Help block drilling in a Colorado wildlife refuge

The Bush administration is poised to allow two giant energy
companies to drill exploratory oil and gas wells up to 14,000
feet beneath Colorado's spectacular Baca National Wildlife
Refuge.

Last year, BioGems Defenders and other NRDC online activists
sent more than 48,000 messages protesting this destructive
drilling scheme. Despite this outcry, the Bush administration is
moving forward with the plan, which could pave the way for
massive industrialization of the Baca Refuge.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and tell the Bush administration to halt the Baca oil and gas
project until a thorough study of its potentially devastating
environmental impacts is carried out.

The Baca refuge is an important calving ground for deer and elk
and provides a natural sanctuary for imperiled wildlife,
including the ferruginous hawk, the threatened burrowing owl,
the greater and lesser sandhill crane and the Rio Grande sucker,
an endangered fish. Over 4,000 elk depend on the area for
critical winter habitat and calving grounds to shelter newborns.

Thousands of migrating birds visit the refuge each spring and
fall, and hundreds of ancient Native American artifacts lie
buried under ancient layers of sand. World-class archeological
sites dating back some 11,500 years have been found nearby.

The proposed drilling project threatens to transform this
irreplaceable wildland into an industrial zone -- contaminating
air, land and waterways and unleashing a barrage of
drilling-related traffic and noise. Even the adjacent Great Sand
Dunes National Park could be at risk.

Energy companies currently own the rights to oil and gas
reserves beneath the refuge. But the Bush administration has the
authority to block reckless and destructive industrialization on
these lands.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and demand that the Bush administration protect the Baca
National Wildlife Refuge from the far-reaching impacts of oil
and gas drilling.

Thank you for helping to protect our last remaining Rocky
Mountain wildlife habitats.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

. . .