There’s no question that marketing can help a cause.

If the caretakers of Long Island Sound really want to crank up the efforts to save the estuary, they need to get people thinking of it as one of the great things about this country, and not just a regional asset.

That was the message from John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society, when he spoke at the Long Island Sound Citizens Summit on Saturday.

“Long Island Sound defines this area like San Francisco Bay or Central Park� define their surroundings, he said.

That national awareness the strategy was what helped save the Everglades in Florida, he said. Advocates stopped thinking about the area as the “Florida Everglades,� and billed them as a national treasure (if a hot and sticky one.)

Long Island Sound contributes $5.5 billion annually to the regional economy in fishing, recreation and other aspects, according to the Long Island Sound Study, which is the joint effort to save the sound organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office in Stamford.

And what happens here ripples outward, Flicker said.

“If the economy of this region sneezes, the rest of the country is going to catch a cold,� he said.

The annual summit is a chance to talk about all things Long Island Sound and then some.

The theme of this one, held at Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, was a federal law passed last year authorizing the spending of up to $25 million a year on “stewardship programs.� Generally, that means programs that help the sound by cleaning up or protecting the land around it. Think habitat restoration, where the workers recreate or protect natural habitats, preventing development there.

But environmental groups use the chance to bring brochures boasting of a variety of programs in the area. The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center’s “Sponsor an Animal� program is just one example.

The stewardship law joins the Long Island Sound Restoration Act, which authorizes the federal government to spend up to $40 million a year on projects that more directly clean the water.

But don’t expect the feds to pour $65 million into Long Island Sound improvement projects every year. That’s not how the government does things.

It works like this: Congress passes a bill authorizing itself to spend a certain amount, up to $25 million in this case. But authorizing it doesn’t mean it’s allocated. Far from it.

Each year, the Congress members interested in the issue then struggle to get as much of that money as they can.
It doesn’t come close to the maximum.

For instance, of the $40 million maximum authorized under the Long Island Sound Restoration Act, just over $2.7 million was actually included in the federal budget for 2006-07.

Much of the talk in the summit was about how to get more money to actually come down the pipeline. Attendees saw some hope in the appointment of U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a Long Island Democrat who is a co-chairman of the Long Island Sound Congressional Caucus, to the House Appropriations Commitee.

Israel spoke at the summit, as did U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who also co-chairs the caucus.
Shays told the environmental activists “you are an amazing army,� and said he had seen the environment to rise to the top of national issues, something he’d expected some 10 years ago.

“It’s overdue, but thank God it’s here,� he said.