Coastal Restoration

Amid More Frequent Bonnet Carré Spillway Openings, Upriver Diversions Can be a Solution

Amid More Frequent Bonnet Carré Spillway Openings, Upriver Diversions Can be a Solution

The unprecedented  2019 Mississippi River flood was a stark reminder of the need to rethink the management of our rivers and how we confront a future with more water coming to Louisiana from the rest of the country. In the last five years, the Army Corps has opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS) five times to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees that protect one million people in Southeast Louisiana.  To identify actionable solutions to confront this new normal, we …

Black Lives Matter

Restore the Mississippi River Delta stands in opposition to all forms of racism, police brutality and violence against Black people and communities. We share our country’s grief and anger over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Modesto Reyes and the countless other Black people whose lives have been brutally taken. Anti-Blackness and Anti-Black racism are systemic issues that exist across all facets of American society, including our own coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana. We pledge to fundamentally …

Hurricane Season Has Started. This Coloring Book Can Help Your Family Prepare.

The arrival of June marks the official start of the 2020 hurricane season. Already, the United States has seen two named storms form in the Atlantic Ocean. The National Hurricane Center also predicts that a tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico near Central America will turn into a tropical storm within the next few days.  This year, NOAA predicted another busy hurricane season — a trend that’s only expected to continue — with 13 to 19 named storms between …

New Study Emphasizes Need for Swift Action to Save Louisiana’s Coast

A recently published coastal study by Tulane researchers made bold predictions and grabbed headlines across the country. Of course, there’s more to a story than its headline, so we wanted to understand what this meant for the future of Louisiana’s coast and ongoing restoration efforts. The study, published last week, reached an all too familiar conclusion — if things continue as they are, Louisiana’s marshes will drown, endangering our ability to continue to live in New Orleans or anywhere south …

It’s Time to Restore the Chandeleur Islands

Ten years after the BP oil disaster, one of the most impacted wildlife areas has yet to receive recovery funding.  The Chandeleur Islands are the Gulf Coast’s most pristine barrier islands, even after the assault of oil in 2010. Established in 1904 as the second national wildlife refuge in the country by the godfather of conservation, President Teddy Roosevelt, the islands have never had a paved road or permanent settlement.  Recreational fishers visit the island after crossing a large bay, …

A Mini-Diversion in Boston is Paving the Way for Louisiana’s Boldest Coastal Project

When imagining people and places linked to restoring coastal Louisiana, a group of scientists and engineers sitting in a lab in the suburbs of Boston probably won’t come to mind.  Yet, that’s exactly where a group of Restore the Mississippi River Delta staff, including me and one 10-year old budding scientist, found ourselves as we  toured an innovative, large-scale physical model of the Mississippi River and the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. Land loss in the Barataria Basin – and throughout southeast …

After Tragedy, These Projects Bring Hope of a Brighter Future

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and leaking more than 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before it was capped 87 days later. The spill oiled large swaths of wetlands and marine habitat, leaving long-lasting harm to the ecosystem. Out of tragedy came an opportunity to invest significantly in addressing Louisiana’s land loss crisis, which the oil spill exacerbated. The state’s land loss crisis threatens the health of entire …

Stunning documentary Last Call for the Bayou now streaming for free

If you’re looking for a genuine Louisiana story, Last Call for the Bayou gives you five. Encompass Films’ independent documentary series offers diverse perspectives from a group of people who care deeply about the coast, streaming for free on the Smithsonian Channel. Each recognizes the threat presented to our culture and their ways of life if huge steps aren’t taken to address our land loss crisis. Crouching in marsh grass with veteran duck hunter Albertine Kimble, one film takes you …

114 community leaders ask the Corps to make a win-win decision for a threatened swamp

More than 100 business, parish and community leaders mobilized over the past few weeks, signing their entities onto a request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to contribute to the state’s River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project to balance what will be lost in the construction of the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain levee.  The widely-supported Maurepas Swamp project aims to deliver sediment and fresh water from the Mississippi River to 45,000 acres existing wetlands and forests in the East …

Lessons from Davis Pond – A Case Study in Adaptive Management

Even with extensive planning and design efforts, when restoration projects are implemented unanticipated impacts may arise. Through adaptive management, an ongoing process of monitoring and adjusting plans based on observed results, agencies can minimize negative effects and maximize the positive ones by making necessary modifications as issues emerge. Adaptive management is particularly useful in contexts where there is uncertainty—regarding how technology will perform, how the environment will react, or how communities will be impacted—that cannot be fully accounted for in …

Using the Mississippi River to Build Land at Fort St. Phillip

The Fort St. Phillip Crevasse in Plaquemines Parish resulted from the Mississippi River Flood of 1973, one of the largest floods ever recorded. Levee failures upriver in St. Louis, Missouri led to three out of four of the lower Mississippi’s floodways being operated to reduce flood pressure against levees, maintain navigation along the river and protect nearby communities. About 20 miles upriver from where the toes of the Mississippi’s Birdsfoot Delta meet the Gulf of Mexico, the river breached the …

4 ways coastal change is impacting Louisiana’s economy

By Dr. Robert Habans, Economist, The Data Center While Louisiana’s challenges with coastal land loss are difficult to understate, billions of dollars of investments in restoration, protection and adaptation are creating emerging, sustainable industries that are increasingly central to the regional economy of Southeast Louisiana. In The Coastal Index, The Data Center examines the potential for coastal restoration and water management investments from an economic development perspective[1]. The design and construction of water infrastructure create good-paying, accessible jobs and contracting …

If you care about our coast or fishing, you should know about Hydrocoast!

Louisiana’s coast is dynamic. This simple but profoundly important trait of coastal Louisiana is largely due to the fact that water is always moving around our coast. This plays out in a variety of ways in our coastal estuaries, where fresh water from the Mississippi River mixes with salty water from the Gulf. Rain falls, and rivers flood fresh water areas. An east wind blows, and an extra high tide pushes salty Gulf water inland. Every day, the tides driven …

New Study Shows Construction of Sediment Diversions Will Deliver Significant Economic Benefits

Construction will increase regional sales by $3 billion and support nearly 4,000 jobs over seven years (NEW ORLEANS, LA – Oct. 16, 2019) A new report released today by Dr. Loren C. Scott & Associates, Inc. details the regional economic impacts of building the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton sediment diversions. The report, “The Economic Impact of Constructing the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion Projects” showcases how local and state businesses, governments and residents will benefit economically during the combined seven-year period …

Maurepas Swamp Diversion Selected as Priority in Gulf Restoration Plan

Project would help sustain world-renowned swamp, provide protection for Baton Rouge and other communities (NEW ORLEANS, LA – October 9, 2019) Today the Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE Council) announced restoration priorities to consider across the Gulf, which included investing in a critical diversion project in Louisiana’s Maurepas Swamp. The River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project would reconnect one of the largest forested wetlands complexes in the nation with the Mississippi River to aid in preventing further wetland loss and …