House Committee Praised for Holding Hearing on Gulf Restoration
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Hearing follows two new reports recommending Congress use oil spill fines to restore Gulf (Washington, D.C.—Dec. 7, 2011) Groups supporting restoration of the Gulf Coast today thanked House leaders on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for drawing attention to the benefits of the RESTORE Gulf Coast States Act of 2011 by holding a committee hearing on the bill today at 10am. The RESTORE Act would ensure that fines paid by BP and the other parties responsible for last year’s Gulf …
Tagged EconomicsLouisiana Seafood Reveals New Look and Marketing Strategy to Boost Brand Post-Oil Spill
By Chris Pulaski, National Wildlife Federation Louisiana seafood is getting a whole new look. On November 16, the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board (Louisiana Seafood) held a stakeholder summit in Houma, LA to update the region’s producers, distributors and retailers on the state of Louisiana seafood 18 months after the BP oil spill. Representatives introduced Louisiana Seafood’s new branding and marketing strategy—developed as part of BP’s $30 million payment for the promotion of Gulf seafood—as well as the new …
NWF Releases Comprehensive Guide to Louisiana Nonstructural Programs
Over the past few months, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has contracted the National Hazard Mitigation Association (NHMA) to develop a white paper report that captures the state of nonstructural mitigation in Louisiana. The report, “Safe, Secure, and Sustainable: Advancing Nonstructural Hazard Mitigation in Coastal Louisiana,” describes the challenges and impediments that have plagued the nonstructural programs of the past and provides recommendations to improve programs at both the local implementation and national policy levels. Report appendices include a 300-page comprehensive …
Tagged ReportsNew Orleans Restoration Project Will Increase Resiliency, Create Jobs
By Elizabeth Skree, Environmental Defense Fund On Nov. 10, the City of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish broke ground on the important and innovative $10 million Central Wetlands Assimilation Project. On hand for the ceremony were New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro, members of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board and approximately 75 others representing community organizations, environmental non-profits and other interested parties. All agree the project is a critical first step towards …
Tagged EconomicsNutria Festival Showcases New Uses for Louisiana’s Most-Infamous Rodent
By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation Nutria. Marsh-muncher. Coypu. Swamp rat. “That critter with the big orange teeth.” Call it what you want, but this invasive, semi-aquatic rodent has been dining on Louisiana’s precious wetlands since the 1930s. And although the State of Louisiana pays a bounty of five dollars per tail, nutria still managed to destroy over 6,000 acres of Louisiana wetlands last year alone. So on November 5th, Righteous Fur celebrated its 3rd annual “Nutria-Palooza! on the Bayou” in …
Gulf Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Provides Restoration Opportunities
By Whit Remer, Environmental Defense Fund Policymakers, scientists, and environmental advocates gathered earlier this month in Baltimore, Md. to explore the long-term impacts that oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon may have on natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The symposium titled, “NRDA for the Gulf: Improving Our Ability to Quantify Chronic Damages,” highlighted both the challenges and opportunities of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA). NRDA is the scientific and legal process used by the government to restore natural …
Task Force Restoration Strategy Important to Coastal Louisiana
By Maura Wood, National Wildlife Federation The preliminary version of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force’s Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy document was a key agenda item before the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) at its Oct. 19th meeting. The Task Force, established by a presidential Executive Order over a year ago, was charged with drafting a restoration and recovery strategy for the Gulf that addressed impacts from the oil spill as well as the pre-oil …
Nickelodeon Video Highlights Chalmette Students' Coastal Restoration Efforts
By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation Nickelodeon’s “The Big Help” teamed up with National Wildlife Federation (NWF) for Earth Day 2011 to spotlight outstanding students making a difference in their communities through environmental stewardship. Sure enough, the search for awesome kids ended in St. Bernard Parish, where students in Chalmette High School’s Leadership Initiative have planted over 50,000 cypress trees since Hurricane Katrina. The students, who experienced first-hand the massive destruction of Katrina and the BP oil disaster, are very much …
Inaugural Summit Sets the Stage for Bayou Lafourche Master Plan
By Chris Pulaski, National Wildlife Federation The Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District Commission hosted its first Bayou Lafourche Summit on October 10-17 at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. The purpose of the multi-day summit was to provide the public with an opportunity to identify the issues and solutions for the Commission to consider as they begin developing their master plan for the future of the Bayou Lafourche corridor. The Commission hired All South Consulting Engineers to help conduct the …
Volunteer Opportunity: Beach Restoration at Elmer’s Island, October 19-20
By Seyi Fayanju, Environmental Defense Fund Want a peek at what barrier island restoration looks like? Thanks to the Bayou Land Resource Conservation & Development Council and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, you’ll have a chance to see it first-hand and get your hands dirty in the process at a two-day volunteer event scheduled to take place today and tomorrow on Elmer’s Island. Volunteers will be working with organization staff on sand fence installation and dune grass planting projects …
Video: New Orleans community members tour local restoration projects
By Happy Johnson, National Wildlife Federation On September 9, life-long community residents and civic leaders from New Orleans’ Historic Lower 9th Ward took a boat tour of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Surge Barrier (IHNC), to see the structure up close and engage in discussions with local non-profit representatives about the critical importance of hurricane protection and ecosystem restoration. The tour was sponsored by the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), Lake Pontchatrain Basin Foundation, Gulf Restoration …
From the Delta to the Headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi
This piece is originally posted on the Vanishing Paradise blog. By Ben Weber, National Wildlife Federation We have to push for practices that do what is right for people, industry, commerce, and habitat. In my mind, restoring the Mississippi River Delta is the next piece of the puzzle in a long fight to protect waterfowl habitat. A few weeks ago I left my home in south Louisiana, as I often do, to travel the country and spread the word about the …
Orleans Landbridge restoration project deemed a "Win-Win-Win"
By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation At a news conference on August 17, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced that important work was beginning on the Orleans Landbridge Shoreline Protection and Marsh Creation Project. The project will help protect the marsh that separates Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, which is retreating at an alarming average of 7.7 feet per year. In an exciting twist, this project will recycle more than 200,000 tons of crushed concrete …
Coastal Restoration and Job Creation: A Win-Win
By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation Last Friday in the remote town of Davant, Louisiana (on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish), more than 100 people who care about the coast spent the day engaging in a productive dialogue about coastal restoration and protection. The forum, “Getting the Water Right, Getting the Jobs Right,” brought together fishermen, environmental NGOs, community and faith-based organizations, coastal engineering firms, academics, workforce development organizations as well as local, state and …
Tagged EconomicsLouisiana Parish Officials and NGOs Work Together to Develop a Strategy for Large-Scale Restoration
By Chris Pulaski, National Wildlife Federation Restore or Retreat and the National Wildlife Federation hosted the first “Lafourche and Terrebonne Allied Restoration Summit for Non-Governmental Organizations” on August 3 in Houma, La. The summit was designed to facilitate a discussion on how and where the local, state and federal non-governmental organization (NGO) community can work with Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes to achieve common restoration goals for large-scale projects. Several of the NGOs present agreed to participate in further detailed discussions with …