WildEarth Guardians
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WildEarth Guardians is a non-profit environmental organization with offices in Santa Fe New Mexico, Denver Colorado, and Tucson Arizona. They came into existence in 2008 when two groups, Forest Guardians and Sinapu, merged to form WildEarth Guardians. Their core mission is to maintain the beauty and diversity of the American West. They have a legal team that works to uphold environmental laws and reform policy. Other strategies include public awareness campaigns and political pressure. John Horning of Santa Fe is the current executive director.
Mission statement
"WildEarth Guardians works to protect and restore wildlife, wild places and wild rivers in the American West."[1]
History
WildEarth Guardians started as an environmental group calling itself Forest Guardians in 1989 to fight logging on New Mexico's Elk Mountain. Soon Forest Guardians took on other projects such as the public lands livestock grazing industry. They were able to buy leases for public land by out-bidding local ranchers. Then they restored the landscape by keeping cattle out, restoring native plants and removing non-native plants. In 1996 they expanded to take on river issues particularly the Rio Grande silvery minnow when thousands died because drought caused the Rio Grande to dry up for 60 miles. An official endangered species program was launched in 2001 and in 2007 a climate and energy program was started. Forest Guardians became WildEarth Guardians when they merged with Sinapu, a Boulder Colorado environmental group in 2008.
Programs
WildEarth Guardians has the following priorities. Using litigation, science, public outreach and organizing, the media, and lobbying, they are making progress toward their goals.
Climate and Energy
The goal of the Climate and Energy program is reform that prioritizes energy efficiency and conservation, phases out fossil fuels, and embraces environmentally appropriate clean power sources. WildEarth Guardians activities are focused toward meeting the goal of returning to 350 parts per million. [2].
Wildlife
There are four components to WildEarth Guardians Wildlife Program. 1. to obtain formal listing under the Endangered Species Act[3] for species nearing extinction 2. to protect native carnivores in and restore native carnivores to their natural habitat 3. to end the systematic killing of wild animals by state and the federal governments[4] 4. At the local level, they promote living with wildlife.
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Wild Places
WildEarth Guardians Wild Places Program works to ensure that our public lands are not destroyed by over development, over grazing, or natural resource extraction. They also want to ensure these lands remain healthy for the many plants and animals that live on them[6].
Wild Rivers
The main focus of WildEarth Guardians Wild River Program are the endangered rivers of New Mexico. They want to ensure that the rivers contain enough water to ensure a healthy ecosystem in and along the rivers. They work to restore river banks with healthy vegetation in cities, counties and on private lands[7].