Healthy Kids Outdoors Act Supports Strategies to Connect Kids with Nature

November 3 – Rep. Ron Kind (WI) and Sen. Mark Udall (CO) introduced House and Senate versions of the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act today to support state, local and federal strategies to connect youth and families with the natural world, with an eye toward improving children’s health and supporting future economic growth and conservation efforts.

“The nature of childhood has changed, and there isn’t much nature in it,” said Larry Schweiger, National Wildlife Federation’s president and CEO. “National Wildlife Federation commends Congressman Ron Kind and Senator Mark Udall for introducing legislation that will strengthen the economy by getting Americans moving through recreation and active outdoor play.”

Bill Undermines Invasive Species Protections for Great Lakes

November 3 – On the eve of a potential vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, the National Wildlife Federation is opposing provisions in a federal bill that would be a devastating setback in the effort to stop aquatic invasive species from entering the Great Lakes and other U.S. waters through the ballast discharge of foreign ships.

“This bill is bad for the Great Lakes,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “It leaves the door open for invasive species to enter the lakes through the discharge of ships’ ballast water.

Restoring Oyster Reefs Benefits People, Economies, Ecosystems and Oysters

November 3 – If all the oyster reefs are gone, where are all of those oysters-on-the-half-shell coming from?

An estimated 95 percent of oysters served for slurping come from oyster farms. Wild oysters have been fished out, developed out and smothered by river sediment. The nearly 5 million barrels of oil BP let loose in the Gulf of Mexico didn’t help either. But BP, or more accurately, BP’s money can help restore wild oyster reefs (and a whole lot more). The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have introduced separate bills that would direct at least 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties levied on BP to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas to invest in the long term health of the environment and local economies.

Of course, “investing in local economies” covers a lot of ground, not necessarily in, on or adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana Coastal Restoration Grants Welcome News, But Only a Short-Term Solution

November 3 – In late September, the Secretary of Commerce announced $102 million in grants for three projects to restore deteriorated wetlands and barrier island habitats in Louisiana. The restoration efforts involve pumping sediment to barrier island shores, rebuilding marshes and reinforcing shorelines in areas where precious land is eroding at a rapid pace.

While it’s a step in the right direction and welcome news to many, coastal advocates say it’s a temporary solution to a long-term problem. Such restoration projects can only be sustained by the permanent and natural land-replenishing impacts of freshwater diversions from the Mississippi River.

National Wildlife Federation, Partners Hold Symposium on Gulf Oil Disaster

November 2 -The National Wildlife Federation is sponsoring the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Symposium with the National Aquarium Conservation Center, Mote Marine Laboratory and Johns Hopkins University November 2-4 at the National Aquarium.

NRDA for the Gulf: Improving Our Ability to Quantify Chronic Damages will allow symposium participants to discuss long-term effects and solutions resulting from the Gulf oil disaster. Since the disaster, scientists/ researchers have been studying the impacts on natural resources in the Gulf and working together to find immediate and long-term solutions.

Lawmakers Starve Conservation Programs That Benefit Farmers and Wildlife

November 1 – The Senate voted to slash more than $700 million dollars from conservation programs that help farmers, ranchers and foresters, as well as soil, water and wildlife. These steep cuts in the 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill target crucial and effective programs that are already oversubscribed with a long waiting list of farmers wanting to implement conservation practices.

“You reap what you sow, and the agriculture funding bill will be a bitter harvest for farmers, ranchers and wildlife,” said Aviva Glaser, agriculture policy coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation.

2012 Duck Stamp Announcement Highlights Value of Wetland Conservation

October 30 – The selection of the 2012 Federal Duck Stamp art contest winner – whose work will appear on stamps purchased by every duck hunter in America – puts a spotlight on the nation’s troubled wetland ecosystems. The National Wildlife Federation, Izaak Walton League, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and Trout Unlimited support restoring Clean Water Act protections for wetlands and other waters that are critical to fish and wildlife populations and our outdoor traditions.

