Letter to Your Elected Official

Letter to your elected official

Date

Elected official’s address Your address

Subject: Recommendations regarding the ecological integrity of site name

Mr. xx, Ms. Xx:

As a citizen or name of your organization of your town or district, I would like to draw your attention to the health of a riparian area that is dear to me: name of the site, address.

Last date, I organized a shoreline cleanup at the name of the site, in which ## volunteers participated. The activity was part of the My Clean Beach program, which provided us with the necessary tools to organize a safe cleanup and identify the environmental issues affecting the site. These tools have allowed us to evaluate and analyze the health status of the site.

We have concluded that: (Choose the items that are most relevant to your site and that best describe its health status. Feel free to mention what is wrong and what is right. These are only some ideas; please feel free to add new items.)

- In the ## trash bags and ## recycling bags filled, much debris came from name of the places where they are from (e.g., restaurants or businesses). This was evident because list your evidence (e.g., name on packaging).

- The trash cans and ashtrays available on site aren’t sufficient or collected frequently enough to ensure proper waste disposal.

- The riparian buffer zone is degraded by a rock embankment, artificial turf, etc. It can no longer function to (e.g., prevent excessive erosion, reduce mineral and pollutant inflow or act as an important habitat).

- There are ## invasive plant species (species names) that have formed small colonies. There is still time to eradicate them.

- The bank is eroded in some locations. Mention the signs of erosion you have observed.

To address these important issues for our aquatic ecosystems, I recommend that you: (Select the recommendations most relevant to the problems affecting your site. These are only ideas; feel free to add items that aren’t mentioned here.)

- Install trash cans, especially give a specific location.

- Install ashtrays, especially give a specific location.

- Collect trash cans or ashtrays more frequently.

- Educate site users, for example by erecting an information panel.

- Plant vegetation on the rock embankment.

- Stop cutting the vegetation so close to the shoreline and plant bushes and trees along the shoreline. This will restore of riparian buffer zone functions.

- Get rid of the small population of name of the invasive plant species before it takes over the ecosystem.

I think this site, and our aquatic ecosystems in general, deserve to be protected as much for their ecological value as for their recreational potential. Feel free to give your own reasons why you think it’s important to protect this site.

Given the above, I believe that decisive action is needed to improve the health of this site and of the nearby river or lake.

Yours sincerely,

Signature

Your name