Louisianans take oil cleanup in own hands as frustration mounts

What Louisiana is doing to control the damage of this oil spill to wildlife is so great, that I'd like to focus on it.

"Frustrated Louisianans took the oil cleanup into their own hands Sunday, heading out in boats to lay protective booms around a bird sanctuary threatened by a black tide.

"We're going out to Cat Island right now where a thousand pelicans are breeding," Billy Nungesser, president of the coastal Plaquemines Parish told AFP.

Some of the birds at the island sanctuary have already been coated in oil and have carried it back to the nests, he said.

While they're not trying to rescue the oiled birds for fear of doing more harm than good, Nungesser said local residents refused to stand idly by as more oil lapped up into the fragile wetland.

"Our crews are out there laying the absorbent boom," he said, adding that he couldn't understand why BP and the Coast Guard weren't doing more to protect his coastal parish.

In neighboring Jefferson Parish an emergency manager commandeered all 40 boom-laying boats hired by BP which were sitting idly at Grand Isle as oil sloshed onto beaches.

Bloggers and callers to a radio talk show cheered the dramatic action late Saturday night, promising the official their votes if he sought elective office.

Even after (hurricane) Katrina, we knew things would eventually get back to normal," Roy said. "With the spill, we're just unsure." Louisianans take oil cleanup in own hands as frustration mounts