Hooray for Biden-Harris! Now let's try to get the Georgia Senate seats.

What a relief that Joe Biden will start immediately to reverse the damage to our public lands and wildlife done by Trump and his terrible Cabinet appointees. We hope for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante to be restored to their original sizes proposed by President Obama. We hope for wolves to be put back on the Endangered Species List and for Yellowstone bison to be added to that ESL.

We hope for drilling leases in wilderness areas to be cancelled, and all mining and other extractive industries to be banned from public lands, along with cattle. Yes, that is probably too much to hope for, but we’ve got to hope, right?

We have to focus now on the two U.S. Senate seats up for runoff elections in Georgia in January. Two of our candidates are still in the running, and they got almost enough votes to win. In Georgia, a U.S. Senate candidate must get over 50% of the votes to be declared the winner.

If you can, donate money to the Democratic candidates. If you can’t donate, then you can participate in other ways: write postcards to voters (Google it, there are several programs organizing this), write letters to the editor of major newspapers in Atlanta, Macon, and other large cities. Ask your friends to help — it’s just a short commitment of a few weeks until the runoff elections. If every one of us did just one or two things, we could make a big difference!

Thank you!

FOUR U.S. SENATE CANDIDATES TO SUPPORT NOW

Just 45 days left until the November election. The League of Conservation Voters asks that you support the following four candidate for U.S. Senate. They are environmental champions and will Defend Our Parks, public lands, and wildlife.

Learn more about each candidate at his or her website.

The candidates are:

  1. Steve Bullock, currently Governor of Montana, running for US Senate. You can donate at SteveBullock.com, or at GiveGreen, LCV Action Fund, 740 15th St NW, Washington DC 20005.

  2. Rev. Raphael Warnock, leader in the progressive community in Georgia, running for US Senate. You can donate at WarnockforGeorgia.com, or at GiveGreen, LCV Action Fund, 740 15th St NW, Washington DC 20005.

  3. Theresa Greenfield, running for US Senate to replace Joni Ernst in Iowa. You can donate at GreenfieldforIowa.com, or at GiveGreen, LCV Action Fund, 740 15th St NW, Washington DC 20005.

  4. Jon Ossoff, running for US Senate from Georgia. You can donate at ElectJon.com, or at

    GiveGreen, LCV Action Fund, 740 15th St NW, Washington DC 20005.

It’s important to find out who in your state and local elections is going to support the environment and our public lands. Be sure you read about your local candidates in newspapers or online.

Thank you!

Just 84 days until November 3--Election Day

The day we’ve been waiting for is coming: Election Day 2020, the day we defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden. November 3 will be the day we start getting rid of all the terrible people that Trump appointed and the Senate confirmed. November 3 will be the day we elect GOOD people to office all over this country, and especially in the red states: Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Arizona, and Texas.

There are good, progressive candidates running for state offices and for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Make sure you know who they are. If you can, send your state’s candidates a small (or big!) donation. Let them know you care about our public lands and wildlife.

It’s up to each of us to educate ourselves, support the good candidates, spread the word, and vote on Election Day, November 3.

It’s up to us to Defend Our Parks.

Who Will Defend Our Parks?

Do you know which of the presidential candidates supports environmental issues?

If you don’t know, then we’d like to share with you a chart prepared by the Center for Biological Diversity, with information on CBD’s grades for current presidential candidates. Find the whole article here: https://centeractionfund.org/environmental-report-card/?emci=eba0abad-363e-ea11-a1cc-2818784d084f&emdi=9e53de71-3441-ea11-a1cc-2818784d084f&ceid=278853&fbclid=IwAR1ZIhJ2gA3cTNgRnmCH1nZT4X-nOEwTXTgSl32aBouqTB8nR5nYyUdKuGw.

We’ll be publishing our guide to the primary elections soon.

In Memoriam: Spitfire, 926f, killed one year ago, on Nov. 24, 2018

Credit: Photo by Deby Dixon, Deby’s Wild World Photography

It’s been a year since the beautiful, strong Yellowstone wolf 926f was killed by a Montana hunter less than a mile from the Park border. The hunter’s identity is known to us, but we are not mentioning him by name because to do so would put him in danger and we don’t want to do that. He lives in Silvergate. The hunter is one of that subgroup of hunters who are out to acquire trophies. Trophy hunters kill animals because the animals are large, famous, unusual, rare, or difficult to find.

