ENROLLED
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 229
BY REPRESENTATIVE ST. GERMAIN
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the United States Board on Geographic Names to name the entrance of
Buffalo Cove in the Atchafalaya Basin as Skerrett Point and to authorize and request
the Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of Natural
Resources to take any action necessary to propose this commemorative name
proposal to the United States Board on Geographic Names.
WHEREAS, the Atchafalaya Basin is America's largest river swamp at one hundred
miles long and covers approximately eight hundred thousand acres; and
WHEREAS, the Atchafalaya is home to over one hundred different species of fish
and aquatic life, sixty-five species of reptiles and amphibians, and two hundred fifty known
species of birds, as well as the largest crop of wild crawfish in the world; and
WHEREAS, the Atchafalaya contains the largest continuous bottomland hardwood
forest in the nation and is the only land-developing river delta in North America, which is
only one of six in the world; and
WHEREAS, the value of the basin's fish, wildlife, and related recreational resources
has been estimated at over one hundred million dollars annually and the value of the oil and
gas, timber, and shipping is equal to that figure; and
WHEREAS, the Atchafalaya is an important floodway, carrying one-third of the
waters of the Mississippi River, beginning below Natchez, safely to the Gulf of Mexico,
protecting the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans from potential flooding; and
WHEREAS, the state of Louisiana, working with several federal agencies, began
efforts in the 1970s to enhance and promote the Atchafalaya, and those efforts have
continued until the present day; and
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WHEREAS, one of the areas selected for project enhancement by the state of
Louisiana and the United States Army Corps of Engineers was Buffalo Cove; and
WHEREAS, B. E. M. "Ben" Skerret, III, Lafayette businessman, avid sportsman,
an original member of Governor W. Fox McKeithen's 1971 Governor's Commission on the
Atchafalaya Basin, and icon in the decades-long effort to preserve the basin, was
instrumental in the selection of Buffalo Cove as a project site; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Skerrett was cited as a recipient of the 42nd Governor's State
Conservation Achievement Award for his passion to preserve the Atchafalaya Basin, and
particularly, his efforts to implement the Buffalo Cove Water Management Unit as a means
of restoring the water quality and productivity to that popular basin fishing ground; and
WHEREAS, the groundbreaking for the Buffalo Cove project was December 2,
2005, only a few short weeks after his death.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the United States Board on Geographic Names to name the entrance of
Buffalo Cove in the Atchafalaya Basin as Skerrett Point and to authorize and request the
Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of Natural Resources
to take any action necessary to propose this commemorative name proposal to the United
States Board on Geographic Names.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to the executive secretary of the United States Board on Geographic Names and the
secretaries of the Department of Transportation and Development and the Department of
Natural Resources.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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