildlife and communities across the U.S.—and across the globe.
Thanks to you orca’s habitat was protected from three harmful coal export terminals proposed in the Pacific Northwest, whooping cranes’ habitat has not been destroyed by a tar sands pipeline, and BP is being held accountable for destroying habitat that dolphins and sea turtles depend on.
Help your friends start 2014 protecting wildlife by sharing the images below on Facebook and Twitter—or by forwarding this blog to your friends.
Moose
Share this moose on Facebook or share the image on Twitter to encourage your friends to help protect moose from tar sands pipelines in 2014—starting today.
Orcas
Share this orca on Facebook or share the image on Twitter to encourage your friends to help protect orcas from coal pollution in the Northwest.
Puffins
Share these puffins on Facebook or share the image on Twitter to encourage your friends to help protect puffins from the impacts of climate change.
River Otters
Share this river otter on Facebook or share the image on Twitter to encourage your friends to help protect river otters from polluters destroying wetlands in the coming year—starting now.
Dolphins
Share this dolphin on Facebook or share the image on Twitter so that dolphins harmed by the BP oil spill will be able to count on more people to help give them a brighter future.
In the coming year, we will have some huge opportunities to continue protecting wildlife. Moose, polar bears and puffins will need more people like you taking action to win the fights ahead—thank you for sharing these wildlife with your friends to help them take action for wildlife in 2014.
New photos show polar bears in a population of bears in Hudson Bay that are on the front lines of climate change, as news continues to break on their long-term worsening condition and declining population.
The polar bears were waiting for the ice to refreeze so they could hunt for seals. The photos were taken by Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. He just returned from the Hudson Bay in Canada, where he and scientists observed the polar bears. His polar bear photos are available for sharing (credit the National Wildlife Federation).
UPDATE: While the temperatures were in the mid-thirties when the group from the National Wildlife Federation was in Churchill, Canada in November 2013, the main stress from the warming temperatures is the long-term trend of longer ice-free periods when polar bears cannot hunt for seals. The polar bears in the photos would have been waiting for the ice to refreeze so that they could once again hunt for food. The text above has been corrected to reflect that.
The polar bears photographed are a part of the western Hudson Bay population that scientists are describing as underweight and stressed from the lengthening time without food. When the NWF group visited the Northern Studies Centre research facility, the scientists there confirmed that bears are underweight by an average of about 85 pounds since the early 1980s.
Although ice conditions and bear health change from year to year, what is important is the long-term decline in this population attributed to declining survival and reproduction. The decline of polar populations in western Hudson Bay, as well as the Beaufort Sea, is a concern for many other polar bear populations if carbon emissions are not dramatically reduced.
Setting strong limits on pollution from any new proposed power plant is an important step in protecting wildlife that under threat from the effects climate change.
From Atlantic puffins in Maine facing starvation, to moose in Minnesota suffering from worsened ticks and heat, and fish in Colorado dying from toxic runoff caused by extreme wildfires—wildlife are counting on us to address climate change now.
Speak up for wildlife at risk from climate change—show your support for limits to carbon pollution.
New limits on carbon pollution from our nation’s existing coal-fired power plants are also in the works. Addressing the power plants that are currently emitting unlimited amounts of pollution into our air is most important step the Administration can take right now to address climate pollution.
This fall, the Environmental Protection Agency is holding listening sessions to gather input from the public on the standards for pollution from existing power plants.
Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of climate change-causing air pollution. Power plants add up to 40% of the carbon pollution in the United States. And while there are limits on arsenic, lead, soot and other pollution from power plants, there are no national limits to the carbon pollution.
Climate Action Plan
In June, President Obama announced his Administration’s Climate Action Plan, a series executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to address global climate change. The cornerstone of this climate plan is a directive to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update clean air standards that limit pollution.
Polluter Opposition
Big Polluters are intent on tearing down the Environmental Protection Agency and spreading climate-denial misinformation, in an attempt to not be held accountable for polluting our air and wreaking havoc on our climate.
Reports over the summer uncovered the vast scope of the climate-denial efforts that Charles and David Koch are funding. The “Koch Brothers” are spending tens of millions of dollars to block climate change legislation—funneling money into non-profits, foundations, and political organizations that spread their message of de-regulation and climate-denial.
Show Your Support for Climate Action
The Environmental Protection Agency needs to hear about the widespread public support for curbing carbon pollution today.
Voice your support for the new carbon pollution standards to ensure no future power plants can dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air—and urge the Environmental Protection Agency to stick to its commitment to cut the pollution from existing plants that drives climate change.
Or, speak up in person if you live near one of the public listening sessions being held by the Environmental Protection Agency in New York, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Lenexa, San Francisco, D.C., Dallas, Seattle, Chicago and Philadelphia.
