Click here to view the embedded video.

Built a Quarter Mile of Oyster Reef in Mobile, Alabama

Kicking off the first event with chilly, overcast conditions on January 22^nd and 23^rd, over 500 volunteers from Alabama and across the country came together in Mobile bay to foster the beginnings of oyster reefs. 16,000 bags of oyster shells were carefully dispersed along the shore with the goal of building 100 new miles of oyster reefs and 1000 miles of replanted marshlands along the Gulf in Alabama to make Alabama’s coastal areas more resilient to impacts from hurricanes, oil spill accidents, and climate change. The work was the result of a collaboration of more than 20 public and private partners including National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy and NOAA.

Restored Native Ground Cover at Bald Point State Park

Next, volunteers gathered at Bald Point State Park on Florida’s Gulf Coast.  Park Ranger Kevin Patton introduced us to our work site for the next two days and we successfully worked in teams and planted 5,000 wiregrass plugs and disperse a dozen bags of seed. Bald Eagles and other migrating raptors, along with monarch butterflies use this area to rest before continuing south for the winter.  It is imperative to keep these lands healthy. Additionally, the Florida Wildlife Federation gathered signatures to petition for a constitutional amendment to prohibit oil and gas drilling in Florida’s near-shore waters.

Restored Dunes to Protect Nesting Wildlife at Perdido Key State Park

Next up, dune restoration in Perdido Key, Florida!  Joined by over 75 volunteers including the US Navy and Air Force at Pensacola, combed the beach to protect the critical habitat of residential and migratory nesting wildlife such as turtles and birds!  As the oil washed up on miles of beaches along the Gulf Coast, Perdido Key, home of the endangered Beach Mouse felt heavy impacts. Volunteers worked as temperatures reached the high 80s to rebuild and protect an important dune boundary to help native grasses and habitat for nesting shore birds, turtles, and the native beach mouse.

Conserved Acres of Beach and Recreation Trails

On March 25^th our next event was about 2 hours East of Perdido Key at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. University of California at Berkley students dedicated their spring break time away from examinations and study sessions to engage in hands on restoration work on some of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Joined by South Walton Community locals, we were able to accomplish clearing and marking 6 hiking trails, installing signs and effectively roping off over 3 miles of beach to protect the dunes and wildlife who nest there, and remove invasive exotic plant species to allow for native pitcher plant growth.

Restored the Marshes of Mississippi

Over 30 volunteers worked in Ansley Marsh which borders the Gulf and is a haven for migratory birds and many alligators.  Volunteers toiled in the sun with many insect friends to remove debris from Hurricane Katrina, plant marsh grasses and work on the removal of the very invasive Chinese tallow tree (popcorn tree).  The marsh is part of the gateway system protecting the open waters of the gulf from the shoreline homes of MS coastal communities.

Rebuilt Marsh in Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge

Last stop – West to Louisiana!  Tasked with planting over 20,000 grasses over two events (four days), National Wildlife Federation partnered with US Fish and Wildlife Service and  the Louisiana Wildlife Federation to make this goal a reality.  Just outside of New Orleans, Volunteers traveled to Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge to plant marsh grasses to restore lost habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife species.  This event almost fell exactly on the one year mark of the Gulf oil disaster. Ben Weber, NWF’s Oil Spill Response Coordinator for the Western Gulf said “Heightened public awareness, volunteer enthusiasm and support from NWF members is making a big impact.” On April 15^th and 16^th and over Memorial Day weekend, volunteers worked in high water levels on uneven muck and mud to space plants across the water five feet apart.  Mary Swantek who traveled with a group of 15 volunteers weighed in on her experience, “Working in the marsh just outside of New Orleans was a once in a life time experience.  We not only took an air boat ride to get to the work site but were surrounded by all kinds of wildlife, it was absolutely beautiful.  Crawling in 4 to 6 inches of water and planting marsh grasses was a bit intimidating at first but with adrenaline running high we were all there for one reason… to protect these lands and protect wildlife!” Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.   Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Having had the opportunity to organize and travel to work hands on at several of these events, this quote takes on a new meaning for me.  The level of commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication to wildlife and wild spaces from volunteers who traveled near and far to work with National Wildlife Federation is astounding.  It is indisputable that our hard work from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, to Florida made a difference to local habitat and wildlife.

UPDATE: On June 25, 50 volunteers planted 1,600 black mangroves in Grand Isle, LA as part of the the Gulf Coast recovery effort.

To avoid those humid climate blues, check out planet Earth’s press statement in The Onion.

This week’s stories:

1. Highlight of the Week: Sportsmen Say No to Clean Air Act Cuts
2. Quote: Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
3. Economic Story of the Week: Turning Garbage Into Car Fuel?
4. Editorial of the Week: Sticker Shock
5. Critics Decry Keystone XL Pipeline
6. Getting Along on the Gulf Coast
7. Carbon Pollution Reaches All Time High in 2010
8. Happening this Week

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Highlight of the Week

Sportsmen Say No to Clean Air Act Cuts

via NWF

While members of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee craft bills to delay pollution rules and promote Big Oil’s agenda, more than 300 hunter and angler groups from across the U.S. called on Congress to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to hold polluters accountable and back off House and Senate attacks on the Clean Air Act.

