April 16, 2004
Dear Sierra Club member or earnest environmental compatriot,
We need your help to protect Lake Erie.
Your state senator will soon vote on a bad bill, House Bill 218. This proposal gives away part of Ohio’s precious natural resource, our Lake Erie coast. By changing the definition of “public trust lands,” it moves thousands of acres of Lake Erie shorelands from the public domain into private owners' hands. It expands landowners' rights to build structures or dump fill in waters near the shore -- ecologically sensitive areas that need more protection, not less.
This giveaway will lead to new “Keep Out” signs on coastal lands that Ohioans have enjoyed for decades. More importantly, it will stop Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources from doing its job -- protecting our Lake Erie shore from environmental damage and erosion.
Major changes have been made so that Ohio's coastal management will be more fair, more streamlined, and more citizen-friendly. And that’s as it should be. House Bill 218 goes too far, though. It gives private landowners new property rights at the public’s expense.
Please contact your state senator and help stop the Lake Erie lands giveaway. Call or email -- time is short. Give your senator this simple message:
“Please vote NO on House Bill 218. Don’t change our public trust lands, and don’t expand private property rights at the public’s expense."
Not sure who your state senator is? Call the legislative information office at (800) 282-0253. You can also look your senator up and get phone numbers and email addresses by going to this URL:
http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/ Please act soon. After you call, you can send a pre-written letter by going to the Ohio Chapter Action Alert web page at ohio.sierraclubaction.org
On behalf of the Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club, thank you.
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