From the Inbox - Act Now! Polar Bear Homes, Lives at Risk

Urgent: Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Irresponsible development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could wreck the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s threatened polar bears. Urge the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska Regional Director to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the polar bears and other spectacular wildlife that live there. Forward this message to a friend! Dear Friend, Imagine the potential damage from an industrial oil field in the midst of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – one of the most important onshore denning habitats for polar bears – and you’ll understand why I need your help today. Polar bear mothers are particularly sensitive to noise and other disruptions. Construction, road traffic, airplanes and other noisemaking activities can cause these beloved wild bears to abandon their cubs, leaving them to die without the important lessons that only a mother bear can teach. Help preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Tell the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Arctic Refuge – and the polar bears and other wildlife that rely on this pristine landscape to survive. With the Fish and Wildlife Service set to revise the Arctic Refuge’s 15-year management plan, we only have until Monday (June 7th) to make our voices heard. We only need 800 messages from caring people in Alabama like you to meet our goal of 40,000 messages. Will you help? Please take action right now! Urge the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arctic Refuge Planning Team to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the spectacular wildlife that live there. For years, the oil industry and its political supporters have pushed to industrialize this special place. Just this week, one of the oil industry’s biggest supporters, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin even claimed that the offshore oil disaster in the Gulf proves the need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! In fact, the Gulf oil spill proves only that drilling is too dangerous to risk harming a pristine place like the Arctic Refuge. The Arctic Refuge is home to polar bears, grizzly bears, caribou, musk oxen, Dall sheep, wolves and rare wolverines. It’s also an important area for millions of migratory birds, many of which make their way across Alabama on their way to the Arctic Refuge. Today you have the unique opportunity to tell the Fish and Wildlife Service how you think the Arctic Refuge should be managed for future generations. Please help protect the Refuge’s wildlife by taking a moment to tell the Fish and Wildlife Service how important the Arctic Refuge is to you. Send your message today and urge federal officials to… Begin a comprehensive review with an eye toward designating the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as federally designated Wilderness, so that polar bears and other wildlife need never again be threatened by the potential for harmful oil and gas drilling and other destructive development in the habitat they need to survive; Stand strong against the State of Alaska’s efforts to extend its out-of-control and scientifically unfounded predator control programs into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and Preserve the viability of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its wildlife for future generations of Americans by setting aside unique ecological areas and regulating recreation. With the lives of threatened polar bears and other arctic wildlife hanging in the balance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering how exactly to manage the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s up to us to ensure that these federal officials act on behalf of the Arctic Refuge…and the wildlife that call this special place home. Please take action right now! For the Wild Ones, Peter Nelson Director, Federal Lands Program Defenders of Wildlife