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Defenders News Briefs: Summer 2008
Battle Over Border Wall Continues
In the latest chapter in the battle to safeguard the water, land and wildlife along the Mexican border, this spring Defenders, religious organizations, Native Americans and 14 members of the House of Representatives called for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the unprecedented power granted to the Department of Homeland Security for border wall construction. To hasten construction of the 470-mile long wall, in April the Bush administration waived 36 laws, including those that ensure safe drinking water and clean air, protect wildlife and pristine borderlands and conserve areas of cultural and archeological significance. "It is this kind of absolute disregard for the well-being and concerns of border communities and the welfare of our wildlife that has forced us to take a stand and say, 'No more,'" says Defenders' President Rodger Schlickeisen. For more information, please visit www.defenders.org/border.
Win for Wildlife and Beach-Drivers
The lawsuit seeking to protect wildlife from off-road beach drivers at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina was resolved this spring following a federal court-approved compromise among Defenders and other conservation groups, the National Park Service, Dare and Hyde counties and an off-road vehicle user group. The consent decree requires the Park Service to implement an off-road vehicle management plan no later than April 2011. In the meantime, the agency must take immediate action to address declining populations of nesting shorebirds and water birds and provide enhanced protection to the threatened piping plover, migratory birds and the three species of endangered or threatened sea turtles that nest here.
The Mojave Means Money in California
The Mojave Desert is an economic boon to California,
according to Defenders of Wildlife's new report, Economic Oasis: Revealing the
True Value of the Mojave Desert. The desert provides economic benefits in excess
of $1 billion a year, with hundreds of millions of dollars from the tourism and
film-making industries alone. An estimated $363 million is also pumped into the
local economy by the Twentynine Palms Marine base, which operates there. And the
region provides irreplaceable health benefits such as clean air and clean water.
To read the report, visit www.defenders.org/publications/mojave_economics.
