Project to Restore Maurepas Swamp Takes One Important Step Forward
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Army Corps releases plan selecting Maurepas restoration project as mitigation for nearby levee construction. Overview of Maurepas Swamp As one of the largest forested wetlands in the nation, Maurepas Swamp provides important ecological and socioeconomic benefits to southeast Louisiana. The swamp not only improves water quality and habitat for many species of conservation importance, but also increases resilience against storms for coastal communities from the Greater New Orleans region to the River Parishes and up into Greater Baton Rouge. However, …
Announcing Simone Maloz as Restore the Mississippi River Delta’s Campaign Director
These last few months have made it abundantly clear that Louisiana needs its coast now more than ever. Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated our state more than 15 years ago, there has been considerable progress to implement the Coastal Master Plan, resulting in increased flood protection for more people and businesses, restored habitat for fish and wildlife, as well as the creation of jobs and the restoration economy. However, much work remains, and the coming years will see some …
Building a More Resilient New Orleans
Katie Donahue – City of NOLA, Office of Resilience and Sustainability With Ida recovery ongoing, we are all intensely aware that New Orleans has a lot on the line when it comes to restoring coastlines and protecting communities from land loss and climate change impacts. They city’s very existence is at stake. Strategic, collaborative, and innovative solutions are essential to our continued progress. In 2018, Tulane University and the National Wildlife Federation released recommendations for the City of New Orleans’ …
Knowledge is Power: Introducing a New Guide to Coastal Restoration!
Restore the Mississippi River Delta is proud to present our “Community Guide to Coastal Restoration.” This is a quick reference guide to help you -whether you are new to coastal restoration or very familiar with it – better understand and navigate the web of entities, decision-makers, and funding sources involved in the restoration of our coast. It is available both online, and as a physical booklet. Many in Louisiana are familiar with the land loss crisis the state is facing. We often …
Virtual Meetings to Provide Information and Resources on Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion
On March 5, 2021, the Army Corps of Engineers released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion for public review, triggering a 60-day comment period. The Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group (LATIG) also released a draft Restoration Plan identifying how the project will help restore the ecosystem in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But where does my voice fit in? Coming in at over 5000 pages, consisting of 10 …
Soaring Above Louisiana’s Coast Shows How We Can Restore It
Ben Depp is a New Orleans-based landscape photographer and National Geographic Society Explorer. He has photographed many parts of Louisiana’s coast, capturing with amazing detail the beautiful and haunting details of our disappearing swamps, marshes and barrier islands. Last year, Ben was featured in the nationally-distributed documentary series “Last Call for the Bayou” in the episode, “On a Wing and a Prayer,” which detailed the urgency of the state’s land loss crisis and his unique process for documenting it. I …
Without the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the Future for Louisiana’s Barataria Basin is Bleak
Louisiana’s land loss crisis is dire and will significantly worsen without investments in large-scale coastal restoration and protection projects. Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands. Without action, the state could lose double that amount — an additional 4,000 square miles of land – in the next 50 years. This future scenario, commonly referred to as Future Without Action (FWOA), underscores why Louisiana has literally no time to lose in constructing coastal projects that can …
CWPPRA Provides Lessons for Applying Adaptive Management Across Louisiana’s Coast
Adaptive management has become an important tool for natural resource managers tasked with running complex systems in the face of growing uncertainty. It relies on a framework that continually updates management decisions based on the ongoing monitoring of data. This framework can apply to a variety of projects, including those designed to protect and restore coastal habitat. Louisiana’s massive coastal restoration efforts are a classic example of an elaborate and ever-changing landscape that calls for such an approach. For example, …
Virtual Tour Highlights Importance of Wetlands for Coastal Cities
The Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), National Audubon Society, and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) are proud to release a virtual tour highlighting how a healthy coast is integral to a healthy community. Told through local voices, the tour examines key areas and infrastructure surrounding the Lower 9th Ward that provide protection from damaging winds and water driven by tropical storms and hurricanes. This video is one effort in a series aimed at …
How Social Science can Inform Engineers Working on Coastal Restoration
Growing up in Minnesota, I loved swimming and kayaking along the Mississippi River. This summer, as part of my EDF internship I learned about life 2,000 miles downriver in Louisiana. To both Minnesota and Louisiana, the Mississippi River is culturally and economically important, but also poses risks that will worsen as climate change progresses. In high school, I remember stuffing and laying sandbags to protect my teacher’s home from flooding ahead of a storm. And storms like those are expected …
Find Out Your Home or Business’s Flood Risk With This Tool
Living in southeast Louisiana almost certainly means living with water. A new national database has provided us with even more tools to help you determine your home’s flood risk. The First Street Foundation’s Flood Factor site lets you type in an address and gives you a risk rating scored on a 10-point scale. When I tried out the tool for my New Orleans apartment, it gave my address a four out of 10, or what it called a “Moderate Flood …
We Want Your Grandma’s Famous Oyster Dressing Recipe
A couple of months ago after we had all been sent home to work remotely and we began adjusting to life in this bizarre new world, I found myself spending more time in my kitchen than ever before. I fell victim to the bread-making craze. I joined a good, old-fashioned recipe exchange email chain to share and receive new recipes from strangers to keep things interesting in the kitchen. I obsessively grew radishes, lettuce, kale, and peppers in my garden, …
Coastal Groups Mourn the Loss of Pioneering Scientist Dr. Sherwood “Woody” Gagliano
The renowned scientist was one of the first to document and alert the world to Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis Last week, Louisiana’s science and coastal communities lost a great mind and advocate in the fight to address the state’s coastal land loss crisis. Dr. Sherwood “Woody” Gagliano was one of the first Louisiana State University scientists to document that the state was experiencing a net wetland loss at a time when many assumed the coast was gaining land. His …
#LaLeg: How Coastal Issues Fared During This Year’s Session
Get Involved! The scoping meetings for the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion are next week and the Army Corps is looking for your feedback. Be a part of the process, and learn more about how you can get involved! No legislative session is the same, but this session took it a step further. The session also began right as coronavirus cases were on the rise in the U.S. The day the session opened, Louisiana recorded its first COVID-19 case. By week’s end, …
Your Voice is Needed: Why and How to Participate in the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion Scoping Process
Skip to a section What is ‘Scoping’? Podcast: Scoping Out the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion How to Participate in Mid-Breton Scoping How to submit your official scoping comments and questions Additional Resources One of the cornerstone projects the State of Louisiana deems most central to the future of the Mississippi River Delta is, after over 35 years of planning, hitting a major milestone. The Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion project is officially in the scoping period, which means the public has an opportunity …