Dear Sierra Club Wilderness Activists:

With our National Parks gaining nationwide attention via Ken Burn’s upcoming PBS series you can help spread the word about protecting their wilderness values. 

Two action items are below:  Everglades National Park and Ken Burn’s House Parties with your own special DVD 

Thanks for taking action,

Clayton Daughenbaugh

Chair, Sierra Club’s National Wildlands and Wilderness Team 

Take Action To Protect Wildlands and Wildlife In South Florida's National Parks!

Please send an email to Superintendent Dan Kimball at the following address -- [log in to unmask]  -- and ask him to stop the construction of power lines across the Everglades National Park's eastern edge.  Then send a second email to the National Park Service here --

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=352&projectID=11164&documentId=27329 – and ask them NOT to allow 140 miles of off-road vehicle trails for motorized hunting across an area known as the ‘Addition Lands’.  Details on both of these items are at the bottom of this email.  For more information contact Matt Schwartz, Broward Sierra Club Everglades Chair and Outings Leader: [log in to unmask] .

In Everglades National Park, Florida Power and Light is anxious to construct three massive power lines (on towers up to 150 feet tall and carrying 500,000 volts each) across the park's eastern edge.  These will carry electricity from two new nuclear reactors the utility is now in the process of getting permitted.  Not only will this corridor become the new eastern horizon for the park, it will interfere with natural water flows, spread invasive plant species, and create disturbances for animals, including bird collisions and electrocutions. 

In Big Cypress National Preserve, the park service is currently taking comments on a plan to put in 140 miles of off-road vehicle trails for motorized hunting across an area known as the 'Addition Lands' - currently open to hiking only.  Aside from obvious impacts to the peace and beauty of these unique wetlands, motor vehicles in Big Cypress have been shown to damage and destroy fragile soils and plants, spread invasive species, create ruts several feet deep, and drive out Florida panthers, which simply have no place left to go.  Panther deaths to due to vehicle accidents in south Florida now routinely run to double digits annually.

 

The Sierra Club is featured prominently in the upcoming Ken Burns documentary series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," which will air on PBS in late September.   The national house party day is Sunday, September 20th - and the deadline to register parties in time to receive the DVD is Sept 13th.

To register a House Party - http://www.sierraclub.org/partyforparks/ .  Also check out our National Parks website at http://www.sierraclub.org/parks/ .

The Sierra Club is organizing house parties the week before the series airs on Sunday, September 20.  We’re providing hosts a free one-hour "sneak preview" DVD about the series and everything you need to throw a house party and take action to help the wildlife in our national parks adapt to climate change.

We’d love it if you could get the word out, build local community, and take action to urge the leaders in the Obama administration to prioritize protecting our public lands.