Defending the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains represent an internationally recognized image of rugged
natural beauty and an impressive ability of western communities to adapt to an
often extreme and unforgiving environment. However, human impacts have and
continue to take a toll on the fragile eco-systems of the Rockies.
Energy
development in the form of oil and gas extraction and coal powered power plants
threatens water and air quality, and intrudes on residents’ peaceful enjoyment
of the region’s idyllic beauty. Industrial, residential and commercial
development, and the accompanying transportation infrastructure, in and adjacent
to the vast public lands of the Rocky Mountains threaten critical wildlife
habitat and disrupt essential corridors between the remaining true wild places
on the landscape.
Together with dedicated local and regional allies,
organizations and individuals alike, the Western Environmental Law Center is successfully working to protect
this pristine environment from further harmful activities, and to ensure that
those intrusions which do proceed are planned and pursued in a responsible and
environmentally sensitive manner.
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Protecting the Wolverine: The Essence of Wilderness
- WELC is working to protect the wolverine – the symbol of remote wilderness and one of the rarest, least understood, and most vulnerable mammals in North America. This is a challenge to the US Forest Service’s decision (without any public review, comment, or oversight) to authorize a private snowmobile club to groom approximately 158 miles of roads and trails in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in core wolverine habitat within the West Pioneers Wilderness Study Area.
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Safeguarding Wyoming Skies from Irresponsible Liquid Coal Production
- Coal to liquid plants promise the public unending power but, in fact, will deliver unending pollution in the form of hazardous air emissions, acid rain, smog, and potent climate forcing pollution.
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Challenge to Bush Administration Foot-Dragging on Species Protection
- The Bush administration has been using a legal loophole in the Endangered Species Act (the “warranted but precluded” clause) to delay listing of hundreds of species which it has acknowledged need protection, effectively allowing these species and their habitat to spiral downhill towards extinction.
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Ensuring the Public's Right to Know - Pesticide Reform
- In a long campaign with Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides the Western Environmental Law Center has sought full disclosure of active and inert ingredients in pesticides to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Protecting Lynx Throughout the Southern Rockies
- UPDATE! WELC and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reached a legal settlement, requiring the government to issue a finding on our petition to federally protect the lynx in New Mexico.
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WELC Sues Forest Service Over Attempts to Remove Protections for Wildlife Across the Country
- WELC files suit on behalf of 14 conservation organizations
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Drilling the Climate: Colorado Oil and Gas Auction to Fuel Global Warming, BLM Ignoring its Responsibility to Protect Colorado’s Climate
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VICTORY! WELC Protects Wildlife, Birds and Habitat on Farms
- We are thrilled to report that, in one of the quickest legal resolutions we've seen, WELC won a significant victory protecting habitat for wildlife on farmlands.
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Sportsman and Conservationists Strive to Preserve Critical Wildlife Corridor and Habitat on the Continental Divide.
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Lynx in New Mexico Soon to Escape Legal Limbo
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is required to issue finding on petition to federally protect the lynx in New Mexico.
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