The National Wildlife Federation is soliciting donations and volunteers to fight the oil spill through the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana:
… We do not know the location or the extent of impact to birds, wildlife, and habitat at this time. What we do know is that we need to be ready with on-call volunteers in the event that they are needed. National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana are building a list of volunteers prepared to help with this response.
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Volunteers can fill a variety of needs, from oiled wildlife recovery, to monitoring and photographing oil movement, to providing a boat and driver for response activities. No specific training or experience is necessary, although you must be at least 18 years old to volunteer. Some tasks, such as food preparation, may require no training. Other tasks, such as washing oiled birds, may require specific certifications or skills. We encourage pre-veterinary students, veterinary technicians, and anyone with HAZWOPER training to volunteer. Anyone with experience in dealing with wildlife handling, rehabilitation, or hazardous materials clean up is also strongly encouraged to register…
[…] Once you have registered, we will contact you as soon as opportunities arise. The severity of this spill may require a long-term and ongoing response, so if you don’t hear from us immediately, it doesn’t mean you won’t be contacted or that your efforts won’t be needed. With your help, we can meet this challenge and reduce the impacts of this spill to habitat and wildlife.
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Note: If you encounter oiled wildlife, please call 1 (800) 557-1401. Please do not touch or disturb oiled wildlife, for your safety and theirs.
I have no prior experience with CRCL, but would be most interested in hearing from those who do.
Bnut
Wish I wasn’t stuck in NYC. I was a vet tech, know they could use the help….
sherifffruitfly
Volunteers? Fuck that. I want BP employing 1000s of regional affected people at $20-$40/hr to clean it up. With full benefits. For as long as it takes.
Let that be the *start* of their penance.
Martin
@sherifffruitfly: I agree. It’s not like there aren’t enough people down there that would love even a minimum wage job.
Why should the federal government be the ones to provide job assistance?
Bnut
@Martin:
If the free market wanted BP to hire all those people, they would.
MattR
@sherifffruitfly: Did you see some of the conditions that BP was trying to impose on the compensated volunteer fishermen helping out? (link)
(EDIT: Link sent to my sister. She has an undergrad degree in environmental sciences and worked doing soil and water testng for a while before going back to get her PHD in physical therapy – which currently has her doing an internship in Shreveport. No idea if she has the free time, but I am pretty sure he will be interested in helping. Maybe her and mom can do it together when they meet up in New Orleans over Memorial Day.)
ruemara
Wish I had a some skills but the only animals I wash are fluffy, howl a lot and believe my sole purpose is to pet their tummy. And the last vet job I had was kennel cleaner and socializer.
Also, too, FUCKING BP SHOULD BE PAYING EVERYONE WHO HAS TO WORK ON THIS. So damn mad I’m sharpening my rusty pitchfork with my fangs.
Keith G
[email protected]sherifffruitfly: Exactly.
La, in general and NOLA in particular needs a shot in the arm. This horrible affair might as well end up stimulating the parts of the Gulf economy that is not going to be flattened.
Mary Landrieu needs to get her ass in gear and get such a process underway.
Nylund
I’m in grad school and my summer break is coming up (and I’m only a day’s drive away). Maybe I’ll sign up. As an economics student, I probably don’t have the most desired skill set for the job, but I’m more than happy to get very dirty to do what I can.
Paris
I’m sure the Palinese Liberation Army is on its way.
MattR
@Nylund: Then you know what they say about supply and demand. I am sure they can find a use for you. :)
Song that just popped up on my mp3 player. Greta by Widespread Panic
Elisabeth
An odd way to help via Rachel’s blog: donate hair which, apparently, soaks up the oil quite well.
http://www.matteroftrust.org/index.html
gbear
Ummm, we’d better get used to the idea that volunteer organizations are going to be doing a lot of the cleanup and rescue work as quickly as possible. Animal lives and habitat are going to depend upon it. If we wait for BP or government to do their share, the gulf is dead.
