Feds to Wildlife Center: Thanks, but no thanks
Story by Chris Graham
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Ed Clark has been in the wildlife business long enough to remember when his help was wanted after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. The deskbound experts running the show in the wake of the still-ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico have made it clear that they think they have the situation covered.
“There are some really profound questions about what’s going on, and the agencies are saying, We’ve got this under control, we have our people there,” said Clark, the president of the Waynesboro-based Wildlife Center of Virginia, back from a frustrating six-day tour of the Gulf.
The chief frustration for Clark: “The people in charge of this response are making a concerted effort to ban any access of any nongovernmental employees to the area.”
“We have more experience and expertise in handling wildlife in distress than practically anyone. Some of the people involved with the government agencies are experts, but they’re deskbound experts. We deal with handling and capturing and restraining wild animals every single day, and yet we have been told that we are not welcome, our help is not needed, and we’ll be banned from the area unequivocally if we show up,” Clark said. Read more
David Toscano: BP and Cuccinelli
Column by David Toscano
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Virginia is the model of the citizen legislature. Delegates and senators are not full-time elected officials; most of us have other jobs. The House of Delegates and the State Senate meet for only 60 days during one year and 45 days during the next year. While legislative committees meet during the interim periods, most of us who serve return to regular jobs in our local communities. That being said, my approach has always been to remain actively involved in the issues that confront the state and the nation. Read more
Madeline Ostrander: Protect America’s coasts and waterways
Posted by afp on July 7, 2010 · 1 Comment
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Dave Rauschkolb took on the oil industry when it got personal—it threatened his beach and his business.
Rauschkolb is not an environmental lawyer or professional Sierra Club-type. He’s an avid surfer and owns a pizza bar on the northwest coast of Florida, within range of the BP spill. Rauschkolb has never called himself an activist. But he was so incensed that state and federal politicians let the oil industry take a gamble on the safety of drilling in the Gulf Coast that he recently organized a protest called “Hands Across the Sand.” What started just weeks ago as an idea on a website mushroomed into more than 900 events in all 50 states and more than 30 other countries—thousands of people who linked hands on beaches to take a stand for protecting coastlines and waterways. Read more
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with bp, gulf oil spill, hands across the sand, oil spill, waterkeepers