Citing the law’s bipartisan origins, the signers said that the act “has a long history of success in reducing pollution such as acid rain and smog that threatens fish and wildlife and their habitats.” But today, as the EPA strives to reduce airborne toxins that cause mercury contamination and to limit carbon pollution, the Clean Air Act faces new threats from a number of bills in Congress.

“Anglers across the country are getting out on the water this spring, hoping to hook the big one. But this fundamental American pastime is being ruined by pollution that is causing harmful mercury levels in many fish,” said Larry Schweiger, NWF president and CEO. “Our message to Congress is simple. Let EPA do its job and clean up the pollution that fouls our rivers, streams and lakes.”

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Quote:

World Affairs Council

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that.”

- Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

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Economic Story of the Week

Turning Garbage Into Car Fuel?

via colindunn/Flickr

Enerkem, a Montreal-based ethanol producer, is starting up a plant in Quebec that converts waste into motor fuel with new investment from independent major oil refiner Valero and Waste Management. The plant will have a commercial scale capacity of 1.3 million gallons per year and Enerkem is on track to open another facility in Edmonton, Alberta that would produce another 10 million gallons.

As gasoline prices top $4 a gallon many companies are looking for alternatives, such as using waste materials to make ethanol. Almost all of them have to pay for the raw materials, but since Enerkem is already paid to dispose of garbage, its feedstock is “cost-negative.”

The ethanol is considered an advanced cellulosic biofuel, one that comes from plant material but not from food. Making ethanol from garbage produces lower carbon pollution than making it from corn. Corn ethanol requires large amounts of natural gas, but the Enerkem process uses heat given off by the process itself so no fossil fuels are burned except during start-up. The process also diverts this trash from landfills, where it would give off methane, another potent global warming pollutant.

More on this story: NY Times

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Editorial of the Week

Sticker Shock

(The New York Times)

via worldtechguy/Flickr

Lots of happy talk accompanied the Obama administration’s unveiling of new fuel economy stickers for cars and light trucks that will include annual fuel costs and information about emissions. The new stickers, mandatory starting with the 2013 models, are a big improvement on the simple miles-per-gallon estimates on the present label. If they were there right now, we suspect many car buyers would be experiencing a new sort of sticker shock.

Mr. Obama should hang tough. Given the vanishingly small prospects for serious energy legislation on Capitol Hill, the new standards represent his and the country’s most promising opportunity to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and America’s dependence on foreign oil. (More…)

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Critics Decry Keystone XL Pipeline

via DianeWorth/Flickr

As the State Department wrapped up a comment period on the second round of environmental review for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the US Department of Transportation issued a first-ever “Corrective Action Order” for the leak-prone one year old Keystone pipeline. In the order DOT’s Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety Jeffrey Wiese stated “that the continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment.”

In a press teleconference critics of TransCanada’s massive Keystone XL tar sands pipeline proposal including Jeremy Symons, senior vice president, National Wildlife Federation, Matthew Tejada, executive director, Air Alliance Houston, and Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, addressed the second environmental assessment and its handling of the comment period that closed June 6th.

The State Department neglected key issues like the pipeline’s safety and route, even though TransCanada’s brand new Keystone tar sands pipeline has already had 12 leaks during its first year of operation. Also ignored were numerous requests from landowners such as Randy Thompson of Nebraska, farmers, members of Congress, and environmental groups to extend the comment period beyond the bare minimum of 45 days and hold field hearings so the voices of rural Americans could be heard.

More on this story: NY Times

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Getting Along on the Gulf Coast

via NWF

Eleven lawmakers from the Gulf Coast have formed a bipartisan caucus with its first priority convincing Congress to devote 80 percent of the tens of billions of dollars in penalty payments expected from last year’s Gulf oil disaster to the area’s economic and environmental recovery efforts. If not recovered, the penalty money will flow into the U.S. Treasury and be spent elsewhere.

Over the past decade, the Gulf Coast has suffered a litany of trauma including hurricanes, a massive oil spill, and ongoing debate over the future offshore oil drilling. Members of the caucus, which include Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La) and David Vitter (R-La) and Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La) and Kathy Castor (D-Fl), have a variety of ideas on how the money should divvied up.

Some bills recommend sending a majority of the money to Louisiana, which bore the brunt of the oil disaster’s environmental impacts, while others suggest dividing the money up based on coastline miles. It is critical that the solutions address environmental and economic recovery, which go hand in hand.

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Carbon Pollution Reaches All Time High in 2010

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that global emissions of carbon pollution reached their highest level ever in 2010. At least three quarters of the growth was mainly driven by booming coal-reliant emerging economies such as China or India.

