The Wildside for Feb. 12, 2012
Restore Act needs your help now
It’s rare when so many folks who weren’t born here nor raised on the unbounded pleasures of bountiful hunting and fishing in Louisiana will commit themselves to saving our state.
That rare instance comes this week in Washington, D.C.
Their focus is “Vanishing Paradise,” an initiative by the National and Louisiana Wildlife federations to restore coastal Louisiana, has been taken to heart — and national awareness — by more than 600 conservation and environmental organizations and businesses across the country.
There’s room here to mention folks like Ducks Unlimited, B.A.S.S., CCA, the American Sportfishing Association, the Audubon Society, the Isaac Walton League and our country’s leading fishing tackle and hunting equipment makers and add nearly 140 Louisiana-based companies and groups to the list.
And with the Bassmaster Classic coming to Shreveport next week, we can expect VP signatories like Gonzales’ touring pro Greg Hackney and fishermen like Kevin VanDam and Mike Iaconelli to continue their support.
So why now? The Vanishing Paradise Initiative began three years ago. Support was building slowly into the first months of 2010 when the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil disaster threatened tens of thousands of acres of Louisiana’s marshes and countless square miles of water in, along and off our coast in April 2010.
Anyone paying attention knew our state has lost as much as 2,000 square miles of our marshes and wetlands over the last decades, and knew oil lapping on remaining marsh and oil spill-recovery work likely would hasten that loss.
Move to 2011 and Louisiana’s Congressional delegation, mostly our two senators, authored the Restore Act, an instrument that would guarantee 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties levied against the BP-Deepwater Horizon disaster parties go to the five Gulf States.
Sounds simple, and it is until you know penalties could be near $17 billion and know how Congress reacts to staggering numbers like that.
As expected, the Restore Act (S1400), has widespread support among Gulf States’ delegations, but these folks won’t have enough votes to carry the day.
It’s expected that Restore will be attached to another bill soon.
And it must be soon, because word is that attorneys possibly are hashing out a settlement on the oil disaster penalties/fines. If Restore is not in place by settlement time, fines will go into U.S. Treasury and the Gulf States will be hard-pressed to realize any benefits from the fines.
This where you make a difference: To help the folks pleading their case this week, contact relatives and friends in other states to let their congressmen know how important Restore is to our state’s future.
The Vanishing Paradise website, http://www.
vanishingparadise.org, has an “action” button. Now’s the time to use it.