As threats to lobsters associated with warming ocean temperatures creep northward into Maine, the Associated Press has crept away from reporting on the climate change, despite evidence that rising seawater temperatures threaten lobsters.
The impact of climate change to lobster and cod off the coast of Maine is no secret. Just last month the National Wildlife Federation’s state affiliate, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, launched a campaign to raise public awareness on how climate change is threatening Maine lobsters.
According to the New England Aquarium:
Lobsters are cold-blooded, their body temperatures determined by the water in which they live. Higher temperatures cause cold-blooded animals to use more energy for respiration, leaving less energy for feeding, growth, energy storage, immune response and reproduction. Much of a lobster’s life is related to the temperature on the ocean floor — what it eats, how successfully it breeds, where it migrates.
However, in last week’s article, the Associated Press referenced the high ocean temperatures in 2012 while staying silent on the link to climate change, despite climate change having driven the record-high temperatures in 2012. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated for their State of the Climate in 2012 report:
“Many of the events that made 2012 such an interesting year are part of the long-term trends we see in a changing and varying climate — carbon levels are climbing, sea levels are rising, Arctic sea ice is melting, and our planet as a whole is becoming a warmer place,” said Acting NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D.
And the Associated Press is not alone in this forgetfulness when it comes to the cause of record high temperatures.
As we just reported last week when Reuters reported on a massive fish die-off in Alaska due to high temperatures, news outlets are continually ignoring evidence of climate change. The pattern of omitting climate science from their stories includes failing to report on the climate context of wildfires in the West, ignoring that climate change is increasing the frequency of large rain storms and worsening flood risks in the Midwest, and flat-out ignoring the 2012 State of the Climate Report released this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“We’re dealing with a fragile environment,” Merryman said, noting that climate change is also a threat to lobster fishing, the “heartbeat of so many coastal communities.”
Take a Swim
Going swimming or taking a cool bath can take the edge of the heat quickly. Polar bears are known to take a swim to cool down, including this polar bear in the Beaufort Sea off the coast of Alaska, who lives on land in the summer. Whether walking on land or on ice, these well-insulated bears easily become too warm. Sadly, in the spring and fall the polar bears in Alaska are also forced to swim longer and longer distances to find the ice they need to hunt for seals.
Stay Hydrated
Keep drinking plenty of water, and make sure that birds (and other wildlife!) can stay well hydrated as well by providing them with a shallow bird bath and fresh water.
Plant Shade Trees
Large shade trees around your home can reduce money spent on air conditioning by up to 50%! Trees are important for wildlife, like this Baltimore Oriole. When it is hot outside, animals can find a cool refuge under trees without being away from their food.
Create Cool Air Currents
You may not be able to soar up to cooler air currents like this vulture, but you can create a nice breeze with a fan. Placing a fan in your open window at night is especially useful to stay cool when sleeping.
Switch to Summer Clothes
Just like black bears lose much of their thick underfur in the summer, you can change into summer threads that help keep you cool. Opt for single layers of loose, light colored, natural fabric. Or, try covering up completely with loose natural fabric clothing when you are out in the hot sun. The loose fabric can shade your skin and keep you cool, especially in dry heat.
Avoid the Hottest Hours
In the heat of the day, follow the lead of lizards and snakes that sun themselves in the warm morning sun, then seek cooling shade in the heat of the afternoon. No need to fan yourself—moving while you feel hot can just make you hotter. Instead, wait until the evening to be active.
Javelinas, also known as peccaries, living in the hot Southwestern deserts have long known that they can stay cool by rolling in the mud. If you don’t want to get muddy, you can soak a t-shirt or even just your soak sleeves in water. Ring out the fabric, and put on the damp shirt. Then, turn on a fan become really cold, really quickly.
Chill off Your Bed
This squirrel lounging on cool stones has the right idea. You can cool off your bed by putting your bedding in the coolest part of the house during the day. Some people even stash their pillow in the freezer (with a bag over it to keep off ice crystals) until bedtime. A cold compress behind your neck or knees works well, too.
Insulate Your Home
In may sound counterintuitive, but wolves and many dogs stay cool thanks to their summer coat of fur acting as a layer of insulation. A layer of insulation can help homes stay cool, too. Doing an energy audit on your home can help you learn how to insulate, ventilate, and update your home to stay its coolest.
Use the Earth’s Coolness
Kit foxes are some of the only large mammals that burrow into the earth to take refuge from the heat of their desert habitat. To tap into the earth to cool your house, check out geothermal systems that use the consistently cool temps below ground to keep house cool while using much less electricity than air conditioning. Or, you could try going into a basement or ground level of your house and lying near the floor.
Cutting Climate Pollution for Polar Bears
Right now, most of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, which create carbon pollution that is driving climate change.
