Published October 02, 2009 @ 06:36AM PT

Last weekend, thousands of volunteers from coast to coast took part in National Public Lands Day. Four signature sites of this year's celebration were the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC; Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California; Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles, CA; and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, GA. In addition to those who participated at one of these signature sites, thousands across the country took part in local public lands events, helping them to gain knowledge about critical environmental issues facing their communities and about the need to be stewards for these precious areas. Although this national event is aimed toward building community and improving public lands for recreation, restoring America's... Read More

Published September 02, 2009 @ 08:53AM PT

NWF's new "The Faces of Climate Change" photo contest is a great opportunity for you to show how you see climate change in your everyday life! Here's a chance for you to bring your unique perspective from your niche of the world. When I think of how climate change affects my local environment, I don't just consider the problems - but the critical solutions too. For example, I see the landfill in my Midwestern hometown that rose above all other points on the horizon, but I also think of the mammoth but graceful wind turbines I see when driving through rural Illinois. So now's your turn. Bring your camera along for your next ride or walk around your community and capture the local impacts of climate change. Besides telling your story, what's in it for you? Well for one, the top two p... Read More

Published August 19, 2009 @ 08:19AM PT

August: the month where every spare moment is spent around water-swimming, fishing, boating, beachcombing. As summer wanes you might consider how much clean streams, lakes and beaches mean to you and your loved ones. Sadly this moment of reflection is also being forced on many of us: according to a recent Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report, beach closings due to pollution are on the rise, climbing above 20,000 for the last four years in a row. Across the country,746 communities in 32 states face water contamination, fish consumption warnings, and beach closings from the release of raw sewage into nearby water bodies. Without restoring Clean Water Act protections, the releases that occur in smaller streams, creeks, tributaries, and canals-which are vulnerable to Cle... Read More

Published August 03, 2009 @ 09:09AM PT

The salmon and steelhead that return to the Columbia and Snake Rivers are like no other fish in the world.  They migrate nearly 1,000 miles, connecting coastal and river communities from California to Alaska and inland to Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. When Lewis and Clark arrived on the banks of the Snake River in 1805, the Columbia Basin of the Pacific Northwest boasted the greatest salmon stocks on Earth - up to 30 million salmon returned home each year. It must have been quite a sight! Today, however, populations linger near just one percent of that historic number. Every run of salmon and steelhead on the Snake River are either extinct or listed under the Endangered Species Act. As a Pacific Northwesterner, the impacts of the salmon crisis on our economy, ecology and culture are... Read More

Published July 17, 2009 @ 07:17AM PT

Here's a story for the history books: In 1983, our government set water planning policies that determined how we create water projects--and they're still in place today. But as you and I know, the world has changed. There are more people, more threatened wildlife and wildlife habitats, and we have a better understanding of how we can live in better harmony with nature--and more than a quarter century has passed. So here's a new story for the history books. The White House is considering a new way to look at water. What if instead of choosing water projects based on economics or politics, we required every federal agency to make protecting and restoring the environment a main goal of every water project? What if planning for healthy wetlands, healthy rivers and healthy lakes wasn't a... Read More

Published July 01, 2009 @ 11:53AM PT

Since joining Twitter and making connections in the "green" Twitter world, I have heard a lot of people wondering whether the environmental community can focus all of Twitter's positive energy towards a greater purpose. Can we get people who tweet to use their voice to help nature and inspire others to do the same? Many groups have started experimenting with Twitter, including holding fund-raising drives, marketing and just recently, NWF held a "Twestoration" where volunteers tweeted about their environmental restoration projects. NWF's Wildlife Watch is hoping that the Twitter community will use their 140 characters to help monitor wildlife. Wildlife Watch is a citizen monitoring program where the public reports animal, plants and natural phenomena sightings online to NWF. Most of... Read More

Published June 26, 2009 @ 04:34PM PT

Groundbreaking Moment in Conservation History: http://ow.ly/fXwt

Published June 22, 2009 @ 12:41PM PT

We've only got a few hours left to make sure the Environmental Protection Agency will do their part to help protect our  wildlife and natural resources from global warming. Although, the best way we can guarantee that our leaders will help safeguard our wildlife and wild places from global warming is to get Congress to pass legislation this year that caps carbon pollution and invests in clean energy solutions, we also need to make sure the agency charged with "environmental protection" will be doing their part too. To help inform their decision on whether to take decisive action to confront global warming, over the past few weeks, the EPA has asked the public to respond to a simple, but important question Does global warming endanger public health and welfare? If we can ensure t... Read More

Published June 04, 2009 @ 11:29AM PT

Here's a huge milestone on our path toward a clean energy future: According to the United Nations Environmental Program, this year marks the make sure your Congressmember hears this news and sets the stage for an even greater shift to clean energy investments!