They kill animals they don’t intend to eat. Usually they mount the animals’ heads and display them on walls.

The hunter who killed Spitfire took her body home, placed his license tag on her, skinned her, and disposed of her carcass after meeting with the local warden from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, as required by Montana law. We believe that he had her pelt tanned so that it would be preserved.

Spitfire was one of five pups born to the Lamar Canyon pack in April 2011. She was one of the daughters of the wolf known as 06 (the year she was born, 2006, Yellowstone wolf 832f) and 755m.

In April 2012, 06 gave birth to three more pups. But in the fall, the first Wyoming wolf hunt in 50 years took place. 06 and her brother 754m were shot and killed when they stepped outside the park. Spitfire and her siblings were just yearlings at the time. A few weeks later, Spitfire’s father 755m left the Lamar Canyon pack to find another mate. He met and bred with 759f from the Mollie’s Pack, then returned to Lamar Canyon with her. Unfortunately, 755m’s daughters did not accept their stepmother. They killed her and her unborn pups. Soon, 755m left again to find another mate.

Spitfire’s older sister 776f led most of the remaining members of the Lamar Canyon pack out of the park and they formed a new pack. They did not return to Lamar Valley. Spitfire and her older sister 820f, known as Middle Gray, stayed behind in the Lamar Valley. After a while they were joined by lone wolf 825m, called Big Gray, who became the alpha male of the Lamar Canyon pack, with Spitfire as the alpha female. Spitfire dominated her older sister. At the end of 2013, the trio of 926f, 820f, and 825m were all that were left of the 13 wolves who had formed the Lamar Canyon pack before the 2012 wolf hunt.

In 2014, 926f and 825m had their first litter of pups. The following year, 2015, another litter was born shortly after Big Gray was killed by the Prospect Pack. Spitfire raised these pups without her mate. Four of the Prospect wolves later joined the Lamars, and a wolf called Twin became Spitfire’s mate. Their five pups were born in 2016. More Lamar wolves died of mange and other causes, and by the end of the year only Spitfire and her daughter Little T were left.

Next, a Beartooth male, 949m, became Spitfire’s mate. But he didn’t survive, probably due to distemper. No Lamar pups survived from the years 2015, 2016, or 2017.

In 2017, Spitfire allowed her daughter Little T to become the alpha, with Little T’s mate Dot. Sometime in 2017, Spitfire’s radio collar fell off. She and Little T both had litters of pups. Without a collared wolf in their pack, the Lamars were free and not tracked. In 2018, a pup called Jet was first seen in May.

Spitfire lived about seven and a half years. This is considered old for a wolf. She survived many difficulties and lost seven mates. Finally in 2018 a pup survived, and then 926f was killed.

Defend Our Parks believes 926f was illegally killed. We have submitted two Freedom Of Information Act requests for documents related to the investigation of her death conducted b Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Each collection of documents we received was incomplete, leaving out key reports. We have contacted attorneys and are deciding what to do next. Thank you for your support.

Here's Our List of 16 Anti-Parks Politicians to defeat in 2020

Less than one year remains until the national 2020 election. We have a lot of work to do to assure that Anti-Parks politicians are defeated, and pro-parks politicians are elected instead. Will you help?

We have identified 16 current members of Congress who have demonstrated through their votes and the donations they accept that they do NOT care about our public lands and wildlife. We’re listing these politicians today so that you can see whether any of them represent YOU. If you live in one of these Congresspeople’s districts, we hope that you will join us in speaking out against them, and working to defeat them in 2020.

