national wildlife federation. you returned from a firsthand survey of the area. this is an emotional experience and emotional year for all of you involved in wild life in the region. what have you found with this assessment? well, it is emotional. it s very difficult to go out into the gulf one year later and what we were seeing yesterday in the survey we did was oil about an inch thick on the borders of the wetlands. what this was doing is killing the vegetation, making these areas more prone to washing away, erosion, and continued destruction of the wetlands that are in this area. these wetlands are what are critically important to the seafood in the area as well as the sport fishing. that s right. not only that, but it s also where species, very prized species like the brown pelican nest. there have been accounts of you see them in the wetlands that once used to be green and lush and now brown and straggling or skraglily they re describing it. and washing away. so what is th