World Spirit Reflections and Updates

Thank you for all you do to protect America's wildlife and wild places.

Happy Earth Day! This year, don't forget that 71 percent of our planet is water.

I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you the stories of some everyday individuals who are making a difference, combining their passions and hobbies to alert the public of dangerous threats on the high seas. Check out these friends of Oceana who have planned extraordinary adventures into the briny deep this summer:

	Mother of two Margo Pellegrino, 39, will embark on her maiden voyage in an outrigger canoe from Miami to Maine on an 11-week excursion beginning in May. MORE >>
	Roz Savage, 39, a savvy sea venturer who already completed a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic, hopes to become the first woman ever to row solo across the Pacific on a treacherous three-stage expedition launching from San Francisco in July. MORE >>
	The Jacobi family completed their sail in an armada of sea kayaks April 19, but not without enduring brutal winds and cases of tendonitis. They conquered the Sea of Cortez in hopes that friends and supporters of their perilous undertaking might support ocean conservation. MORE >>

Whether you're a land lubber or a seafarer, the ocean in some way impacts your daily life. Take a page out of these extraordinary individuals' books and try stretching your own sea legs.


For the oceans,
Nikki Smith
Online Editor
Oceana

Webmaster's Note:

Help Save the oceans for free

Labels: conservation, Earth Day, love of life, protect our oceans, wild life

Speak out for the Salton Sea -- one of
North America’s largest stopovers for migratory birds!

Tell the California Department of Water Resources to restore the Salton Sea in a way that protects the people and wildlife that depend on this desert jewel.

Forward this message to at least 5 people who care about wildlife.

Nestled in the southern California desert, the Salton Sea is a desert jewel in danger of
disappearing forever.

Don’t let one of North America’s most important areas for migratory
birds wither away! Tell the California Department of Water Resources to
adequately protect the Salton Sea!

Water diversion plans could cause the Sea to evaporate away, devastating migratory bird
populations. Over the next two decades, this 360-square-mile lake will decrease by 30 percent -- rapidly shrinking vital wildlife habitat and increasing the amount of dust and salt that blows through the surrounding communities.

With over 90 percent of California’s wetlands gone, the Salton Sea has become an important stopping point for over 400 species of birds -- millions of individuals -- migrating up and down the Pacific Coast.

Millions of migratory birds -- including the imperiled brown pelican, Yuma clapper rail and the western snowy plover -- depend on the Sea as a vital stopover for
their migration.

Help save the Salton Sea and the birds that depend on it.

Late last year, the California Department of Water Resources released a report assessing eight proposals to restore the Salton Sea. Unfortunately, none of the plans alone would adequately protect the people and wildlife that depend on the Sea.

A plan that takes parts of the report’s alternatives would provide the best path to restoring wildlife habitat while adequately protecting air and water quality for the surrounding communities.

The Salton Sea is important to bird lovers everywhere and it must be protected. Speak out now -- your comments must be received by the January 17th deadline.

The State of California has an opportunity to restore this desert jewel -- and with your
help we can set the course for a successful restoration of the Salton Sea and protect the people and wildlife that depend on it.

Sincerely, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife

P.S.
For more information about the Salton Sea and the restoration planning
effort, please go to our Salton Sea web site: http://www.saltonseacoalition.org/

"God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that creeps, so that the water swarmed with all kinds of them, and there was every kind of winged bird; and God saw that it was good." [Genesis 1:21]


"God made each kind of wild beast, each kind of livestock and every kind of animal that crawls along the ground and God saw that it was good." [Genesis 1:25]


"For all forest creatures are mine already, as are the animals on a thousand hills; I know all the birds in the mountains; whatever moves in the fields is mine." [Psalms 50:10­11]

Labels: conservation, Genesis, love of life, Psalms, Salton Sea, wild life