There really is no time for fingerpointing right now. I wish I had time to volunteer. I think NWF has done this work before and knows what they’re doing.
chrome agnomen
@sherifffruitfly:
my thoughts exactly. start redistributing those bonuses to the working class.
gbear
@Elisabeth:
I’m sorry I have neither hair or nylons.
Well, not so sorry that I don’t have nylons.
Dr. Squid
I volunteer Sarah Palin. It’s not like what she does now does the world any good.
Elisabeth
@gbear:
I don’t have nylons, either. does anyone these days? Did just get the hair cut, though. I am going to solicit local salons to see if they’ll donate; I can’t get to the Gulf to help so I’ll do what I can here.
demkat620
I really don’t get why we can’t pay people to do this.
They need the jobs. Help the environment and the economy at the same time.
fourlegsgood
@sherifffruitfly: That’s a great idea.
Obama should tell BP that no permit of theirs will EVER be approved, for anything, anywhere until the coast is cleaned up and they pay the tab. And that includes volunteers and any fishermen or businesses who lose money because of their asshattery.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sherifffruitfly: @gbear: What the sheriff said. Maybe we can start making some noise to put pressure on BP to start paying people to help clean up their mess. Start a petition? Organize another phone campaign to get our ‘Critters and Senators talking about it?
MattR
@Dr. Squid: Do you really want a bunch of half cleaned birds?
@Elisabeth: I assume that fur means dog or cat, as opposed to mink. Boy does that open the door for some Tunch jokes.
fourlegsgood
@MattR: I should donate some plushy fur – my two girls alone have enough fur to sop up an entire barrel of oil.
Dr. Squid
@MattR: Man, I try to make a funny, and the first reply is a lot funnier.
Linda Featheringill
Slightly OT:
Reaction from a reader of nola dot com about Sarah Palin’s continued push for off-shore drilling:
Posted by Fred Witzell
May 03, 2010, 3:58PM
I’m a Conservative and an elected official within the TEA Party and I have to say, Ms. Palin, just shut the hell up, you are a buffoon…
You have turned half of the TEA Party, and most of the nation against you… “Drill baby drill” is ALL you have left, and you are rapidly making that quite useless…
Go back to Alaska and skin a moose or something, will you?
[Hehe. I enjoyed that.]
Elisabeth
@MattR:
Ha! I threatened Frannie (long-haired tortoiseshell) with a shave for her new summer do. Hmmm…
ruemara
@Elisabeth:
I have 2 cats and we’re a bunch of long hairs in this house. I could fill a box in 2 weeks, so thank you for this odd but necessary way to help. Tweeting this.
Why not assail BP’s offices and tell them to start paying for the cleanup by paying the volunteers and buying their supplies?
http://www.bp.com/contacts.do?categoryId=488&contentId=2000552
Miriam
I agree – BP ought to be paying all those people who are going to be without a livelihood to clean up BPs mess. That is ridiculous. Why are we bailing out a British oil company? Didn’t we bail out enough oily companies already?
r€nato
@Dr. Squid: I dunno, how many gallons of oil you think she can sop up before we have to dump her in the waste incinerator?
Peter J
I vote to send Amber to fight the oil spill. She obviously doesn’t have anything better to do.
SB Jules
I was at UC Santa Barbara when we had “our” oil spill (a well blew out in the Santa Barbara channel in 1969). I’ll never forget the first oil covered bird I saw. A fellow brought it to the UCEN (student union) information booth wrapped in a towel. I think volunteer organizations know how to handle this best; they’ve had the experience.
Bubblegum Tate
@Linda Featheringill:
Clearly a flase flag operation–a liberal pretending to be a teabagger in order to make the teabaggers look bad.
[/wingnut]
But seriously, that was great, and I hope to see more of that sentiment sprout up on the right.
Darkrose
I can’t go, and I don’t have any hair to speak of, but I’m pleased that they’ve already got folks from UC Davis down there. I didn’t know it before, but apparenly the California Oiled Wildlife Network is based here.
