Community & Events

Remembering Rita: 10 Years Later

Remembering Rita: 10 Years Later

Today, September 24, marks 10 years since Hurricane Rita – the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico – slammed ashore sending a storm surge up to 18 feet in some locations, killing 120 people, damaging areas stretching from Plaquemines to Cameron Parishes and into Texas and causing over $10 billion in damages. Rita demonstrated that the best offense against future storms is strong “Multiple Lines of Defense” that begins with restoring and preserving the wetlands that buffer …

It's a Marathon, not a sprint: Small steps build lasting momentum for comprehensive restoration

By Estelle Robichaux, Restoration Project Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund and Gaby Garcia, Science Intern, Environmental Defense Fund This post is part of a series on early restoration planning in Louisiana. Be sure to check out parts one and two for more information on previous plans. By the early 1990s, Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis had been studied and documented for more than two decades. Successful establishment of the state-level Office of Coastal Restoration and Management and the Wetlands Trust Fund …

Remembering Rita: Ten Years Later

September 24 marks 10 years since Hurricane Rita – the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico – slammed ashore sending a storm surge up to 18 feet in some locations, killing 120 people, damaging areas stretching from Plaquemines to Cameron Parish and into Texas and causing over $10 billion in damages.  Rita demonstrated that the best offense against future storms is strong “Multiple Lines of Defense” that begins with restoring and preserving the wetlands that buffer wind …

Louisiana Needs You: Be An Advocate for Coastal Restoration!

Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis affects us all. Our disappearing coast is an environmental and economic crisis that puts our communities, jobs and way of life at risk. Every hour, our state loses a football field of land. Disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Gulf oil disaster only exacerbate the problem, leaving our homes more vulnerable to storm surge and future disasters. However, there are solutions to address this crisis. Together, we can work to help better …

Conservation Groups Commemorate Katrina Anniversary by Urging President to Prioritize Restoration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Contact: Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, schatzele@nwf.org Elizabeth Van Cleve, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.553.2543, evancleve@edf.org Jacques Hebert, National Audubon Society, 504.264.6849, jhebert@audubon.org Jimmy Frederick, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, 225.767.4181, jimmy.frederick@crcl.org John Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, 504.421.7348, jlopez@saveourlake.org Conservation Groups Commemorate Katrina Anniversary by Urging President Obama to Prioritize Restoration  Coastal Restoration Is Key to City’s Long-Term Resiliency, and Administration Has Opportunities to Advance Efforts (NEW ORLEANS, LA—Aug. 26, 2015) As President Obama and …

The History of Coastal Restoration in Louisiana: More than 40 years of planning

By Estelle Robichaux, Restoration Project Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund and Gaby Garcia, Science Intern, Environmental Defense Fund The damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Louisiana’s bird’s foot delta nearly 10 years ago, brought regional and national attention to the state’s dramatic and ongoing coastal land loss crisis. But this crisis, as well as innovative and large-scale solutions to reverse wetland loss, had been studied, discussed and planned by scientists and decision-makers for decades. In a series of …

Restore the Mississippi River Delta Launches “Restore the Coast” Community Engagement Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   Contact: Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, schatzele@nwf.org Jacques Hebert, National Audubon Society, 504.264.6849, jhebert@audubon.org Elizabeth Van Cleve, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.553.2543, evancleve@edf.org Jimmy Frederick, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, 225.317.2046, jimmy.frederick@crcl.org Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition Launches “Restore the Coast” Community Engagement Campaign Campaign Highlights Important Role Louisiana Leaders Play in Coastal Restoration (August 14, 2015 – NEW ORLEANS) This weekend, the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition is launching the “Restore …

A Decade after Katrina, Groups Issue Recommendations for Community Protection, Restoration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:               Samantha Carter, National Wildlife Federation, 504.264.6831, carters@nwf.org Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, schatzele@nwf.org Raleigh Hoke, Gulf Restoration Network, 573.795.1916, raleigh@healthygulf.org A Resilient, Sustainable New Orleans A Decade after Katrina, Groups Issue Recommendations for Community Protection, Restoration (New Orleans – August 11, 2015) To commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a coalition of local community and conservation advocacy groups working to restore wetlands around the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) released a …

Boil for the Bayou

By Matthew Phillips, Mississippi River Delta Coalition On August 1st, the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign hosted Boil for the Bayou, a coastal restoration expo at Bayou Barriere Golf Course in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. Our inimitable Plaquemines Parish Outreach Coordinator, Philip Russo, planned and coordinated the event for months. In a state with the highest rate of land loss in the contiguous U.S., Plaquemines Parish stands out. Louisiana has lost 25% of its coastal wetlands, and Plaquemines has lost the …

Oysters 101

By Shannon Hood, Environmental Defense Fund Today is National Oyster Day, and we’re celebrating the holiday with a post about these useful and tasty bivalves and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s (UMCES) Horn Point Laboratory, which is growing them by the billions. Previous posts have discussed the ecological and economic importance of oysters, so we won’t spend time on this today. In preparation for a series of other posts on the (r)evolutionary oyster industry, this post will …

Vote Now: Which Coastal Restoration Slogan Should Appear on Dirty Coast Products?

Earlier this month, we put out a call for coastal restoration slogans that could be made into a design to be featured on Dirty Coast t-shirts and other products. We received an overwhelming response of more than 200 highly-creative submissions, making our job of selecting which to feature extremely difficult. So much so that we chose five finalists instead of the originally planned three. They are:  The World Needs More Louisiana Greaux the Delta, Greaux Our Home Save the Boot Let …

Ten Years after Katrina, What the BP Settlement Means for Louisiana Restoration

By Steve Cochran, Director, Mississippi River Delta Restoration Program, Environmental Defense Fund Ten years ago, just after Hurricane Katrina, I was asked to talk to Environmental Defense Fund’s board about the place where I grew up, the New Orleans area that had been hit so hard. I remember two things about that discussion. One was my voice breaking unexpectedly (and embarrassingly) as we talked through pictures of the Katrina aftermath and came across places I intimately knew. As an adult, I …

Lower 9th Ward CSED Creates Environmental Learning & Research Center

By Rachel Pickens, Esq., Resiliency Manager for Coastal Outreach & Community Awareness, Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development “River to the Bayou” is a phrase often spoken by members the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED). When CSED was created in December 2006 by Pam Dashiell and Charles Allen, they envisioned rebuilding a more resilient neighborhood, one that stretches from the Mississippi River to Bayou Bienvenue. Learning from Katrina, they realized that resilience …

We're Partnering with Dirty Coast to Feature YOUR Coastal Restoration Message!

As we approach the 10th anniversaries of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita – a time when we all learned about the importance of the Louisiana coast as a first line of defense against storms – Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition and Dirty Coast are partnering to feature YOUR coastal restoration messages on t-shirts, bags, posters and other snazzy products that will be sold in Dirty Coast’s New Orleans stores and across the web to help raise awareness and support for Louisiana coastal restoration. Louisiana …

TEDxNewOrleans: Examining Recovery and Resiliency in New Orleans 10 Years Post-Katrina

  This Tuesday a group of nearly 200 people gathered at the Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market for a day of talks from a variety of community and business leaders, artists, academics and others as part of the first-ever TedxNewOrleans. While the perspective of each talk varied, resilience and recovery of Greater New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina served as a unifying theme. The talks were spirited, inspirational and truly painted a picture that New Orleans “didn’t just come back, …