Saving the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard

The Center fo Biological Diversity needs your help saving the dunes sagebrush lizard from extinction.

Widespread destruction of the lizard's New Mexico and Texas dune-oak habitat has prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose protecting the lizard under the Endangered Species Act.


But the lizard has become a pawn in a cynical game. The oil and gas industry is trying to block the creature's protections with misinformation and scare tactics so it can drill and pollute the lizard's last pockets of habitat.

You can help save the lizard by signing the Center's petition to White House policymakers. It asks the administration to put in place the protections federal biologists have already proposed.

They need 25,000 signatures by Nov. 19 for policymakers to review this petition. Please sign today. The text of the petition is shown below.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Save the dunes sagebrush lizard by protecting it under the Endangered Species Act.

Fast losing habitat to oil and gas development, the dunes sagebrush lizard is dwindling toward extinction. Because of threats to its survival, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year proposed protecting it under the Endangered Species Act.

But if the oil and gas industry and cronies in Congress have their way, the lizard will never see protection. Restricted to small pockets of habitat in southeast New Mexico and west Texas, the creature is indeed threatened with extinction.

The oil and gas industry, though, is using unfounded and debunked claims that protection of the lizard will kill jobs. In fact, the lizard occupies a fraction of oil and gas leasing areas in a region where many leases offered have gone unsold and where existing protections for the lizard have had little impact.
Created: Oct 20, 2011

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