Bill allows millions in new spending to protect coastal and estuarine land

WASHINGTON — The federal government would get new authority — though not necessarily more money — to protect coastal and estuarine land under legislation nearing final approval in Congress.

Under the bill, the Commerce Department could receive up to $60 million a year through fiscal 2013 for land purchases to preserve such areas around the country that have "significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values" or are threatened by development. The money would be used for grants to states and local governments; the property could only be purchased from willing sellers.

Assuming that the bill is signed into law, Congress would still have to come up with the funding, often a major stumbling block. Even so, Gulf Coast conservationists are hopeful of seeing more wherewithal for land buys.

"There's a tremendous need," said Chris Oberholster, state director of the Alabama chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "Typically, we've got outstanding assets, but have not had the resources." Those assets include thousands of acres in ecologically sensitive tracts in the Red Hills area of Monroe County and along the Escatawpa River in northwest Mobile and southwest Washington counties. Attempts to pin down the federal money needed to acquire them have so far fallen short.

Although the coastal program has received funding in the past, the amounts have varied from a high of almost $51 million in fiscal 2004 to a low of about $8 million in fiscal 2008, said Emily Woglom, a senior policy adviser with the Conservancy's national office.

The bill, which passed the Senate last month, could come up for a House vote as early as this week. Among other provisions, it would create National Heritage Areas in Northwest Alabama's Muscle Shoals region, as well as in the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi Hills areas of the Magnolia State.

Both Mississippi senators, Thad Cochran, R-Oxford, and Roger Wicker, R-Tupelo, voted for the measure when it passed the Senate 73-21. The almost 1,250-page bill would also designate more than 2 million acres — mainly in Western states — as wilderness, which is the federal government's highest level of protection.

Alabama Senators Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, and Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, were opposed. In separate statements, spokesmen for the two said the bill was pushed through the Senate without enough opportunity for debate or amendments, and could hinder oil and gas production.

At the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Director George Crozier was encouraged by several other provisions to bolster research. One calls for development of a plan to monitor rising levels of ocean acidification, which, he said, could threaten oyster populations. Another would establish an integrated system for ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observation.

"On a scale of five, it's easily a four," Crozier said of the bill. He added, however, that it will have no effect without added funding.