*** Emergency ***

Wolves at Risk Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is working to eliminate life-saving protections for wolves. Tell your senators to oppose Secretary Salazar's anti-wolf sell-out.

Dear Friend,

Think the Secretary of the Interior wouldn't sell out our wolves and the Endangered Species Act? Think again.

We now know that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been negotiating directly with the governors of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and we now have strong reason to believe that he is going to propose and promote legislative language to eliminate life-saving protections for wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and portions of Washington, Oregon, and Utah.

Hundreds of wolves — maybe more than a thousand — could die.

Don't let Secretary Salazar sell out our wolves and the Endangered Species Act. Write your senators and urge them to oppose this awful plan.

Under Salazar's proposal, wolves would be delisted and lose federal protection. They would also no longer be subject to the Endangered Species Act at any time and under any circumstances except at the sole discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.

And it would no longer be possible for the American public to propose protections for wolves no matter how critically imperiled they become. And once the Endangered Species Act is weakened in such a way, it would invite further outrages... dealing a serious blow to the very foundation of the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock conservation law in this country.

Help save the lives of wolves and protect the Endangered Species Act. Please take action now.

Despite being the nation's chief steward for endangered species, Secretary Salazar has demonstrated little to no concern for the Endangered Species Act, so we have no confidence that he — or perhaps any future Secretary of the Interior — would ever conclude that there is a need to restore Endangered Species Act protection for wolves, no matter how egregious state efforts to reduce wolf numbers may be.

This problem began when Secretary Salazar — freshly appointed to office and against the advice of numerous environmental groups and senior members of Congress — who all said his action would be illegal, approved the Bush plan for removing federal protections for wolves. As predicted, he lost the lawsuit and federal protections for wolves was restored earlier this summer.

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Now the Secretary is working to do an end-run around the court ruling and once again eliminate protections for these wolves.

Were the Secretary's current proposal to be enacted, it would set a horrible precedent for further legislative weakening of the Act that could easily lead to the total unraveling of the ESA, and by itself would constitute by far the worst damage ever done to this vital law and to the cause of conserving biological diversity under any previous administration, Democrat or Republican.

This is an Endangered Species Act emergency. Please take action now!

We don't have much time to make our voices heard. Please write your senators now.