WHEREAS, the Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force was charged by Congress with completing an Action Plan that sets out a national strategy for reducing, mitigating, and controlling hypoxia in the northern Gulf, and
WHEREAS, the Task Force, composed of key federal agencies and representatives of states along the river, agreed on an Action Plan at their meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on October 1 1, 2000, and
WHEREAS, the Action Plan calls for a basin-wide effort that focuses on incentive-based, voluntary actions for non-point sources of nitrogen pollution, and enforcement of existing regulatory controls for point sources, along with expanded monitoring and research into the Gulf hypoxia problem, in a framework of adaptive management, and
WHEREAS, in addition to reducing the 5 year average extent of the Gulf hypoxic zone by roughly half, the Action Plan also seeks to restore and protect the waters of states and tribal lands within the Mississippi River Basin, and to improve the communities and economic conditions across the basin, and
WHEREAS, implementation of the Action Plan will improve water quality throughout the basin, and deliver benefits upstream as well as to the Gulf of Mexico, and
WHEREAS, by resolution adopted at its 56th annual meeting held in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1995, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation supports development of a plan to curtail the growing “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico by reducing nutrient loading to the Mississippi River from nonpoint sources in the Mississippi River Valley.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Louisiana Wildlife Federation endorses the Action Plan for reducing, mitigating and controlling hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico recommended by the Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River Watershed Nutrient Task Force and supports the continuation of the Task Force to oversee Action Plan implementation.
Adopted by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation in convention assembled, 62nd Annual Meeting, March 4, 2001 in Many, Louisiana.