America’s Wetland Foundation looks like a typical conservation organization dedicated to saving the wetlands of coastal Louisiana. The front page of their site has an appeal to donate to help save the wetlands from the oil spill and a host of other nice-sounding links. But the page listing the corporate sponsors is, umm, err, interesting…and is not only a who’s who of oil companies but still includes BP!!!
But that’s fine, right, so long as the oil money doesn’t effect the environmental mission…oh, wait, what is this? America’s Energy Coast? With the slogan “Shore up. Fuel the Nation.” You have got to be kidding me, right? Check out this from their “About Us” section in the “America’s Laboratory for Sustainability” subsection:
America’s Energy Coast is at the epicenter of solving crucial issues facing this nation: continued and future exploration and production of fossil fuels [bolding is mine] new and alternative energy sources vulnerable coastal communities and the workforce needed to support energy activities, national navigation needs, decaying and inadequate infrastructure, and imperiled coastal ecosystems.
Does anyone out there know anything about either America’s Wetland Foundation or America’s Energy Coast?
Hi Corey:
Thanks for your questions. As you may know, many conservation and environmental organizations receive substantial funding from the energy sector. In the case of America’s WETLAND Foundation, we launched our initiative in 2002 at an event where the Governor of Louisiana was flanked by the President of Environmental Defense Fund and Shell. This was intentional, as the severe loss of wetlands would require everyone at the table to ensure that we moved immediately to address the greatest rate of land loss on the planet. Since that time many wonderful conservation programs have emerged that otherwise would not be in the works without the support we get from individuals, foundations and industry. For example, we were able to leverage our work with Louisiana’s Cultural Restoration and Tourism Department to create the America’s WETLAND Birding Trail to complete the only missing link of the Great Gulf Coast Birding Trail. We approached the Shell Foundation and they agreed to provide $800,000 in funding for this purpose. Monies collected from individuals to support our effort go to a special fund to support the America’s WETLAND Conservation Corp work which is a partnership between the LSU Ag Center and AmeriCorps that has logged tens of thousands of volunteer hours toward citizen restoration through in the ground projects. We created the America’s Energy Coast initiative to build better cooperation among commercial and conservation/environmental interests in the region and to engender support from industry to push restoration as a top priority. Our groundbreaking report, Region at Risk, details some of the problems we have faced with restoration because of federal conflicting policy, such as we see with the Corps of Engineers not using Mississippi River dredge materials for restoration purposes. If you look carefully through our materials, you will find that our actions toward saving America’s WETLAND are impressive. The company we keep is not a secret because we feel that solutions will come when all who have a stake in the region make saving it a top priority. I appreciate the sincerity of your questions and hope that this helps you to better understand our mission and the urgency of saving one of America’s true environmental treasures. We encourage you to text $10, for our next planting when the oil spill issue allows us back into the marshes. Best.
Val Marmillion
Managing Director
America’s WETLAND Foundation
As a non-profit you have to sometimes keep company with folks you would rather not. My Museum is non-sectarian and non-denominational, yet we happily cash the checks from groups that are. Why? Because even though we disagree with them on many issues, we do have common support for one another on certain issues.
There are people in Big Oil, even at BP who are appalled by this and are working hard to find solutions behind the scenes. You won’t find these folk on TV or giving interviews, that gets left to the bungling PR department and the head idiots at these places, who have been exposed that they really have no idea how to run the industry they are in.
I’m sure your aware of the old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, is something a lot of activist non-profits must do to survive and fulfill their mission.
@Val: Thanks for your comment. My opinion (based on what little I can dig up) is that while your organization does good work restoring wetlands your mission is harmed by your association with oil companies.
Providing greenwashing for the worst polluters out there is not the route I would take. And it seems like from the very beginning of your organization’s existence that greenwashing has been a service that you provide.
You’ve put out a study attacking the federal government for being slow in doling out money for wetland preservation while BP is listed as a sponsor of your organization (blame the feds not the oil companies?). Also, and this is telling, I can’t find a single reference to climate change or global warming on your entire site; for an organization concerned about losing wetlands this is simply absurd. Does this have anything to do with the money from oil companies?
@Will: I absolutely hear you. But do (or would) you guys take money from organizations actively destroying (even unintentionally) what you are trying to preserve?
