Victory Timeline

The Mexican government -- under pressure from BioGems Defenders -- agreed to place strict protections on the last remaining habitat of the imperiled vaquita marina porpoise. Mexico's landmark resolution sharply limits shrimp trawling…

As a result of a lawsuit filed by NRDC and our environmental partners, a federal judge ruled that more than 110,000 acres of Utah wilderness would be protected from oil and gas companies. The Bush Administration had previously held a public auction …

For years, NRDC has worked to protect whales from the deadly effects of mid-frequency sonar, including heading to court to challenge the Navy’s refusal to take commonsense measures during sonar training exercises.…

After BioGems Defenders sent almost 20,000 messages to the Chilean government opposing a mega-dam project on the Baker and Pascua rivers in Patagonia, government officials agreed to delay any consideration of the project for at least nine months.…

A federal court struck down the Bush Administration’s plan to allow 540 snowmobiles per day in Yellowstone National Park. The court found that allowing such an increase in snowmobile use…

In the largest conservation deal in Canada's history, the Ontario government agreed to work with Canadian First Nations to protect 225,000 square kilometers of intact boreal forestlands -- an area twice the size of England.…

The Bush administration announced it would postpone oil and gas leasing in most of the Teshekpuk Lake area of Alaska's Western Arctic Reserve for a decade -- abandoning one of the leading priorities of its 2001 energy plan.…

The Bush administration announced that it would protect polar bears as a "threatened species" under the Endangered Species Act. The decision followed a three-year legal battle waged by NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity and…

Joining forces with our longtime partner, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, NRDC's legal team persuaded the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to uphold a decision by a Utah district court…

A federal judge struck down a White House effort to exempt the U.S. Navy from obeying a key environmental law during sonar training exercises off the southern California coast. A month earlier, NRDC had won…

The Bush Administration rejected a plan for two proposed Las Vegas-style casinos that would have destroyed the rustic character of New York's historic Catskill State Park. Casino-related activity would have degraded air quality…

Capping an arduous seven-year fight, we reached a landmark agreement that will dramatically reduce harmful impacts from a proposed resort adjacent to the state-owned Belleayre Ski Center, on the border of Ulster and Delaware counties.…

Tennessee set aside $82 million to buy up 124,000 acres of native forests in the vast Cumberland Plateau BioGem. Championed by Governor Phil Bredesen and NRDC, the North Cumberlands Conservation Initiative overcame strong opposition…

The U.S. Park Service agreed to reconsider its ill-conceived plan to build a 34-mile road through untouched portions of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- one of the crown jewels of America's national park system.…

In a major advance in our campaign to halt Peru's export of endangered mahogany, Congress and the Bush administration agreed to include key protections against illegal logging in the U.S.-Peru trade agreement.…

Chilean environmental officials rejected a deeply flawed study of the impacts of a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Rio Cuervo, in one of Patagonia's most pristine areas. The officials announced their decision less than a week after…

In a major leap forward in our ambitious campaign to protect the world's last unspoiled gray whale nursery, the Mexican government donated 109,000 acres of federal lands surrounding the San Ignacio Lagoon for conservation.…

The Bush administration abandoned an oil drilling proposal that called for building new roads and clearing a well pad in Utah's sensitive Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon wilderness.…

After prevailing in a dramatic congressional showdown in December 2005, BioGems Defenders again helped keep America's greatest birthing ground for Arctic wildlife free of oil rigs in 2006. While the Senate approved a budget bill opening…

Under pressure from a lawsuit filed by NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups, the Bush administration announced that it is formally proposing to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act…

A federal court rejected a plan to expand destructive road-building in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk wildlands that span Montana, Idaho and Washington. Siding with NRDC and our partners, the judge ruled that the Forest Service…

A federal judge blocked the Bush administration from proceeding with oil and gas development in 600,000 acres in the Western Arctic Reserve, including a pristine nesting area for migratory birds and the calving grounds…

A federal judge struck down a Bush administration attempt to overturn the 2001 "roadless rule" -- a measure protecting 58 million acres of our national forests from roadbuilding, logging and other development. The court sided with states…

A federal court ruled that the Bureau of Land Management broke the law by rushing to sell oil and gas leases on 16 parcels of wilderness-quality lands. NRDC and our partner, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance…

Under legal pressure from NRDC, the U.S. Navy agreed to put safeguards in place to reduce the threat of deadly mid-frequency sonar to marine mammals during an eight-nation military training exercise underway in waters off Hawaii…

Under pressure from federal officials, scientists, BioGems Defenders and other activists, the Manitoba government agreed to list the woodland caribou as "threatened" under its Endangered Species Act. Manitoba's wild boreal forests are home to…

After an arduous four-year legal battle, a federal judge sided with NRDC and blocked a set of permits for a massive limestone mining project in the fragile Florida Everglades. The polluting scheme would have bulldozed…

Every year, NRDC names 12 BioGems -- unspoiled wildlands in the Americas threatened by development -- and mobilizes citizens to take direct action to protect them. In 2006, we named Florida's Emerald Coast to our BioGems list…

