Don't Get Mad, Get Political!!
The Georgia Conservation Voters
First, you see the heroic legislator who champions clean air and water, but gets in trouble at election time and is defeated.
Then, you see the anti-environmental legislator who gets returned year after year to the Capitol, with nary a peep about his
votes against our health, air, water and wildlife. If you care about environmental issues, you start to get mad, then someone
suggests you get politicalŠ perhaps unsavory, but quite necessary.
Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV) was formed last year as the political arm of the environmental and conservation movement in Georgia.
GCV serves that role because it is crucial to the success of conservation work, yet most environmental groups are not set up
to endorse and support candidates for office, which requires separate classification by IRS.
GCV is helping the conservation community articulate and promote an agenda to educate decision-makers on how to protect our
environment. It then lobbies in the state legislature in support of that agenda. At session's end, GCV issues a scorecard
publicizing how legislators voted.
At election time, GCV's candidate questionnaire measures candidate support for the shared agenda and, coupled with research
into incumbents' voting and committee work and other research considerations, GCV then endorses a slate of pro-environment
candidates.
GCV follows up this endorsement with campaign support for (or on behalf of) high-priority candidates. Once new relationships
have been built through this process, GCV goes back to the agenda and seeks support for it through legislation, and the cycle
repeats.
GCV works statewide. Their primary constituency is the organizations setting the agenda and doing the work to protect Georgia's
environment. These organizations and the tens of thousands of Georgians who are concerned members of these organizations now have
a political arm. This strategy helps us strengthen our combined political muscle.
For more information, contact Sam Collier, Executive Director of Georgia Conservation Voters, at 404-522-8144,
or sam@ProtectGeorgia.org.
View the 1999-2000 Legislative Scorecard and endorsements on our web site,
www.ProtectGeorgia.org.
Coastal Georgia Resource Conservation & Development Council
Leads Project To Help Clean Up Altamaha River Tributaries
by Donald F. White
Project Coordinator/Coastal RC&D Council Staff Director
The Coastal Georgia RC&D Council received approval of a $362,000 Clean Water Act (319) grant application from the Georgia
Environmental Protection Division. Partners in this proposed project include The Nature Conservancy, Seven River and Pine
Country RC&D Councils, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission
and the Coastal, Satilla River, Altamaha, and Ogeechee River Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
The Councils will implement agricultural 'best management practices' (BMPs) on demonstration farms in each sub-watershed to
reduce the nutrients contributing to low dissolved oxygen levels in 4 impaired tributaries which negatively impact the
Altamaha River: Ohoopee River, Mushmelon Creek, Turnpike Creek, and Penholoway Creek. All are listed on EPD's 305(b) list
of "Rivers and Streams not supporting designated uses." The criteria known to be violated is dissolved oxygen. Based on current
analysis, poor water quality in these four tributaries is the most significant nonpoint pollution threat to the Altamaha River.
There are many documented rare and endangered species which depend on this habitat.
Beginning in Spring 2002, the Districts will demonstrate the agricultural BMPs to other farmers in the watershed to encourage
wider voluntary adoption. NRCS will provide survey and design assistance to the farmers. The Nature Conservancy will carry out
a public education program and initiate annual community-based programs to clean up and remove solid waste from stream crossings
in each sub-watershed. For more information about the project and how to apply the BMP process in other places, please call Don
White at (912) 876-6485.
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