Alice's Sharebook 

Save AmericaâEUR(TM)s Rivers: Stop Nutrient Pollution - ForceChange 
Environment  (tags: water, pollution, rivers ) 
 Alice - 17 seconds ago - forcechange.com 

The Great American Backyard Campout® is officially on Saturday, June 27, 2009. Basil Brook Organic Pharm is now a wildlife sancturary, has a lovely camping area near the hiking trail and brook and will be participating again this year. This year will will include workshop on alternative energy with information on photovoltaics, solar hot water, passive solar heat. An all electric car and solar oven will also be on display.

Mark your calendar for June 27, 2009!

Come join the fun!

The Great American Backyard Campout provides an opportunity for everyone to relive -- or to experience for the first time -- how much fun it is to spend a night sleeping under the stars and enjoying the sounds of nature.

Held each June, the Great American Backyard Campout is a national event that encourages individuals, youth, friends and families to camp out together for one night.

Each year the number of campers has steadily grown. The locations and types of campsites vary from family campouts in the backyard to public campsites with 30 or more community members. In previous years, campers have ranged in age from 3 months to 99 years old and have come from all areas of the United States.

For more information please visit:

http://www.nwf.org/backyardcampout/index.cfm

or email Alice at barrelsofsun@earthlink.net

Proposed mine would throttle Montana wilderness

Urge the U.S. Forest Service, Montana DEQ to protect grizzlies and bull trout against the Montanore mine

TAKE ACTION

Click here to urge the Forest Service and Montana DEQ to protect grizzlies, and bull trout against the Montanaore mine

Dear Alice Diane,

Two mines, one wilderness
Only 20-30 grizzly bears remain in and around the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwest Montana. These bears are hanging on by a thread. Biologists say they can't survive the loss of habitat from one mine, let alone two!

Yet, two massive copper and silver mines are in the works. If approved, these mines will jeopardize the wilderness area, degrade rivers and lakes, and harm important wildlife species! The Bush Administration has already given the green light to the proposed Rock Creek Mine.

Now the Forest Service is considering approval of the Montanore Mine.

Undermining wilderness lakes
The Montanore mine will intercept ground water in the region and divert it into the mine's underground tunnels. Rivers and lakes that rely on this groundwater will suffer the consequences -- including alpine lakes in the Wilderness.

Bull trout at risk
The US Fish and Wildlife found that the Rock Creek mine would likely wipe out the bull trout fishery in Rock Creek. Now, the Montanore Mine is predicted to dewater and degrade the East Fork of Bull River - the most important bull trout stronghold in the region.

Pollution in perpetuity
The proposed Montanore Mine is predicted to generate 13 million gallons a year of polluted mine water in perpetuity.

TAKE ACTION
Enough is enough! Send a letter to the U.S Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Speak out on behalf of wilderness, water quality and wildlife!

Thanks for taking action,
Bonnie Gestring and Alan Septoff, EARTHWORKS

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Go to the action page.
• Read the sample letter at page bottom and edit it if possible. Customized letters have greater impact.
• Click "send my message" to send your message to the Forest Service and Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
• For more information, go to the action page.

Protect Your Drinking Water From Toxic Chemicals

Take Action Today!

Dear Alice Diane,

Did you know that the oil and gas industry, thanks to Dick Cheney and his old friends at Halliburton, are exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act?

That's right: thanks to a provision slipped into the highly-controversial Energy Policy Act of 2005 at the request of Halliburton, Exxon and a handful of other corporations, the oil and gas industry was exempted from having to comply with critical provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act—a law that protects underground sources of drinking water for millions of Americans.

This exemption has allowed hydraulic fracturing—a process that increases oil and gas yields by shooting an oftentimes toxic brew of chemicals underground at high pressures—to go completely unregulated by federal law.

Hydraulic fracturing is already suspected of endangering drinking water in six states. However, due to the "Halliburton Loophole" exemption, EPA lacks the authority to investigate instances of contamination and cannot regulate this controversial practice.

Thankfully, concerned members of Congress in both the House and Senate have recently introduced legislation to close the "Halliburton Loophole" and ensure that Big Oil has to follow the same laws that every other industry does.

H.R. 2766, introduced by Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis (D-CO); and S. 1215 introduced by Bob Casey (D-PA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Please contact your congressperson and senators and ask them to cosponsor these important pieces of legislation.

Take Action Today!

— Earthjustice
Because the earth needs a good lawyer

P.S. Every voice counts! Please tell your family and friends to ask their congressperson and senators to cosponsor these important pieces of legislation.