(I’m a very big fan of the vet program here. I took Joxur to the VMTH when he stopped eating. Even though they couldn’t do anything for him, everyone was very understanding and nice, especially the vet. They’re good people.)
demo woman
My sympathies are not with the residents of the gulf coast who think they would be better off without the federal government. Most gulf states are more worried about their vacation industry rather than the wildlife.
Elisabeth
@demo woman:
I don’t mind that they don’t want the federal government’s help most of the time. It’s the hypocrisy that drives me nuts.
WereBear
@Elisabeth: That is awesome. I’ve just put a notice up on my cat blog.
To the Furminators!
ruemara
@Darkrose: GO AGGIES! Really, do go! They have many wonderful veterinary and agricultural programs. Very pleased to see them being on top of this.
Keith G
@demo woman:
The issue I have with what you typed is that here on the Gulf, I know many families whose financial and social lives revolve around the water here. Some interact with tourists some plainly don’t. A few are following in the steps of many previous generations.
Yes, some are suspicious of government actions, but ya get that a lot in frontier and agricultural communities – rightfully or not.
Keith G
@demo woman:
I meant to add:
No….just no. If you type this…..you just don’t understand these people.
Elisabeth
@WereBear:
I thought it was kind of kooky at first but, hey, if it works.
Elie
@sherifffruitfly:
I like this — very much!
Elie
This whole thing could be a monumental game changer in the scope of the disaster and the consequent impacts on everything from our energy policy to regional economies in the south as well as the fundamental agony of watching what happens to our wildlife and the many many people who will be affected.
If they don’t find an answer to capping this thing in the next couple of weeks, BP might as well apply for bankruptcy now but over and above that — and more significantly, the damage done to the Gulf coast may be irreperable in terms of anything less than hundreds of years…
Dont want to be a crepe hanger, but when I read trying to cap this thing a mile down, and the uncertainty put out by BP and quiet from the government, I just have a gut feedling things are way worse than we even imagine
demo woman
@Keith G: I actually lived for a while in LA and loved the people but I also sunbathed at Destin and heard the racist crap from the folks near me. I’m really pissy today so some of the rant is because of that. Sorry.
DPirate
You can bet that BP will be hiring a great many people for the cleanup, and it will be an excellent source of income for anyone who wants to head down there. First thing to do if you want a job will be to contact hazmat training agencies and find out where they are scheduled to give training (you are going to be getting a 40-hour course most likely, as well as possibly other stuff), as wherever they are going is where there will be jobs to fill, as well as contacting any hazmat agencies (surely there are gulf coast standbys of a small scale), and of course places like halliburton and any other giant contractor you can think of.
Some things to keep in mind, many jobs are better than others. If you have any sea time or maritime papers, you’ll want to tell people about that, as well as getting in touch with tug and barge companies in the area. Landing craft and powerboat duty are probably the best as far as ground operations are concerned, unless you want to be on a ship doing the laundry or cooking or something. Logistics would be a sweet gig, as well.
I wouldn’t expect there to much open hiring until mid-summer; nevertheless, if you are unemployed and can get your ass down to texas (I’d say whatever port is closest but I’m guessing that much will be done out of Corpus Christi), you might end up with a new house out of the deal when all is said and done, provided you don’t hire on with someone that ends up ripping you off.
The cleanup work itself sucks. It’s hot as hell and you wear a tight plastic suit and rubber boots and gloves and headgear/goggles and you are forbidden to take it off, but the hours aren’t all that bad if you can stand itching and sweating your ass off in the hot sun. Well, the day is long, but there are group meetings in the morning, plus you are on the clock for all your suiting up time and travel time and washup/stripoff time, etc. That or you get a guarantee of 8-12 hours per day, 7 days a week.
At any rate, such is how it was for the little Selendang Maru, which broke it’s back on Unalaska Island, and I expect as well for the Exxon disaster. Of course, this is the south we are talking about, so YMMV, and prevailing wage in remote Alaska is head and shoulders about the deep south’s mexican wage.
Take the above with a grain of salt, as I am not in the industry and am going on memory and anecdote.
These people asking for volunteers are likely NPOs that just want to start cleaning up and helping out wildlife.