GALVESTON, Texas -- Conservation groups announced that 300 new conservation jobs will be created in Texas and other Gulf Coast states with restoration funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The $7 million project, funded by fines from the incident, will repair and restore coastal areas damaged by the oil spill in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Mary Ellen Sprenkel, executive director at Corps Network, a group that organizes young adults to do conservation work, said the jobs will go to people from the towns where the work needs to be done.

"We will be working with our existing programs in the Gulf states to train young people in their communities to do this restoration work - to provide young people with training, to do the ecological work and provide them with career opportunities,” Sprenkel said.

The partnership, called GulfCorps, includes The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The Nature Conservancy, The Corps Network and the Student Conservation Association. Grant funds from the RESTORE Act will be used to plant native vegetation, remove invasive species and restore stream banks and shorelines.

In 2010, a BP oil platform exploded 25 miles off the coast of Louisiana and dumped almost 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf before it was capped. Sprenkel said it's important that people from the hardest hit areas will be hired for the GulfCorps projects.

"I think that it's an opportunity to maybe bring something positive out of the oil spill in terms of engaging and providing opportunity to young people in some very economically depressed communities,” she said.

Sprenkel said the project will have similar goals and objectives to the Civilian Conservation Corps, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Great Depression undertaking in the 1930s. She said there's still a great deal of work to be done in coastal areas since the spill.

"This is definitely cleaning up the original problem. A lot of the oil is gone but this is ecological problems that were caused as a direct result and absolutely need to be addressed,” Sprenkel said. "It speaks to the fact that the recovery dollars have been so slow in hitting the ground."

GulfCorps officials say they will begin hiring for the positions this fall.


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As Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pushes forward on plans to withdraw the Commonwealth from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), environmental activists are raising concerns over the plan.

The multistate compact aims to reduce greenhouse-gas pollution through carbon allowances and capping carbon dioxide emissions. It also funds Virginia's Community Flood Preparedness Fund, a program supporting strategies to mitigate and prevent flooding.

Andrea McGimsey, executive director of Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, said pulling out of RGGI would end the initiative.

"Our rainfall is just getting a lot harder, we're seeing these deluges like we've never seen before, and the science backs that up," McGimsey pointed out. "Our communities are flooding more and more, and we need to prepare for that, because we know it's going to get worse."

A report commissioned by the governor found participation in the program will drive up energy bills for Virginia residents by about $2.39 cents per month, and more than $1,500 per month for industrial customers. The report's authors also contended the project has not borne out its intended benefits.

Annette Osso, managing director for Resilient Virginia, countered it is because the program is relatively new. Virginia completed its enrollment in RGGI in January 2021, and the Flood Preparedness Fund has only completed three grant rounds so far.

"You're either going to pay for it later, after a flood, or you're going to spend some money up front now to put in the mitigation," Osso contended.

One path the governor could take to back out of RGGI involves Virginia's seven-member Air Pollution Control Board.

Zander Pellegrino, northern Virginia organizer for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said Youngkin has been filling the board with his appointees, a process which will conclude tomorrow.

"He's going against the will of the General Assembly," Pellegrino emphasized. "There were numerous attack bills that were introduced this past legislative session that tried to do exactly this, that tried to repeal RGGI. He lost. They were voted down."

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is organizing a protest outside the state Capitol building tomorrow to protest Youngkin's efforts to pull out of RGGI. At noon, demonstrators will march backward around the building to symbolize the direction they say Youngkin is taking the Commonwealth.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Communities in Maryland have been awarded portions of a $1 million grant to support infrastructure projects such as improving local waterway health and increasing green space in urban areas. Environmental advocates said it can help improve quality of life.

The Chesapeake Bay Green Streets, Green Jobs, Green Towns grant was awarded to 13 projects across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Jana Davis, president of Chesapeake Bay Trust, a Maryland-based partner in the grant, said a lot of the awarded communities will use the funds for stormwater runoff control, which can address flooding.

"It encourages water to soak into the ground instead of flooding local streets," Davis explained. "Getting water to flow through the ground and get filtered helps clean the water so that when it enters natural systems it's cleaner than rolling off the surface of a parking lot where it picks up pollutants and goes right into the local stream or bay."

Stormwater management projects include green roofs and vertical rain gardens. Maryland recipients include community organizations in Baltimore, Mount Rainier, Preston and Columbia. The towns of Emmitsburg, Galena, Glen Echo and Millington also received a share of the grant.

The grant is supported in part by the Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. It also will help local communities increase the amount of green space, such as tree canopies and conservation meadows.

Davis argued every community should have green space within walking distance of all residents.

"It's so important to have an oasis that's green, that provides both a beautiful space to spend time," Davis contended. "But also a place where air quality is locally just a little bit better, where there's shade and where community amenities can be found, whether it's a park bench or a water feature."

Research has shown tree canopies and urban forests can help cities retain stormwater, provide habitat for animals, reduce summer temperatures and store greenhouse gases. Increasing tree canopies is a goal of cities such as Baltimore. Officials want to get the city to 40% canopy coverage by 2037.

Mapping migration routes is important for conserving species such as pronghorn, so supporters hope Congress will fund mapping efforts.

The United States Geological Survey has published two volumes on migration of ungulates, or hoofed mammals, in the western United States. Michael O'Casey, Pacific Northwest field manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said the second volume highlights Sheldon-Hart Mountain pronghorn movements in southeast Oregon.

"It shows this really neat connection between two of the first wildlife refuges in the country that were set aside for big game, specifically for pronghorn," he said. "The map in that Volume Two really highlights the need for connectivity between those two refuges."

The Biden administration zeroed out funding for wildlife migration mapping in its 2023 budget. Advocates for mapping hope Congress will set aside $5 million so USGS can continue work with state and local stakeholders on developing maps for big game species in the West.

Matt Kaufmann, a USGS wildlife biologist, said migrating species are facing more obstacles in the form of fences, traffic and development.

"The mapping gives us a road map to identify the threats that the migrations face, and also identify some of the conservation opportunities," he said, "and without a map, it's really difficult to proactively manage and conserve these migrations."

Kaufmann said migrating animals travel across privately owned land, public lands and tribal reservations, making management complex. But he said ungulate herds are important to western ecosystems, providing prey for large carnivores such as wolves.

"Most of them are also harvestable game animals," he said, "and the harvestable surplus that is produced by migration provides millions of dollars in revenue to the state wildlife agencies that manage those herds, and also billions of dollars in tourism revenue to wildlife viewers."


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.