Bills We Are Following

We wrote to you earlier in the General Assembly session about three bills that we were following: SB1103, SB1107, and HB2205.

I am happy to say that the Senate bill that will give localities that authority to establish their own plans to control plastic bags was moved out of the Senate Committee and passed on the Senate floor.  Now it will move to the House of Delegates where it will be assigned to a committee.  If it is supported by the House committee, it will go to the floor of the House for a full vote.  We will send you more information when it has been assigned to a House committee.  Letting your delegates know that you support this legislation is important. 

Unfortunately, the other two bills that we were following have not survived.  The Senate bill that would have banned intentional balloon releases was passed by the committee, but defeated on the Senate floor.  We have some important education to do around this issue before the next legislative session.

And the Virginia Coastal Protection Act that would have provided funding to Hampton Roads communities to deal with sea level rise was tabled indefinitely in both the House committee and the Senate committee. 

 
At the end of this year's count, our volunteers had tallied the contents of 31 cages to come up with 951 spat on shell and 925 on concrete.  These cages were put out at volunteers docks in spring 2014 prior to the oyster spawning season. 

Many other interesting critters were found in the cages in addition to the oysters --- toadfish, banded killifish, blue crabs, mud crabs, sea squirts, and clamworms.

If you are interested in becoming a Spat Catcher and helping with this effort in 2015, there will be a workshop on May 20th at 6:30 PM at the Brock Center.  Contact Dana@LRNow.org to sign up.