Your Tax Donation Makes a Big Difference
Sunny
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California’s sea otters are as iconic a part of our coastline as surfers on boards riding the waves. Just seeing the otters playing with delight in the ocean and diving for abalone and mussels will put a smile on your face.
Happy as they appear,
though, the otters need your help. Over the years their population has dropped
considerably due to hunting, disease, pollution, oil spills, and more.
In 1977 sea otters became a
protected group under the Endangered Species Act and since then their
population has stabilized at around 3,000.
Now that it’s tax season you
can help the otters simply by designating a voluntary contribution to
them on your tax form. If each person gives a little, it can make a big
difference to the otters.
SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel talked to Dana Michaels, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to find out more. Michaels explained, “The voluntary tax check-off program makes it easy to help the otters and other endangered species.”
SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel talked to Dana Michaels, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to find out more. Michaels explained, “The voluntary tax check-off program makes it easy to help the otters and other endangered species.”
There are
two programs in particular that Michaels pointed out.
Both programs
are listed in the “Contributions” section of your California State Tax Form: California Sea Otter Fund, Line 410, and
Rare
and Endangered Species Preservation Program, Line 403.
Michaels
emphasized, “Thanks to people who make these voluntary contributions on their
tax form we can save important wildlife research programs that benefit
everyone.”
The California Sea Otter Fund provides
crucial funding to help scientists learn about and trace the causes of sea
otter mortality, examine the factors limiting population growth, and prevent
pollution of California's marine ecosystem.
This fund
is especially critical now, given that the bad economy has decreased or even
eliminated support for sea otter conservation and research.
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The Rare and Endangered Species Preservation
Program helps ensure that critical habitat for California’s endangered
plants and animals is conserved for future generations.
Did you
know that California supports more than 5,000 native plants and more than 1,000
native animals? At least one-third of these plants and two-thirds of the
animals are “endemic species” – species that are found nowhere else in the
world.
But, many
of these species have been pushed to the brink of extinction and more than 300
are designated by the state as rare,
threatened or endangered. Some of the reasons for this include loss of
habitat, water management conflicts, invasive species, hunting, and climate
change.
These
animals and plants are part of our heritage and need our support. By donating whatever
you can to the Rare and Endangered
Species Preservation Program you can help save California’s wildlife.
In talking to Michaels, SurfWriter Girls were reminded that, in helping
the sea otters and other endangered species in the wild, we are also helping
ourselves since we are all mutually dependent on each other.
“In wildness is
the preservation of the world.”
Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
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Thank you Sunny and Patti for providing the information listed above. It is the work of individuals such as yourselves that make the world a better place. Keep up the fantastic work and I salute you.
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