Curbing our own electricity use is an important action we can take to protect polar bears’ future. At the same time, you can help make positive change on a national scale by promoting clean energy sources and fighting for strong limits on big polluters like coal-fired power plants.
Over the past 50 years, temperatures in Alaska warmed twice as fast as the national average. The impacts of the warming temperatures on fish and wildlife are unmistakable: from polar bears whose ice hunting platforms are forming later in the year, to oysters infected with harmful bacteria only recently found in Alaska after the seabed warmed, and wild salmon suffering from parasites that are emerging as waters heat up.
As Reuters reported, grayling and rainbow trout numbering in the hundreds died in a Fairbanks lake where temperatures rose to 76 degrees Fahrenheit in June. In July, over 1,100 king salmon facing 80-degree water also perished.
Record-breaking heat has also created elevated wildfire risks in Alaska, even in the normally rain-soaked Tongass National Forest in the state’s southeastern panhandle.
Wildfires have charred more than a million acres across Alaska, according to state and federal wildfire managers, more than the five-year season-total annual average of 952,113 acres. Some 75 active fires were still burning on Friday, with much of the fire season still to come.
But the Reuters story never once mentioned climate change, let alone the carbon pollution caused by burning fossil fuels which are drilled from Alaska’s tundra and below threaten its waters.
As Media Matters has reported, climate science has fallen off Reuters’ radar screen since a climate science denier took over as managing editor:
David Fogarty, a former Reuters climate change correspondent, wrote that Managing Editor Paul Ingrassia, then serving as deputy editor-in-chief, identified himself as “a climate change skeptic” in 2012. As time went on, Fogarty alleged, “getting any climate change-themed story published got harder,” as some desk editors “agonized” over decisions and allowed articles to become mired in bureaucracy. Eventually, amid a “climate of fear,” Fogarty’s role was “abolished.”
Reuters is not alone in this massive avoidance of acknowledging climate science. From western wildfires to Mississippi River flooding, America’s news media prefers not to connect the dots for readers on climate change and extreme weather, hoping to avoid being accused by political partisans of “taking sides” in the battle between scientific reality and political denial. Our broadcast networks barely even mention climate change. And as NWF President & CEO Larry Schweiger has pointed out, when someone calls the media on it, they prefer to change the subject.
Help Salmon and Other Alaskan Wildlife
Alaska’s wildlife—from salmon to polar bears—depend on us to fight for action on climate change.
Recent reports have uncovered the vast scope of the climate-denial efforts that Charles and David Koch are funding. The “Koch Brothers” are spending tens of millions of dollars to block climate change legislation—funneling money into non-profits, foundations, and political organizations that spread their message of de-regulation and climate-denial.
The Koch Brothers’ are using their influence in Congress to try to block meaningful legislation on climate change. They have persuaded many members of Congress to sign a pledge to vote against any meaningful bill to combat climate change.
President’s Plan Marks Climate Progress
Despite obstacles created by the billionaire tycoons who are using their influence and vast resources to create obstacles, this summer marked a turning point in the fight for climate action.
In response to pressure from people like you, President Obama recently released a bold new plan to address climate change. NWF President and CEO Larry Schweiger marked the importance of the President’s climate plan, noting that “President Obama is following through on his pledge to act and this is an important step in the journey to end industrial carbon pollution.”
The President’s plan includes supporting Environmental Protection Agency limits to carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants—and it is not a minute too soon for wildlife that are suffering the effects of climate change.
Congressional Attacks to Climate Action
Not only have over 100 members of Congress signed pledges backed by the Koch Brothers to oppose any meaningful climate legislation, some members of Congress are cooking up bills left and right that would get in the way of the Environmental Protection Agency being able to do its job.
Members of Congress who are allies of polluters have attacked comprehensive climate legislation, they are writing bills that attempt to block the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act, and are trying to starve environmental agencies through the appropriations process by cutting their funding.
Though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that under the Clean Air Act the EPA must set limits on global warming pollution that endangers our health and future, some in Congress have not gotten the message and continue to try to stop the EPA from limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Arctic Ice Melt Means Hunger for Polar Bears
Arctic ice hit a record low last summer—and it is looking bad again this year. Scientists expect polar bears will once again be forced to wait long into the fall before ice returns near Alaska where the bears so desperately need ice platforms to hunt for food.
The lengthening wait for sea ice to freeze is dire for polar bear cubs and the polar bear moms who need more time on the ice to hunt for enough seals to sustain themselves and their young.
Unless Big Polluters’ allies in Congress stop attacking the Environmental Protection Agency, the President may not be able to put his new plan into action.
Act quickly–tell your members of Congress to let the Environmental Protection Agency do its job.