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WWA RESPONSE TO GULF OIL SPILL IMPACTS ON COASTAL WETLANDS

Message from WWA Executive Director Becky Abel

All water is connected.

Wisconsin Wetlands Association shares the agony of the BP Gulf oil spill with our members, our colleagues in Gulf Coast states, and the world. The phenomenally valuable coastal wetlands at the other end of the Mississippi from Wisconsin that were already gravely threatened are now under direct assault. No one yet knows what the ultimate impacts of this disaster will be for any of the Gulf’s resources. We feel helpless and wish to provide our members with information about relief efforts and progress toward reducing the devastating impacts of what is transpiring.

Many of our partner groups are working directly on oil spill response and can provide current information. Therefore, WWA’s approach to informing our members about the Gulf crisis will be to provide links to worthwhile organizations who are actively working on this devastating ecological disaster. We encourage our members to follow these updates and donate to these important efforts:

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  River Network - Includes information on ways to take action, resources (including by-the-minute maps), and news from the ground.
• Clean Water Network - Links to timely, current alerts and updates on the situation.
• Wetlands International
• Association of State Wetland Managers - Covers the spill's effects on wetlands, including recent projections, media coverage, blogs, maps showing the area hit by the spill and legislative actions in response to the spill disaster as well as important links to resources and up-to-date information.
• Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program - The mission of BTNEP is the preservation and restoration of the Barataria-Terrebonne estuarine system, the 4.2 million acre area between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers in Louisiana. WWA members and friends may remember Kerry St. Pe, Executive Director of BTNEP, from our Wetland Science Conference in La Crosse in 2007. Kerry was our banquet speaker that year.
• LA Gulf Response - This coalition of established, active advocates for the preservation and restoration of coastal Louisiana (including the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy) is coordinating volunteer registration and collecting donations.
• Ducks Unlimited - Gulf Coast Oil Spill Action Center
• Society of Wetland Scientists - SWS has launched an interactive webpage on oil and wetlands. Also, the Environmental Concerns Committee of SWS has developed a brief statement concerning effects of oil on wetlands. Download the statement here. SWS is encouraging the distribution of this statement to interested parties.