Feature
December
16
Riding the Rim to Save America’s Wetlands
by Michael Segner
Louisiana resident, respiratory therapist and avid Harley Davidson rider, Terry Forrette became an author when he chronicled his three month, 16,500 mile motorcycle odyssey around the rim of the United States in an audacious attempt to raise awareness on the importance of Louisiana’s eroding wetlands.
“Riding the Rim to Save America’s Wetlands” was inspired in the immediate aftermath of Katrina as the motorcycle enthusiast returned to see his town “become a jungle of bent and toppled trees, looking like toothpicks snapped in half by a giant hand.” Soon Forrette would find himself partnered with the America’s Wetland Foundation and the leader of more than 50 motorcycle riders, escorted by New Orleans police, while television cameras captured his dream in action.
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Forrette’s “gift of gab” and New Orleans charm are on display as he educates and informs bikers, environmental organizations, community groups and random passers-by while relentlessly hunting down media opportunities in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Connecticut, Florida, and Alabama. He even threw out the first pitch for the Toledo, Ohio Mud Hens as a councilman declare it “Wetlands Day.”
“The personal and sincere acts of advocacy by Terry Forrette and others are seldom recognized in a time of media hype, but are the backbone of our efforts to show that America cannot afford to lose coastal Louisiana,” said Val Marmillion, Managing Director of the America’s Wetland Foundation.
Nature is forefront in “Riding the Rim to Save America’s Wetland” as Forrette describes the breathtaking California Redwoods and the Great Plains while examining some of today’s most difficult sustainability challenges he finds along his journey including the Siuslaw River, the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Hammonasset State Park and Myakka State Park. After seeing “man’s encroachment on the environment contrasted by his attempts to preserve it,” he concludes we are capable of striking a happy medium and is left optimistic that with enough public commitment and dedication, New Orleans and Louisiana’s wetlands can be restored.
