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From:
Subject: Help protect the last wildlands of the southeastern U.S.! Smokey Mountains!
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 13:45:33 EST

Won't you please read this below and go to the site to sign this petition.
Thank you, Lois
.
Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

The National Park Service is considering building a new road through 30
miles Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one of
the crown jewels of America's national park system.

We need your immediate help to stop the proposed North Shore Road, which
would slice through the heart of NRDC's Cumberland Plateau BioGem and destroy
one of the largest pristine wildlands in the eastern United States.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/cumberland/takeaction.asp
right away and urge the National Park Service to reject the North Shore Road
proposal.

At a cost of at least $600 million in taxpayer dollars, the North Shore Road
would lay waste to portions of the celebrated Appalachian Trail, as well as
vital habitat for black bears, migratory songbirds and other wildlife.

Road construction would pollute local waterways with acidic runoff and heavy
metals, contaminating nearby streams with toxic chemicals and killing
aquatic life in one of the world's most species-rich watersheds. In fact, much of
this has already been recommended for formal wilderness designation -- and is
already managed as wilderness -- by the Park Service.

The Park Service is currently accepting comments on whether to build this
ill-conceived road or, instead, offer Swain County, North Carolina, a monetary
settlement.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/cumberland/takeaction.asp
and urge the Park Service to reject the North Shore Road and approve the
monetary settlement -- which would benefit local residents, protect the park's
thriving wildlife and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thank you for helping to save the last remaining native forests of the
southeastern United States.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
.
"Life is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you
can only spend it once."

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