BIOGEMS PARTNERS RECEIVE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
Seattle, WA (rushprnews) June 7, 2007 -Two grassroots activists who have been crucial local partners in our BioGems campaigns have been awarded the 2007 Goldman Prize. The $125,000 prize for extraordinary environmental leadership is the largest of its kind in the world. Julio Cusurichi Palacios has played a key role in establishing protections for Peruvian native lands and in helping us secure the Bush administration’s recent commitment to crack down on the illegal mahogany trade. Sophia Rabliauskas of Canada’s Poplar River First Nation is working closely with us to win permanent protection for her community’s traditional lands in the Heart of the Boreal Forest. Congratulations, Julio and Sophia!
NRDC HEADS TO COURT TO PROTECT IMPERILED GRIZZLIES NRDC and our partners have filed a lawsuit to uphold life-saving federal protections for Yellowstone’s last grizzly bears. The Bush administration removed the park’s population of roughly 500 bears from the endangered species list in April, leaving them vulnerable to habitat loss, hunting and the effects of global warming. In response, BioGems Defenders flooded the administration with nearly 30,000 pro-grizzly messages. If you were one of them, please send a brief note telling us why you want to help ensure a future for America’s grizzly bears. Have you seen one? Dreamed about one? Let us know!
HIGHWAY SCHEME THREATENS EMERALD COAST
Florida transportation officials have announced plans to build two new highways that would cut directly through vital habitat for endangered and threatened wildlife, including the Florida black bear and possibly the ivory-billed woodpecker — a species long believed to be extinct. NRDC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are leading an outcry against the plan, which not only fails to take into account the far-reaching environmental impacts of the proposed roadways or consider less harmful alternatives, but would destroy wildlands that the state of Florida and private conservationists have spent millions of dollars to protect. We’ll keep you posted on this fight.
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RUSH PR NEWS newswire and press release services at www.rushprnews.com
Anne Howard www.annehowardpublicist.com writer and publicist