New Report: Congressional Panel Can Cut Deficit, Protect Wildlife

October 27 – The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction can protect America’s wildlife, public health and economy by ensuring a deficit deal protects critical conservation programs that have already been disproportionately slashed, according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation. Conservation Works: How Congress Can Lower the Deficit and Protect Wildlife & Public Health also identifies more than $100 billion in savings that could be realized by cutting wasteful tax giveaways for oil, coal and ethanol.

“Investments in conservation programs are a great bargain, accounting for just one percent of federal spending but delivering huge benefits to all Americans, protecting wildlife, investing in clean energy jobs, and reducing pollution that harms our children,” said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president of the National Wildlife Federation.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• Detroit Free Press: Bill on ballast water would threaten Great Lakes, environmentalists say
• Field & Stream: Conservation Update: How To Make A Farm Friendly to Wildlife
• New York Post: Wetlands at a Loss in the U.S.
• Des Moines Register: Conservationist urges Iowans to speak out on climate change

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

Last week BP decided to stop playing nice.  Ken Feinberg, who the oil giant chose to run its compensation fund for spill victims, recently released a report estimating fishermen’s losses.  The report predicted that Gulf wildlife would mostly be back to normal within a year or two, and it was widely criticized for ignoring the spill’s long-term effects (not to mention that it was based on some pretty shady research).  So BP crunched the numbers again and concluded that there would be even fewer long-term problems than Mr. Feinberg thought, meaning they shouldn’t have to pay as much to fix things.

Then, to add insult to injury, BP backed out of its promise to help Louisiana restore wetlands, oyster beds, and fish hatcheries.  In a report in yesterday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune, officials say that BP “has clearly changed their approach” to the restoration efforts.

Oiled wetlands in Louisiana's Bay Baptiste (photo: Rainforest Action Network)

Robert Barham, the state’s Wildlife & Fisheries Director, said, “All we’ve asked is for them to do what they said they would do in their commercials: be here for the long haul and make it right.”  But now the oil giant has decided to fight it out in court, forcing Louisiana to scramble to find money for these vital projects.

Call me a cynic but is anyone surprised at this turn of events?  BP said all the right things when the cameras were rolling and now we’re seeing their true colors.

Nobody would be happier than fishermen and wildlife lovers if BP turned out to be right—but the sad fact is that we have very little idea of what to expect in the Gulf, and the evidence we do  have points to a difficult recovery ahead for oysters, dolphins, fish and other wildlife.

Consider this—Dr. Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia has spent the last 8 months examining the sea bed around the blown-out well.  The samples and photographs her team collected painted a depressing picture: dead sea creatures, suffocated and poisoned by the oil that has accumulated on the ocean floor.

“I’ve been to the bottom.  I’ve seen what it looks like with my own eyes.  It’s not going to be fine by 2012,” Joye told The Associated Press. “You see what the bottom looks like, you have a different opinion.”

Dolphins playing off the coast of Gulf Shores, AL (photo: Christy Sheffield)

And another tragedy is being linked to the spill: dead infant and stillborn dolphins are washing up on shore at an alarming rate.

Adult dolphin deaths tripled during the spill, but this is the first calving season since then and our first look at the long-term impact on marine mammals.  Scientists in Mississippi and Alabama have seen a spike in mortality since and, according to Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, it’s “more than just a coincidence.”

We’ve known all along that it would be a struggle to recover from this catastrophe and now more than ever we need to keep the spotlight on what’s happening in the Gulf.  You can find out more about NWF’s efforts to protect wildlife habitat (including volunteer opportunities) at www.nwf.org/Oil-Spill.

Doug spent a day with the owner of an oyster company in Louisiana, first heading out on the water to view areas where workers harvest oysters, then touring the facility where oysters are processed & packed to be shipped to fish markets & restaurants. Doug says that while business is already down, there’s a sense of dread about what other bad news could be on the horizon:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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 NWF.org/OilSpill.