@ Corey: No we would probley not take the money from those organizations, but It wouldn’t happen over night. In many cases when companies donate to non-profits there are contracts signed before money changes hands. These usually have a start date and an end date, breaking the deal before the end date could put us in the old Breach of Contract issue and possibly have to repay the grant, ie money we already spent.
While internally we would want to find ways to distance ourselves as quickly as possible, we may not be able to take the same stand publically. In that situation you do what Val has tried to do, respond to criticism by hammering home what good you have done and constantly remind people of your non-profit mission.
Its really a no win situation for the non-profit.
By the way… I’m not a BP apologist, I just want people to keep focused on whose at fault here.
Out of curiosity I looked up America’s Wetland Foundation’s 2008 Form 990 (the tax filing non-profits have to file with the IRS) and if they are in bed with big oil… they need their sugar daddies to start paying more.
The organization made approximately $300,000 in revenue in 2008, $177,869 was from the Government (Local, State and Federal) while $81, 259 came from private sources (other foundation grants, donations etc.) Thus they took in 2 times more money from the Government than business. At the end of the year, they had less than $20,000 in resources left.
Look at 2007, according to their 990… they were some $80,000 in the red. Sounds like a typcial non-profit to me.
Corey: I am not intent on this going back and forth, as our record speaks for itself. I also know that you are sincere in your concerns. Just a few more notes that I hope will help you to understand how hard we are committed to saving the wetlands. Our agenda is transparent and, like most environmental initiatives, appreciates the private support to build awareness but is not driven by funders. However, we do not hide under project names or various coalition titles. The America’s WETLAND Foundation is guided by an independent board with environmental and conservation credentials dedicated to raising public awareness of the impact of Louisiana’s wetland loss on the state, nation and world. We do not have large donors on the board. Earlier this year, we did have a hearing on climate change and how our region can create resilient communities. Co-chairing that hearing was Pew Center for Climate Change and Entergy Corporation. That is the way we conduct our hearings, with co-chairs including NGO and corporate representatives. We think that this builds understanding and cooperation in a very combative world. You may know that we have a trifecta: subsidence, sea level rise, and coastal erosion. We have the largest dead zone in the world growing in the Gulf of Mexico due to leveeing of the Mississippi River in 1927. Those toxins which could be beneficially applied as nutrients and sediments to our starving wetlands instead are trapped and not connected to the marshes. Our foundation brought the metaphor of a football field of land lost every 50 minutes to national attention; we work with all communities to save species and man alike. You could help us by encouraging elected officials to ensure that any monies spent for oil spill recovery include some percentage for coastal restoration and that includes BP’s escrow fund. At the end of the day, the very survival of this region depends on restoration not attacking the symptoms and not the disease. We promote a change of posture away from consequence planning after disasters to forecasting our problems and having proactive solutions. Good science is critical as is comprehensive planning, all of which will be for naught if we don’t immediate change the business of saving our coastal estuaries before it is too late…and, that is right around the corner. I hope that this is helpful. Finally, a word about greenwashing. None of us in this effort are naive and have solid credentials. We use funds received from individuals and certain foundations for on the ground restoration activities with plantings by our America’s WETLAND Conservation Corps. When you see our appeal for donations, the money goes to restoration in partnership with AmeriCorps and the LSU AgCenter. In this way, volunteers who logged over 25,000 hours last year can get dirty while being educated about the issue. So, we do the real deal and there is no rhetoric or greenwashing involved when getting dirty and ending the day looking back at your dirty fingernails. Again, thanks for caring enough to ask about our work.
Do not let this modern-day Edward Bernaysian con man fool you. Ask him about how Shell Oil has managed to privatize large swathes of land all over New Orleans, including our once publicly funded zoo (formerly known as the New Orleans Audubon Zoo). Ask him why it now costs $50 to attend Jazz Fest. Ask him why it is his “non-profit” front group for the oil industry thinks it’s the U.S. taxpayers’ job to restore Louisiana’s wetlands that Shell destroyed. Got any answers to these questions, Val?
P.S.-Where’s AWF’s mainstream outrage over the oil that’s hemorrhaging, non-stop, into the Gulf? Nowhere to be found, that’s where.