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

[Donald R. Dann]

BCN friends

I strongly endorse Judy Pollock's email. This bill's proponents are very
close, but still lack a few votes for passage.  The powerful real estate
lobby, the home builders, and some in the farming community are fighting to
prevent this very important bill from becoming law.  Please, please contact
your state rep and ask them to support HB 6013 for Wetlands Protection.

Donald

Donald R. Dann
Highland Park/Lake County

-----Original Message-----
From: bcnnet-admin@ece.iit.edu [mailto:bcnnet-admin@ece.iit.edu]On Behalf Of
Judy Pollock
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 11:45 AM
To: BCNnet@ece.iit.edu
Subject: [BCNnet] Wetlands Protection Act: vote coming today or tomorrow

This important bill addresses the protections lost in the Bartlet balefill
case - 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
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