Our list is constantly being updated and this particular list contains some that are not on our primary list. Some of these may be used to replace others that don’t make the primaries. Here are 16 additional Anti-Parks Politicians to defeat in 2020:

Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05)

Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-42)

Rep. Liz Cheney (WY-At-Large)

Sen. Steve Daines (MT)

Rep. Russ Fulcher (ID-01)

Rep. Greg Gianforte (MT-At-Large)

Rep.Louie Gohmert (TX-01)

Rep. Paul A. Gosar (AZ-04)

Rep. Doug Lambon (CO-05)

Rep. Debbie Lesko (AZ-08)

Rep. Roger Marshall (KS-01)

Rep. Jason Smith (MO-08)

Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08)

Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03)

Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-04)

Rep. Don Young (AK-At Large)

What you can do to help defeat these Anti-Parks politicians

Work FOR their opponents. Find out who is running against these Congress people.

Donate to their opponents.

Donate to DefendOurParks.org.

Write a Letter to the Editor supporting the opponent.

Display your support with a bumper sticker on your vehicle.

It will take every one of us to defeat these men and women!

Getting Ready for the 2020 Election: We Need Your Help

There are 17 months remaining before the 2020 national election. It’s vital that we use some of that time for three important activities:

  • identifying and supporting candidates and incumbents who will actively preserve our public lands, especially the national parks.

  • identifying and opposing candidates and incumbents who want to open our public lands, especially wilderness, to mining, drilling, livestock grazing, timber cutting, motorized vehicles, and other harmful activities.

  • reviewing and publicizing pending legislation at the federal level that concerns public lands and parks.

State legislatures and governors’ offices are important too. States have a huge effect on what happens in Washington DC. Eleven governorships will be decided in 2020. You can find information on these elections at https://ballotpedia.org/Gubernatorial_elections,_2020.

States with national parks and national forests that are under attack from the Trump Administration include California, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Idaho, California, Louisiana, and Utah. Pending legislation contains provisions that would allow motorized vehicles, military overflights, motorized bikes, electrical distribution lines, buffer zones, permanent fixed climbing anchors, law enforcement activities, utility rights-of-way, paragliding, competitive running events, road improvement, aircraft landing, and helicopters in wilderness areas in these states. Information on these bills in Congress is presented at https://wildernesswatch.org/images/wild-issues/2019/Wilderness-Legislation-116th-Congress.pdf.

We need your help to gather information on candidates and incumbents in your state who are running for the state legislature, and what their positions are on wildlife, hunting, and activities allowed on public lands. Hunting regulations are particularly important. Legislatures often make changes in hunting regulations from one year to another that can affect predators and public lands.

Are you interested in helping Defend Our Parks to collect this information?

We’d love to have you as a volunteer. If you’d like to help, go to our Contact page. Fill out the information and click Submit. We’ll respond as soon as we can.

Spring is here. It's time to Defend Our Parks.

The Trump Administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act. The Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management have proposed removing regulations that protect wolves, grizzlies, mountain lions, and other species from the ESA and allowing states to “manage” them.

We all know what “manage” means: hunting seasons. In Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming (states that already have “state management”), wolves and bears are being slaughtered right now. Many hunters in these states have no concept of what an ecosystem is, and think only of their own egos and how they can brag about killing large, dangerous animals. Schools have failed to teach these hunters about the circle of life. The hunters have convinced themselves that wolf predation is the major reason why elk and deer populations decrease. That’s wrong. The major reasons for reduced numbers of elk and deer are severe winters, collisions with vehicles on highways, and hunting. Wolves are the 9th or 10th cause of elk and deer death annually in states where wolves live.

Equally bad are the actions the Trump Administration has taken to open our public lands to oil and gas drilling, mining, domestic animal grazing, and border wall construction. The Wilderness Society has been vigilant in making us aware of what the Trump Administration is up to. You can follow the Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other watchdog groups on Twitter if you don’t have time to read all the daily reports in the newspapers yourself.

Earth Day is April 22. Many people will be marching, speaking, and taking part in activities that help the earth on that day. Have you signed up to help?

State legislatures are in session in most states, but will complete their work soon. Have you called, emailed, or written a letter to your state legislator about public lands? How about contacting your Congressional delegation too? It’s easy to do. You can find their addresses through Google. Get yourself a stack of plain postcards and write a sentence or two to each of your representatives every month. They need to know how we feel and where we stand on public lands and wildlife.

Only YOU can defend our parks from attack by politicians. Please step up.