We like the sound of a new caucus announced this week. The Congressional Estuary Caucus is a bipartisan group focused on the importance of estuaries to the nation's environment, communities, and economy.

Representatives from four coastal states founded the caucus. Bill Posey (Florida), Suzanne Bonamici (Oregon), Frank LoBiondo (New Jersey), and Rick Larsen (Washington) will serve as caucus co-chairs during the 115^th Congress.

Twenty-seven House members have joined the new caucus as of this writing. Maine Representatives Pingree and Poliquin have not signed on… yet. [May 4 Update: Both Maine representatives joined the caucus, which now numbers 40 members.]

Members hope the Congressional Estuary Caucus will unite lawmakers from across the country "in support of these critical ecosystems." The caucus will promote initiatives that play a role in restoring and protecting the health of estuaries.

Update February 2019: The caucus is still active. It even has a website now.

#iHeartEstuaries Success

The estuary caucus formed in the wake of our #iheartestuaries social media campaign, which activated stakeholders from across the country to demonstrate their support for key federal programs that benefit estuaries and the states. Supporters recognized four priority programs for estuary protection and restoration efforts:

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Estuary Program
• NOAA Community-based Restoration Program
• NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System

This joint campaign — the work of Restore America's Estuaries, the Association of National Estuary Programs, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association — reached 1.2 million users on three social media outlets:

• Twitter: 686 posts by 291 users reaching 1,134,616
• Facebook: 238 posts by 99 users reaching over 65,000
• Instagram: 61 posts reaching 37,231

If you posted, thanks! If you're following us, you may have seen our 5 tweets, 2 posts, and 2 'grams. We had a lot of fun following all the posts from other reserves around the country.

Thanks, Restore America's Estuaries, for the news and the graphics.