PrintTurtle Island is a leading advocate for the world’s oceans and marine wildlife.

Our work is based on science, fueled by people who care, and effective at catalyzing long-lasting positive change that protects the likes of green sea turtles, whale sharks and coho salmon.

 

June 30, 2017 Coming…

June 13, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto a letter to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary by major nonprofit organizations asking Senators to reject the nomination of Damien Schiff to the United States Court of Federal Claims (CFC).

May 25, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto National Wildlife Federation’s letter to Gulf of Mexico Senators and Representatives urging them to maintain robust funding for programs that support important work to restore and protect the Gulf of Mexico.

May 22, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network has signed onto Center for Biological Diversity’s letter opposing HR 953, which eliminates Clean Water Act jurisdiction for pesticide discharges directly to water.

May 17, 2016 Turtle Island Restoration Network has signed onto an NGO Letter Opposing David Bernhardt’s nomination for deputy secretary of the Interior. After spending years lobbying for the oil and gas industry, big agribusiness and water profiteers, Mr. Bernhardt is laden with conflicts of interest that raise serious questions about his ability to act in the public interest.

May 12, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network sent a letter to the Marin County Board of Supervisors requesting that they approve the non-environmental hazards amendments to the Local Coastal Program, as suggested by the Coastal Commission. This would allow the process of amending the LCP to move forward with the important issue of environmental hazards, which should incorporate climate change issues.

May 10, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto The Nature Conservancy’s letter to US members of Congress from Texas. The letter express concern about proposed federal budget cuts to National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs that provide significant benefits and resources to keep Texas and the Gulf of Mexico economically and environmentally strong.  In addition, without this funding, Texas’ opportunities to leverage funding from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon restoration processes likely will be unmet.

May 8, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Center for Biological Diversity’s letter to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service requesting that they do everything in their power to bring reform to California’s pot and trap fisheries to reverse the alarming rise in whale entanglements and prevent sea turtle entanglements.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, there were 71 unique reports of whale entanglements off the West Coast in 2016 — including 22 whales caught in lines connected to crab traps. That’s up from 61 reported whale entanglements in 2015, 30 in 2014, and an annual average of eight entanglements during the previous decade.

April 26, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Coastal States Organization’s letter expressing strong support for the National Coastal Zone Management Program (CZM Program) which the Administration is proposing to cut despite its value to coastal states and territories.

April 26, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Marine Conservation Institute’s scientist letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation urging for the United States government to maintain existing protections and dramatically accelerate protections for U.S. waters.

April 25, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Endangered Species Coalition’s letter to Congress encouraging them to pass a clean FY17 spending package that is free of any damaging anti-environmental, anti-science riders. Nearly 150 anti-environmental poison pill riders were included across the FY17 appropriations bills and these would drastically undermine protections for our air, water, land, and wildlife.

April 21, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Friends of the Earth‘s letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee urging them to ensure that Makan Delrahim (nominee for Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice) fully evaluates the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger. If Monsanto+Bayer merge, they would control the seed for about 70 percent of all the cotton grown in the US. And overall about 99% of all seed for corn, soybean, cotton, canola, and wheat will contain a Monsanto+Bayer gene used to enable the extensive use of herbicides like Roundup on the fields.

April 19, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Resistance Events Italy’s letter to Italian based bank Intesa Sanpaolo. The letter requests the bank to 1.condemn the documented human rights violations resulting from DAPL, 2.affirm the important of all people’s right to clean drinking water, and 3.announce the bank’s complete and total withdraw of all its financial involvement in the DAPL project.

April 17, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto American Bird Conservancy’s letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management noting concern about the potential impacts of extensive offshore wind energy development on the endangered Roseate Tern. The letter emphasizes support for the development of clean, renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power to address anthropogenic climate change, but also notes that it must be done responsibly and with minimal impact on our public trust resources, including ecologically important native wildlife, and particularly Threatened, Endangered, and other protected species and their habitats.

April 7, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Friends of the Earth’s letter calling on Senator Schumer and Senate Democratic leadership to demand a full debate and a roll call vote on the nomination of Governor Sonny Perdue to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The letter expresses the concern that Perdue’s strong ties to corporate agribusiness and pesticide companies present serious conflicts of interest that will undoubtedly affect his ability to lead the department to the detriment of independent farmers, our environment, workers and consumers.

April 6, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network has signed on to the environmental and conservation community’s letter  opposing Judge Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

 

April 3, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Earthjustice’s letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing Judge Gorsuch’s confirmation to Supreme Court. The letter details how Judge Gorsuch’s decade-long record on the federal bench, as well as his writings, speeches, and activities throughout his career, reveal a deep hostility to government and the crucial role it plays in safeguarding public welfare. In short, he is a big threat to environmental protections.

March 30, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Defenders of Wildlife’s letter, which urges the appropriations committees not to include riders that undermine the Endangered Species Act and harm imperiled species in FY 17 appropriations legislation.

March 29, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network sent a letter to CA’s Department of Pesticide Regulation asking them not to weaken draft regulations that limit pesticide use near schools. Not only are people put at risk, but California creeks, rivers, and oceans are being contaminated with pesticides.

March 24, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto NRDC’s letter in support of California bill AB1151. The bill would allow California to play a vital role in protecting the vaquita by eliminating a market for fish products caught with vaquita-harming gill nets and supporting Mexican conservation efforts to protect the vaquita population.

March 11, 2017  Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto League of United Latin American Citizens’ letter to US Representatives asking them to oppose the border wall being proposed between the United States and Mexico. The letter notes that further construction of a border wall will harm the environment that border communities cherish and depend on. It will further hurt wildlife; destroy sensitive habitat for endangered species; damage the natural flow of floodwaters; lead to costly litigation with landowners, Native American communities, and other stakeholders; and threaten the economic, social, and cultural ties between the United States and Mexico.

March 10 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Food & Water Watch’s letter to members of Congress asking that they oppose any efforts by the Trump administration and in Congress to weaken our bedrock environmental laws including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and to otherwise support environmental protections.

March 1, 2017 Turtle Island signed on to a letter NDD United sent asking President Trump, Congress and the media  to ensure adequate funding for programs funded through annual appropriations.

February 24, 2017 Turtle Island signed onto a group letter urging the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation and to oppose the proposed agrochemical and seed mergers between Dow and DuPont, Bayer and Monsanto and Syngenta and ChemChina. The letter was signed by nearly 325 farming, beekeeping, farmworker, religious, food safety, and conservation advocacy group.

February 24, 2017 Turtle Island Restoration Network signed onto Citizens Against Marin Slaughter’s letter to the Board of Supervisors asking them to keep Marin County’s longstanding ban on slaughter. The letter notes that animal slaughter is one of the nation’s largest water polluters and is poorly suited for sensitive watershed, wetland, and riparian regions.