WHEREAS, the Barataria Preserve Unit of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (JLNHPP/Park) is Louisiana’s only natural National Park area, preserving and interpreting a sampling of the wetlands of southeast Louisiana, as part of a park that celebrates the state’s unique French, Caribbean and Acadian culture, its role in the War of 1812 with the British, and
WHEREAS, since the Park’s inception, particularly with respect to the Barataria Preserve Unit (Preserve) so passionately advocated by the venerable educator, conservationist and LWF leader Frank Ehret, representing a 20,000-acre microcosm of freshwater swamp and coastal estuary for which Louisiana is renowned, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation (LWF) has supported its establishment and growth, and
WHEREAS, through the advocacy of conservationists and the efforts of Louisiana’s Congressional Delegation, the authorized boundary of the Park’s Barataria Preserve was recently expanded to accommodate the conservation of future additions of habitat and other features that will complement the purposes of the Park & Preserve, and
WHEREAS, within the Preserve’s expanded boundaries lies the Fleming Plantation, a 19th Century sugar plantation comprising 4,000 acres of bayous, bottomland hardwood forests and marsh, including historic buildings, a cemetery and prehistoric Indian mound that is now available for acquisition by the National Park Service for $2 million, and
WHEREAS, including the Fleming Plantation within the Preserve and under Park Service management will preserve the cultural features of the site, facilitate the restoration of deteriorating marshland thus helping to provide added protection against storm surges, and preclude other uses of the site that are inconsistent with the purposes of the Preserve, and
WHEREAS, the Land and Water Conservation Fund was established by the United States Congress to receive federal revenue generated from the exploration for and production of minerals in U.S. federal waters to be used for investment in public lands under the premise that the wealth generated by the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources should be invested in the preservation of renewable natural resources through land conservation, and
WHEREAS, Congress will soon be making appropriations for FY-2011 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and it would be timely for such appropriations to include an allocation of $2 million for the acquisition of the Fleming Plantation for addition to the JLNHPP Barataria Preserve Unit.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Louisiana Wildlife Federation (LWF) supports the addition of the 4,000-acre Fleming Plantation to the Barataria Preserve Unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (JLNHPP).
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the LWF urges the members of the Louisiana Congressional Delegation and their colleagues in the United States Congress to approve the appropriation of Land & Water Conservation Funds in sufficient amount to acquire and add the Fleming Plantation to the Barataria Preserve Unit of the JLNHPP.
Adopted by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation in convention assembled, February 28, 2010 at Cypress Bend Resort, Many, Louisiana.