From the elephant seal rookeries at Point Ano Nuevo on Monterey Bay to Vandenberg Air Force Base at Point Conception, nearly one-fifth of the waters off central California's coast will soon be protected under the Marine Life Protection Act. On August 15, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to create an extensive network of protected marine areas, fulfilling a promise made when the act was passed in 1999. The plan will establish 29 separate zones, preserving kelp forests, nearshore reefs, and undersea canyons that sustain ocean life of all types, including native and migratory marine birds, octopus, rockfish, sea otters, and countless other animals. NRDC spon-sored the act and has followed its implementation every step of the way, building a broad coalition of supporters including recreational divers, sport fishermen, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and proponents of tourism-related businesses.
-- Ben Carmichael

Where are you going on your next vacation? Putting off that trip to Joshua Tree National Park in favor of another trip to Disneyland? You might want to reconsider, before the park's namesake is no longer. Because it is dependent on winter freezes to flower and seed, rising temperatures are already killing off the Joshua tree. The western United States is warming considerably faster than the East, threatening the region's national parks and some of the West's iconic landscapes. Scientists estimate that the glaciers of Glacier National Park could be gone by 2030; hikers report snowfields melting weeks earlier than the historical average. The wildflower-filled meadows of Yosemite National Park might well be overrun by sagebrush. A new report from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and NRDC details the forecast for many of our western parks: increased wildfires, flooding, and erosion, and dramatically reduced snowpack. Read the report online, where you'll also find trail maps and historical photographs: www.nrdc.org/land/parks/globalwarming.
-- Kathryn McGrath

Loggerhead sea turtles still climb ashore to nest on Florida's panhandle less than an hour from Panama City, along one of the Sunshine State's last stretches of condo-free coastline. Just inland, in a vast cypress swamp, scientists have reported more than a dozen sightings of ivory bill woodpeckers, thought until just two years ago to be extinct. The area's network of longleaf pine forests, cypress swamps, and white sand beaches, part of NRDC's Emerald Coast BioGem, is a rarity in a state often associated with unbridled development. On September 15, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved plans for a $300 million airport in the heart of the region that would replace Panama City's airport just 30 miles away. Building the new airport would destroy 2,000 acres of wetlands, and surrounding development would eliminate another 7,000 acres. The wetlands in question protect water quality, provide a buffer against Gulf Coast hurricanes, and sustain threatened and endangered species. After the FAA's decision was announced, NRDC filed suit to block the plan on the grounds that there are less environmentally damaging alternatives to the proposal, including improving and expanding the existing Panama City airport.
-- B.C.

Last August the federal district court in Salt Lake City ruled that the Bureau of Land Management violated federal environmental laws when it sold oil and gas leases on 16 parcels of wilderness quality lands in southern Utah. Working in partnership with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Wilderness Society, NRDC had filed suit against the bureau in 2003, contesting its decision to put lands up for auction without first considering the impact that oil and gas drilling would have on their wilderness character. In fact, the bureau itself had acknowledged the special, wild nature of many of these very same parcels of land. Nevertheless, the Bush administration has appealed the ruling. NRDC and its allies plan to continue the fight to preserve the magnificent wildlands at stake, including Desolation Canyon, the Book Cliffs, and the Flat Tops -- areas that provide crucial habitat for bighorn sheep, elk, cougars, peregrine falcons, and other wildlife.
-- B.C.