Beach Surveys Needed -- Immediately

As you may be aware, Audubon has been working to identify opportunities for volunteers to assist with wildlife relative issues associate with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

We have been working with the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Services to identify these, and are carefully planning a few such opportunities that will be launched in the next week or so through our new Audubon Volunteer Response Center in Moss Point.

However, we have received a request from the U.S. Coast Guard Incident Command Center in Mobile for assistance in conducting daily assessments of the condition of our beaches.

This request DOES NOT, to our knowledge, reflect any immediate expectation of oil products hitting the shoreline. Rather, it is an effort to take a snapshot of conditions over the next few days.

The request from the Coast Guard is for daily surveys of selected beach sections, taken first thing in the morning, after sunrise and before about 7:30 a.m. Reports on conditions are being requested by 7:30 each morning for consistency.

If you think you can help with this assessment, please respond to the email address below. Staff of the MS Commission for Volunteer Services will be in touch with additional details about the location and instructions.

msoilspillvolunteers@gmail.com

PLEASE BE AWARE – we know that you probably have a number of questions about this request and what we asking you to do. We will not, however, have much capacity to respond to them over the weekend. We WILL however, follow up with a more detailed plan of action early next week.

Mark LaSalle, Pascagoula River Audubon Center

Beach Stablization Meeting With Question Session

By JENNIFER FLANAGAN

City Public Relations

PASCAGOULA - City officials will conduct two public meetings on today at the Recreation Center,

2935 Pascagoula Street, to update the community on both the Army Corps of Engineers Beach

Stabilization Project and the current situation regarding the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The Army Corps of Engineers will begin the meeting at 6 p.m. by presenting the

protective measures they are taking to stabilize the beach along Beach

Boulevard.

Following the Corp at 7 p.m. will be representatives from BP, Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Marine Resources (DMR), U.S. Coast Guard,

and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Prior to the question and

answer session citizens will have the opportunity to hear the latest updates

such as air quality monitory and loan programs being made available through the

SBA.

In an effort to inform both the Hispanic and Vietnamese communities about the

two public meetings, a flier was created and distributed announcing the public

meetings in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

For more information about either of the public meetings scheduled for tonight

(May 27), contact Pascagoula City Hall at 228-762-1020.