I had the opportunity to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week on why the BP oil disaster is a crime scene.  By some scientific estimates the spill is already more than eight times the size of the Exxon Valdez.  Yet BP is treating our public estate with a cavalier attitude by refusing to do proper testing to determine the size and underwater spread of the spill.  Our government must not let them get away with it.  The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage or controlling the data.

This crisis in the Gulf is not just about making offshore oil platforms safer.  It’s about creating a safer energy platform for America.

I write this from Venice, Louisiana, a few days after the explosion at British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil rig set off a massive oil spill in the Gulf. Looking at the scale of the ecological disaster, I am frustrated, saddened and angry. BP has been long on promises and short on responses. Though two decades have passed since the Exxon Valdez spill occurred in Alaska, the oil industry and the various governmental enforcement agencies don’t seem to have learned much.

With a huge volume of oil flowing in the Gulf of Mexico unabated, we clearly have an epic catastrophe unfolding. The greatest coastal wetland system in America is at the height of spring wildlife nesting season. It now faces what may be the largest oil spill in the nation’s history. It is hard to imagine a more dire situation.

BP and the other oil giants have at various times testified before congressional committees that deep, offshore oil could be developed without harming the environment. But the reality I am experiencing here on the ground in Louisiana is revealing their rhetoric as little more than spin.

As of this writing, there are no reliable predictions when the flow of crude will be stopped or where the oil slick is headed next.

What will happen to this oil? Some of the lighter constituents will volatize into the air where, in combination with other pollutants, it will increase haze and ground-level ozone. When my colleagues and I flew through that haze over the oil slick, the air burned our eyes and throats. And scientists are warning that pollutants could linger for generations in the Gulf Coast’s soil and water.

Last summer, on the 20th anniversary of the Exxon spill, I traveled to Cordova, Alaska, a once-peaceful fishing village that became ground zero for the 1989 disaster when the supertanker ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound. On that trip, I met with scientists who were part of a team that took 9,000 samples from holes dug along the impacted shoreline. They found oil in half of them, and they told me that crude oil and its breakdown products will continue to enter the food chain for years to come.

Of the 31 impacted species of wildlife studied there, only a third is fully recovered. And the once-plentiful pigeon guillemots and Pacific herring remain absent from the Sound. What does the future hold for Gulf Coast wildlife?

Coastal Louisiana produces 40 percent of the nation’s oysters. Oysters are filter feeders that are known to ingest and concentrate pollutants in their systems at levels 1,000 times higher than those found in ambient waters. Oil-impacted oyster beds may be off-limits for years to come, and there are long-term ramifications of low-level contamination on such species as bluefin tuna, bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales and manatees, as well as on humans who consume tainted fish and shellfish.

Unlike the formerly pristine Prince William Sound, coastal Louisiana has seen its share of environmental insults. Canals dredged by the oil industry have carved up the once-vast coastal wetland system. The canals accelerate saltwater intrusion, destroying the protective cypress forests and replacing brackish and freshwater wetlands with degraded salt marshes. Withdrawing oil and natural gas has further deflated the region, causing millions of acres of marshes to subside. Coupled with sea-level rise caused by global warming, Louisiana is losing the equivalent of about two football fields of land every hour.

For those of us who care about the viability of the ocean and of our world, this is our “Avatar moment.” We must challenge those who continue to pollute and destroy our world before it passes a point of no return.

We support President Obama’s freeze on new coastal drilling, because it is time to reassess America’s energy priorities. This is not just about making oil platforms safer—this is about moving to an entirely new energy platform.

Oil companies have deployed 700 lobbyists in Washington and spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising to persuade us that their drilling operations are completely safe. They have successfully stalled congressional action on clean energy alternatives and persuaded politicians to put oil company profits ahead of real energy reform. Now the bill is coming due. The hidden costs of our oil dependency are no longer invisible.

Helping Gulf Coast Wildlife: For information about the wildlife species threatened by the oil spill and updates on National Wildlife Federation activities relating to the region, please visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.