Work in Effective Networks

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Six, Number Four
May/June 1997

Call to Action:

THE NATIONAL FOREST PROTECTION SERVICE WANTS YOU!

The Western Ancient Forest Campaign (WAFC) is building a nationwide network of grassroots volunteer activists to help preserve, protect and restore America's forests ö The National Forest Protection Service. The volunteers, called Congressional District Rangers, will work with WAFC to mobilize citizens in support of forest protection, including visits to their Congresspersons and Senators. WAFC will provide detailed fact sheets and up-to-date news on national forest management.

If you can be a District Ranger in your congressional district, call for an information packet: 202/ 789-2844, ext. 294, or email: wafcsean@ig.apc.org

THE GRASSROOTS ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTIVENESS NETWORK NEEDS YOU!

In today's political climate, Washington DC lobbying alone is not going to win conservation battles. Nothing takes the place of effective grassroots activism by local conservationists armed with comprehensive knowldege of what is happening in the halls of Congress. The Grassroots Environmental Effectiveness Network (GREEN), a project of Defenders of Wildlife, works with grassroots activists to strengthen wildlife and public lands protection.

Volunteer District Captains, currently, are linking GREEN to local conservationists and environmental groups in over 350 Congressional Districts. District Captains keep in touch with concerned folk in key groups (including the religious communities) to formulate viable strategies for media, outreach and direct Congressional contact on specific issues. They have access to the Defenders of Wildlife State Biodiversity Data Base, the first comprehensive collection of state laws and policies relating to wildlife from the 50 states. Captains can get access, for research and advocacy purposes, to a number of other environmental information sources, through an agreement with the Taxpayers Assets Project.

To counter the efforts in Congress (a draft bill by Senators Kempthorne, R-ID, and Chafee, R-RI) to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA), GREEN is asking for help in getting sponsors for a bill to strengthen the protection of endangered species, the Endangered Natural Heritage Act (ENHA).

The ENHA, supported by over 300 environmental groups around the country, would conserve declining species before they near the brink of extinction; conserve habitat for threatened and endangered species; recover threatened and endangered species; reaffirm federal agencies' duty to conserve listed species; require that Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) be consistent with the recovery of listed species; increase citizen involvement in the conservation of listed species; provide economic incentives to encourage voluntary conservation; and ensure that the US remains the world leader in wildlife conservation.

For more information on ENHA or GREEN, contact Defenders of Wildlife, 1101 Fourteenth St. NW, Suite 1400, Washington DC 20005; 202/682-9400 ext.288, 289 or 290; or email: greeninfo@defenders.org.