User:Thebreathofone/forest1



Forest Guardians is a non profit environmental organization that is based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of their fundemental beliefs is that the diversity of wildlife, plants and ecosystems, and untrammeled wild spaces hold the key to the rehabilitation of a impoverished region. They belive that economic and cultural success are inextricably tied to a healthy land.

Forest Guardians celebrated 15 years of activity on September 30, 2004.

Mission Statement


"Founded in 1989, Forest Guardians has emerged as a results-driven group with a proven record of defending and preserving threatened southwestern wildlife and ecosystems. Our approach to conservation features a potent combination of scientific analysis, strategic litigation to enforce existing environmental laws, and efforts to reform misguided public polices."

~as taken from the Forest Guardians Home Page

Endangered Species


Forest Guardians is working to fundamentally reform federal endangered species policy by steadily applying pressure on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list and provide critical habitat for imperiled species; watch-dogging federal land managers such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to ensure their activities do not harm species on the brink; and raising awareness in the media and among the public of the importance of recovering at-risk native animals and plants and the need to bring this mandate home to our federal, state, and local governments.

Some of the animals Forest Guardians focuses on are the Black-footed Ferret, the Burrowing Owl, the Utah Prairie Dog, the Silvery Minnow, the Lesser Prairie Chicken, the Aplomado Falcon, The Canada Lynx, the Mexican Spotted Owl, the Southwest Willow Flycatcher, the Swift Fox, and the Abert’s squirrel. For more information about any of these animals you can click on their respective links.

For a complete list and some information about all the animals Forest Guardians works on protecting, click here to be directed to their offical Index of Species page.

River Restoration


In this land of little rain, the green river corridors are literally the lifeblood of our communities. In New Mexico, over 80% of the state's population resides in cities along the Rio Grande. But waterways are not only the lifeblood of human communities in the Southwest, these rivers are also the biological backbone of our arid ecosystem. Eighty percent of all vertebrate species in the Southwest depend on riparian areas, and over half these species cannot survive without regular access to riparian zones. www.nps.gov/rivers/waterfacts.html

Southwestern river systems are suffering from decades of improper land management. Water diversions, http://www.earlham.edu/~biol/desert/irrigation.htm flood control,  and cattle grazing http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/nmpmcsy03852.pdf http://www.earlham.edu/~biol/desert/riparian.htm have all contributed to the degradation of southwestern river systems. Dewatering and overgrazing and other stresses have eliminated native trees and allowed invasive non-native trees to become established, all of which further stresses the ability of these critical ecosystems to function properly.

Grazing Reform


Livestock production is by far the most widespread destructive activity on the arid and semi-arid western landscape. Forest Guardians is working to fundamentally reform livestock grazing on public lands by enforcing federal environmental laws, challenging wasteful and ecologically harmful ranching subsidies, and educating the public about the real ecological costs of livestock production in the arid Southwest.

Deserts and Grasslands
North America’s native prairie and desert habitats are among the most endangered biological communities on the continent. These areas continue suffering abuse from over-grazing, relentless oil and gas development, urban sprawl, irresponsible recreation, and other human-caused threats. Forest Guardians works to stop this destruction and to restore fully thriving natural grassland and desert communities and recover imperiled species that belong within them. We focus on Central and Southern Shortgrass Prairies of the high plains and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. Forest Guardians aims to transform a mainstream image of arid landscapes from wastelands to wildplaces.

Oil and Gas
Forest Guardians challenges new oil and gas leases and is part of a coalition of groups fighting for the preservation of places like Otero Mesa, a vast and complex grassland which is home to several wildlife and native plant species and has been opened to oil and gas drilling by the Bureau of Land Management. By proposing the creation of a 300,000-acre protected area and pushing for protection of specific species such as the Alpomado falcon, Forest Guardians hopes to counter the oil and gas industry. Most importantly, Forest Guardians is promoting the need to implement technological innovations and make the transition to clean energy.