2012 was a milestone year for me. Like many friends my age, i have been dealing with health issues more and more over the past few years. Unlike some, i was lucky enough to get a new lease on life this year. I underwent heart surgery a few months ago and now have a new heart valve and a couple of open arteries feeding blood to my repaired heart.

So it is now time for New Year’s resolutions and mine are to exercise more so that i can regain my strength and stamina after having my activities limited for several months, and to try to make this site more useful to all of you who come to find out about the Atchafalaya Basin.

I am now a commissioner on the Atchafalaya Trace Commission, the State-created organization that controls the Heritage Area, and I plan to work closer with the Heritage Area and the FOA to increase visibility of the challenges faced inside and outside of the floodways. If you are interested in helping us to bring attention to the Basin, please come to FOA board meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month, usually at the Audubon Coastal Initiative conference room on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge; or to the Trace Commission meetings every second month at the Capitol Park Welcome Center near the State Capitol; check this site or http://www.Atchafalaya.org for dates.

If you would like to sponsor a meeting in your area, we would be happy to make a presentation on the Basin to your group.

The Friends have composed two resolutions that will be presented to the Louisiana Wildlife Federation Convention this February in Baton Rouge. Both relate to management of the floodways by the Corps of Engineers. If these are approved by the Federation and its affiliates (of which FOA is one,) they will be forwarded to the appropriate agencies to put the Federation on record as supporting work to improve the water quality and wildlife habitat in the Basin. You can read those resolutions, along with one that would designate litter as a pollutant in State waters, at the following links.

1) Supporting increased efforts in the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System to improve water quality and protect habitat without defeating flood control efforts

2) Supporting stronger permit conditions and enforcement actions for construction activities allowed inside the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway system 

3) Supporting the addition of trash to the louisiana list of waterway impairments and the establishment of trash load limits for impaired louisiana waterways

If you have any comments on the resolutions or requests for meeting presentations, you can drop me a note at charlesc (at) basinbuddies.org.

And have a peaceful and fulfilling year.

Charles Caillouet, FOA Board Secretary and Webmaster

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