04/18/2026
BRAS LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
HB 851, banning mass balloon releases, was favorably referred from the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on April 15. It is scheduled for a floor vote in the Senate on Monday, April 20. Contact your senators!
A sample email is provided below:
Senator _________:
The Baton Rouge Audubon Society is a birdwatching and conservation organization of about 500 members. We are proud to own two wildlife sanctuaries, Peveto Woods in Cameron Parish and the Amite River Wildlife Sanctuary, a 36 acre preserve in Ascension Parish near Port Vincent. HB851, scheduled for a vote Monday, April 20, would prohibit the intentional outdoor release of filled balloons and impose a fine on anyone caught doing so. Balloon releases are a particularly egregious form of litter because what goes up must eventually come down, with catastrophic consequences for birds, fish, and other wildlife.
In sum:
1. Balloons negatively impact the environment by littering lakes, streams, and beaches. It is basically the same as intentionally throwing trash into the ocean or the ground.
2. Even balloons marketed as biodegradable or eco-friendly can still take years to disintegrate. This means that they are not better for the environment than standard balloons.
3. When balloons make their way into the water, their floating pieces and tattered ends can resemble jellyfish or other sea life that is consumed by marine animals like fish, sea turtles, and dolphins. When the pieces of latex or Mylar are mistaken for food and are ingested, they can get lodged in the digestive tract, inhibiting the animal's ability to eat, and it can cause a slow and painful death by starvation.
4. Wildlife and domestic farm animals can also fall victim to balloons and its strings when the pieces fall to the ground or onto bushes and trees. Birds have been found injured with ribbons wrapped around their wings or beaks, and have strangled themselves when they become entangled in strings that are attached to power lines and trees. And just like marine animals, they can succumb to a painful death after ingesting balloons.
5. Entergy Louisiana has raised alarms about Mylar balloons, which are metallic and can cause dangerous electrical surges or outages when they contact power lines or transformers. A high-profile outage occurred in New Orleans in August 2024, when a Mylar balloon caused a power flicker at a water treatment plant, leading to a boil water advisory for nearly 370,000 residents.
LSU Professor Richard Condrey, Baton Rouge Audubon Society conservation chair, has been active for many years trying to address this issue, and BRAS supports this initiative. The bill is backed by the Lt. Governor's office, the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, the Louisiana Ornithological Society, the Louisiana Retailer's Association, and the Louisiana Cattlemen's Association. Please support this vital environmental reform.
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