BC government protects 5 million rainforest acres February 7, 2006 On February 7, 2006, the government of British Columbia granted formal protection to more than 5 million acres of the Great Bear Rainforest -- one of NRDC's first BioGems and the home of the Spirit Bear…

Following a year of unprecedented pressure from BioGems Defenders and other NRDC activists, including an eleventh-hour flood of phone calls to Capitol Hill, 44 senators filibustered a defense spending bill that would have opened the Arctic …

More than 35,000 messages from BioGems Defenders helped fuel a major breakthrough in efforts to save the vaquita marina, a small porpoise found only in the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico.…

Following intense pressure from BioGems Defenders, Bowater -- a giant paper company and the largest landowner on the Cumberland Plateau -- signed a groundbreaking agreement to stop clearcutting natural hardwood forests…

Citing environmental concerns, Manitoba's energy minister pledged not to allow a proposed hydro transmission corridor in a wild stretch of the Canadian boreal forest east of Lake Winnipeg. NRDC is working with local indigenous communities…

Every year, NRDC names 12 BioGems -- unspoiled wildlands in the Americas threatened by development -- and mobilizes citizens to take direct action to protect them. In 2005, we named two new BioGems to protect marine mammals and the pristine ocean habitats they depend on. …

After BioGems Defenders sent 30,000 messages protesting a plan to open Montana's Rocky Mountain Front to drilling, the Bureau of Land Management halted the permitting process for drilling natural gas wells in the Front's Blackleaf area…

The province of Manitoba agreed to extend a ban on logging, roadbuilding and other development in the Poplar-Nanowin rivers protected area, a 2.2 million acre-expanse within our Heart of the Boreal BioGem…

In May 2004, thanks in large part to nearly 60,000 messages from BioGems Defenders, Oregon-based Timber Products Company withdrew from negotiations to reopen the Ketchikan veneer mill in southeast Alaska. Reviving the mill would …

Each year, NRDC identifies 12 BioGems, critically endangered wild places across the Americas, and mobilizes citizen action to save them. Joining the BioGems list in 2004 are three areas where the survival of scores of imperiled species…

In December 2003, a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to revive a Clinton-era plan to phase out snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park -- bolstering a vigorous two-year-long effort by BioGems Defenders…

In August 2003, following years of citizen action by BioGems Defenders and other NRDC activists opposed to the use of Low Frequency Active sonar, a federal judge ruled that a U.S. Navy plan to deploy…

Brazilian environmentalists, local communities in the Araguaia River area of Brazil's Amazon and BioGems Defenders won a resounding victory when Alcoa and a consortium of aluminum companies abandoned a massive dam proposed for the Araguaia…

Each year, NRDC identifies 12 BioGems, critically endangered wild places across the Americas, and mobilizes citizen action to save them. New on the BioGems list in 2003 are the Castle-Bighorn region of the Canadian Rockies, and the Usumacinta River in Mexico…

In October 2002, after four years of negotiations and a powerful show of support from BioGems Defenders (who sent more than 30,000 messages), the California Fish and Game Commission voted to establish a series of marine reserves…

In early May 2002, following months of pressure from Costa Ricans and more than 27,000 letters from BioGems Defenders, the Costa Rican government rejected a plan by Harken Energy of Texas and MKJ Xplorations…

In April 2002, the Senate turned back an attempt to open Alaska's Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling -- delivering a hard-fought victory to environmentalists, including BioGems Defenders who sent a record 930,000 anti-drilling emails and faxes to Congress…

Each year, NRDC identifies 12 BioGems and orchestrates a public action campaign to save them. In the face of ongoing threats, several wild places identified in 2001 as critically important and under threat remain on our BioGems list for 2002.…

In June 2001, responding to pressure from BioGems Defenders, the Brazilian government closed an illegal road through the Iguacu Falls National Park, a 460,000-acre rainforest on Brazil's southern border known worldwide for its stunning waterfalls.…

In the spring of 2001, the Houston-based Anadarko oil company announced it would forgo all new oil exploration in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a 6,000-square-mile ecosystem in northern Guatemala that forms the heart of…

In April 2001, British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest -- home of the rare white Spirit Bear and one of the world's last large expanses of ancient temperate coastal rainforest -- gained a reprieve from massive clearcut logging…

On February 22 2001, in a huge victory for Chile's ancient forests and the wildlife that inhabit them, the Boise Cascade Corporation canceled plans to build what would have been the largest wood-chip mill in Latin America…

In late January 2001, Duke Energy International withdrew its backing for the proposed Chalillo dam in Belize, which would flood more than 2000 acres of unique wildlife habitat in the Macal River valley -- home to the jaguar,…

On January 19, 2001, NRDC kicked off its BioGems campaign with the launch of the BioGems website, which offers unparalleled opportunities to explore -- and protect -- extraordinary natural areas in North and Central America…

In March 2000, Mitsubishi canceled its plans for a giant salt factory at Laguna San Ignacio, the world's last untouched breeding ground for Pacific gray whales. Read on to find out how NRDC, our local allies and…