League of Women Voters of Alabama

League of Women Voters of the United States

Action Alert!
Please voice support for Forever Wild reauthorization funding.

At the opening of the 2011 Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature the Protect Forever Wild Coalition will introduce legislation to seek reauthorization funding for Forever Wild for the next 20 years. LWVAL also supports this legislation and asks that you take action to voice your support. Please contact your legislators and ask them to support Forever Wild AS IS. You can go to www.legislature.state.al.us to get your legislators' contact information. The time to act is now as the legislature convenes on Tuesday, March 1 - only one week away. For further information and resources please see the email below from Tim Gothard, Executive Director of the Alabama Wildlife Deferation and President of Protect Forever Wild.

Thank you for taking immediate action!

February 18, 2011

To:          Protect Forever Wild Coalition Leadership

From:     Tim L. Gothard
               Executive Director, Alabama Wildlife Federation
               President, Protect Forever Wild, Inc.

My friends, the time is at hand to focus our efforts and seek reauthorization of Forever Wild funding during the 2011 Session of the Alabama Legislature.

Members of the Protect Forever Wild Coalition have been seeking the advice and counsel of key individuals, organizations, professionals, and legislative leaders over the last few months. On March 1, the first day of the Legislative Session, we will introduce a bill to reauthorize Forever Wild funding, as-is, for another 20 years.

Representative Randy Davis of Daphne, Chair of the Constitution, Campaigns, and Elections Committee and Co-Chair of the House Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus will sponsor the bill in the House of Representatives. Senator Scott Beason of Gardendale, Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, will sponsor the bill in the Senate. Many other legislators have already committed or expressed interest in co-sponsoring and helping with passage.

With this information, it is time for us to mobilize and elevate positive calls to legislators from our respective members and supporters of Forever Wild. In the next 10 days we need each legislator to hear from plenty of people back home specifically asking them to support “reauthorizing Forever Wild funding, as-is, in this session” and to support the bill that will be introduced to accomplish that objective. Remember this when you talk with your legislator - support of Forever Wild is good, but we need support “as-is, with no changes.”

Many legislators will be fully aware of our efforts and already be in support. If that is what you hear when you call them, thank them profusely. Some, especially new legislators, will have limited knowledge about Forever Wild and the efforts of the Coalition. To assist Forever Wild supporters, and legislators, we have re-vamped our Protect Forever Wild website (www.protectforeverwild.com) and included a “Tool Kit” section that provides an updated “Forever Wild Fact Sheet” and a variety of other useful information – including a dozen or so one-page briefing papers related to common questions posed about Forever Wild and our effort. I would encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with the Fact Sheet and the Briefing Papers. If your legislator has a question that you cannot answer, we will be happy to provide you and/or them with information to address any questions. Just let us know.

Phone calls from local constituents will be of critical importance in support of the ongoing work of our Governmental Affairs and Public Relations Team, and to our goals for success. Feedback will also be invaluable. We would also strongly encourage our supporters to relay back the commitments, comments, and questions they receive from their local legislators. This can be done easily online at the Protect Forever Wild website (www.protectforeverwild.com) by clicking on the “Tell Your Forever Wild Story” section and typing in a message. Any feedback provided through this avenue will allow us to quickly forward accurate information to our Governmental Affairs Team as they actively work the halls of the State House and to our Public Relations Team as they craft our strategic messaging throughout this campaign.

The time is at hand. Thank you for helping mobilize the masses in support of Forever Wild. Please forward this information to your members and supporters at your first opportunity.

Don’t hesitate to relay any questions by simply replying to this email or through the “Contact Us” option through the Protect Forever Wild website.

If you do not wish to receive emails from LWVAL, please contact Jean Johnson at jjohnson@lwval.org or call 205 871-8194.