[BCNnet] Wetlands Protection Act: vote coming today or tomorrow

[Judy Pollock]

This important bill addresses the protections lost in the Bartlet balefill
cae - it has direct benefits for our wetland bird populations.

(I deleted the attachments - contact Richard for copies if you want to see
them.)

>From: Richard Acker <racker@openlands.org>

>> A bill that may be of interest to many of you, HB 6013 (the Wetlands
>> Protection Act), is going to be called for a vote on the House floor in
>> Springfield either this afternoon or tomorrow.  Chicago Wilderness does
>> not itself take positions on legislation, of course.  However, several CW
>> members, such as Openlands Project, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club,
>> Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Audubon - Chicago Region, are
>> strongly supporting the bill.
>> 
>> The bill's goal is to protect wetlands that lost federal protection due to
>> a Supreme Court decision early last year.  Even before the Supreme Court
>> decision, about 90% of Illinois' original wetlands had been destroyed.
>> The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has preliminarily estimated
>> that, of the 10% of Illinois wetlands that remain, approximately 150,000
>> acres have lost federal protection as a result of the Supreme Court
>> decision.
>> 
>> Openlands Project encourages any CW members who would like to support HB
>> 6013 to call their state representatives today to urge them to vote for
>> the bill.  If you do not know who your state representative is, you can go
>> to the following link and type in your home address to find out.  Your
>> state representative will be listed at the bottom:
>> http://www.elections.state.il.us/DLS/Pages/DLSAddressCrit.asp  Once you
>> find out who your state representative is, you can find his or her phone
>> number in the alphabetical listing at
>> http://www.legis.state.il.us/addresses/house_addresses.html.  Be sure to
>> call the Springfield number (area code 217), not the home office!
>> 
>As of this morning, the bill has 25 cosponsors:  Reps. Bellock, Brosnahan,
>Coulson, Cowlishaw, Crotty, Currie, Davis (Monique), Erwin, Feigenholtz,
>Franks, Garrett, Hamos, Hoeft, Howard,  Lang, Lyons (Eileen), Lyons
>(Joseph), May, McKeon, Osterman, Saviano, Simpson, Slone, Winters, and
>Younge.  If your representative is listed as a cosponsor, Openlands Project
>encourages you to thank him or her for supporting the bill.  If your
>representative is not listed above as a cosponsor, Openlands Project
>encourages you to urge your representative to support the bill!
>
>> Attached are several documents if you would like further information: (1)
>> the current text of HB 6013; (2) a one-page question and answer sheet that
>> Openlands Project wrote concerning the bill, (3) the Chicago Wilderness
>> issue paper on isolated wetlands, and (4) the Chicago Wilderness testimony
>> presented before a legislative task force last summer on the question of
>> state regulation of wetlands.
>> 

>>  <<HB 6013 (April 4).doc>>  <<Brief Q&A re wetlands bill (Apr 1).doc>>  
>> <<wetl-iso.cw2.doc>>  <<wetl-iso.tes.rtf>> 
>> 
>> If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.
>> 
>> Richard H. Acker
>> Regional Land Use Coordinator
>> Openlands Project
>> 
>> racker@openlands.org
>> (312) 427-4256 x387
>> 
>> Openlands Project
>> www.openlands.org
>> 25 E. Washington St., Suite 1650
>> Chicago, Illinois   60602
>> 
>
>
>
>
> 
Judy Pollock
bobolnk@ix.netcom.com