Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Stop Trump's attack on Native lands. No drilling in Chaco Canyon

The petition to the Bureau of Land Management reads: "Protect one of our nation's most significant cultural and historical Native sites. Stop fracking across the Greater Chaco Landscape." Add your name:

The Bureau of Land Management is putting up for lease pristine areas in the Greater Chaco Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and ancestral home for the Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo people, threatening ancient tribal sites, posing a significant health and safety risk to communities in the area, and exacerbating the climate crisis.The Trump regime is conspiring once again with the oil and gas industry to destroy our public lands, and if we don't act now, one of our nation's most significant cultural and historical Native sites could be erased. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who oversees the BLM, is a former oil and gas lobbyist, so it's no surprise that he and others in Trump's pro-fossil fuel administration are quickly pushing the sale of new fracking leases and more fracking wells. We must speak out now to prevent more industrialized fracking from moving forward. Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Protect Native lands. No drilling and fracking in the Greater Chaco Landscape. Click here to sign the petition. The areas in Greater Chaco Landscape contain the threatened ruins of Chaco Canyon – what some have referred to "as close as the U.S. gets to Egypt’s pyramids and Peru’s Machu Picchu" — as well as "the remnants of great houses, kivas, ancient roads and sacred places built a millennium ago by an indigenous people who became proficient in architecture, agriculture, astronomy and the arts."1,2 Today, the Diné or Navajo people, rely on the Chaco Landscape to sustain their livelihoods and traditional practices and modern New Mexican Pueblos, the descendants of Chaco culture, still consider these sites sacred.3 More than 91% of the area around Chaco Canyon has already been leased to the oil and gas industry, yet Sec. Bernhardt and his Big Oil cronies are eager to wipe out the last remaining protected sacred areas with dangerous drilling and fracking techniques. The democratically-led House of Representatives recently passed an amendment to a spending bill that included a one-year moratorium on drilling in the area, yet it's unclear whether the Republican-controlled Senate will include the provision in their version, and BLM continues to approve more fracking in the area.4 That's why pressure on the BLM is so important right now. Activism to stop drilling in the Greater Chaco Landscape works.5 Thanks to local leaders fighting on the ground in New Mexico in 2018 and the more than 178,000 CREDO members who took action, then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke canceled a proposed oil and gas lease sale in Chaco Canyon. Now we must speak out again to stop rampant fracking once and for all. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/chaco-drilling-2019?t=9&akid=33332%2E3130208%2EyUKdx- - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Elizabeth Miller, "'As close as the US gets to Egypt’s pyramids': how Chaco Canyon is endangered by drilling," The Guardian, Nov. 8, 2017. Richard Moe, "The Treasures of Chaco Canyon Are Threatened by Drilling," The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2017. Sen. Tom Udall, "Udall, Heinrich, Luján Urge Secretary Zinke to Defer All Leases on Land Near Chaco Culture National Historical Park," Sept. 6, 2017. Hannah Grover, "An appropriations bill includes a one-year moratorium on leases near Chaco," Farmington Daily Times, June 26, 2019. Stephanie Lavallato, "Victory: Chaco Canyon saved from fossil fuel drilling," CREDO Mobile, March 7, 2018.

Demand that President Trump & his anti-wildlife officials reverse course & act to save endangered species and their habitats

The shocking U.N. report on the severe decline of imperiled wildlife and their habitats isn’t stopping Trump from gutting critical safeguards for endangered species.

Up to one million species face extinction because of human influence — many within decades. That's the stark and urgent warning delivered in a shocking report released earlier this week by the United Nations.

If that wasn't startling enough, the U.N.'s findings also expose the scope and severity of the Trump administration's disregard for the protection of our environment and threatened species.

We must act now: Demand that President Trump and his anti-wildlife officials reverse course and act to save endangered species and their habitats — before they're gone forever.

The U.N.'s groundbreaking report draws from over 450 experts in more than 50 countries, and describes the detrimental impact of climate change, shrinking habitats, pollution, and other factors on rapidly declining animal and plant populations.

It warns of the disappearance of species we care about and rely on, like pollinators and freshwater fish ... decline in agricultural yields due to severely damaged soil ... eradication of forest ecosystems, along with all the carbon storage and wildlife home benefits they bring ... and elimination of freshwater streams that provide drinking water for our survival.

A big little science lesson

The research also shows that ecosystem collapse is a direct symptom of human activity. Yet President Trump and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt continue to push forward with plans to roll back vital protections for threatened and endangered species, including gray wolves, North Atlantic right whales, rusty patched bumble bees, and many others.

And Trump's reckless fossil fuels first policies and climate change denial are pushing so much of our wildlife even closer to the brink.

But NRDC is fighting back on multiple fronts, including going up against the Trump administration in federal court to stop these dangerous rollbacks.

And while we're battling in court, we need as many people as possible to raise their voices and generate an outcry too big for the Trump administration to ignore.

Tell Trump, Bernhardt, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: We demand you take IMMEDIATE action to stop the decline of our planet's biodiversity, and avert the extinction of endangered species.

We can still turn things around — but our window of opportunity to act is narrowing every day.

So if you, like me, cannot stand by and watch this administration go unchallenged as our biodiversity plummets ... and if you want to leave your children and grandchildren a planet that looks anything like the one we're on now ... please speak out.

We need to protect nature — or nature is going to stop protecting us. Thank you for taking action when it matters most. Over the next two weeks, we'll be in touch with more opportunities to help save wildlife before it's too late.

- Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, NRDC

IPBES global report: Species extinction rate is accelerating

More Information:

One million species face extinction, U.N. report says. And humans will suffer as a result - The Washington Post

UN Report Says More Species Threatened With Extinction Than Any Other Time in Human History - The Nature Conservatory 

Endangered Species Act saves vast majority of species under its protection  - The Hill

The cost of Trump's Endangered Species Act proposal - BBC

Endangered Species Act stripped of key provisions in Trump administration proposal - The Washington Post