Fatih Birol, IEA’s chief economist, warned that this is the highest-ever growth in recorded history. “Every year we don’t have a (climate change) agreement, every year we don’t give a clear signal to pave the way for renewable energies and other clean energy technologies, the room for maneuver to get to the 2020 target shrinks,” he said.

This is one record we don’t want to set. IEA’s announcement strengthens the need for united and urgent action on climate change.

More on this story: AFP, Reuters, Guardian

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Happening this Week

Wednesday, June 8

Markup: S. 183 Deepwater Horizon Survivors’ Fairness Act, Senate Commerce, 10 AM, 253 Russell

Hearing: “Air Quality and Children’s Health,” Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety and Subcommittee on Children’s Health and Environmental Responsibility, 10AM, 406 Dirksen

Thursday, June 9

Hearing: Energy Efficiency bills, Senate Energy & Natural Resources, 9:30AM, SD-366

Monday, June 13

Hearing: Energy and Revenue Enrichment Act of 2011, House Energy & Commerce, 1:30PM, 2123 Rayburn

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For more global warming news on Wildlife Promise click here.

I was back down in the Gulf recently, and there is going to be a long road for recovery for the communities and wildlife impacted by the BP oil disaster.  Here is an update from my colleague Amanda Moore.

Since National Wildlife Federation has been working so hard to make sure the impacted wildlife have a voice in the continuing BP oil disaster, many people have asked me what they can do to help.

Here is what some creative volunteers did for wildlife.  This 30-second public service announcement might change your perspective on oiled birds.  I’d like to hear what you think.

• NWF Senior Scientist Doug Inkley on lessons we didn’t learn from the Exxon Valdez
• NWF’s call to revoke newly-issued deep water oil drilling permits
• How much money has one of BP’s most prominent defenders received from the oil giant?

Watch this week’s NWF Climate Capsule:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Got questions about the BP oil spill for NWF’s experts? Heard any global warming denier arguments you’d like to hear Dirty the Global Warming Denier sock puppet? Email us!

The first one highlights the projected devastation in Louisiana, where winds from the southeast are forecast to bring devastation in the coming days:

And now here’s NOAA’s new map, tracking the southeast arm of the spill as the Gulf’s loop current pulls it towards the Florida Keys — and possibly beyond to the East Coast:

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

We need a new national energy policy — one that will cut our oil dependence & protect America’s natural resouces. Please take a moment to ask your Senators to support strong clean energy & climate legislation.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.
 

Until my 10-hour boat trip across oil spill-impacted areas last week, I had no idea what a critical role sargassum, a surface seaweed, plays in the food chain. Our boat captain showed me what’s just beneath the surface:

We repeated the process several times, pulling up & releasing crabs, shrimp, fish, even a baby octopus no bigger than a walnut.

So what does seaweed have to do with the BP oil spill? The creatures under the surface — from shrimp to tiny “bait” fish to mahi mahi — appear to be mistaking rafts of “dispersed” oil for their natural seaweed habitat:

What will be the short-term & long-term impacts on the species & ecosystems that so many depend on, from the seafood industry to seaside hotel owners to wildlife lovers all across over America? I hate to use a cliche, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait & see.

But we don’t have to sit on our hands. The Senate has started a national conversation about what our energy future should look like. Will you make your voice heard?

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.

The latest news from the Gulf Coast:

• The first two birds rescued from the spill have been returned to the wild
• Officials are pumping more fresh river water into the Louisiana wetlands to try to push the oil offshore
• Teams of fishermen continue working to save their shoreline
• A Florida State oceanography professor says the number of barrels being discharged by the spill is five times larger than BP & Coast Guard estimates
• Fresh off her Saturday Night Live appearance, Betty White is pitching in to the Gulf Coast wildlife protection efforts

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife and to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.

“There’s no way that dome is going to work,” one Venice, LA fishing boat captain told me last week. “It’s just a distraction to make it look like BP is doing something while they drill the relief well, which is the only thing that’ll stop the leak.”

I thought of that fisherman when I heard the first attempt at placing the dome had failed — and that BP has another plan:

Engineers are examining whether they can close a failed blowout preventer by stuffing it with trash, said Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard. The 48-foot-tall, 450-ton device sits atop the well at the heart of the Gulf oil spill and is designed to stop leaks, but it has not been working properly since the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and later sank.

“The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot,” Allen told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They’ll take a bunch of debris — shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that — and under very high pressure, shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak.”

Oil company BP, the well’s owner, had attempted to lower a four-story containment vessel over the well to cap the larger of the well’s two leak points. But that plan was thwarted Saturday after ice-like hydrate crystals, formed when gas combined with water, blocked the top of the dome and made it buoyant.

Much more on the BP oil spill’s latest wildlife impacts later today.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife and to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.