Senator Landrieu visits Louisiana coastal communities, celebrates passage of RESTORE Act
← Older posts Newer posts →Senator Landrieu visits Louisiana coastal communities, celebrates passage of RESTORE Act
By Amanda Moore and Happy Johnson, National Wildlife Federation Yesterday (July 9), U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) kicked off a five-stop Louisiana coastal tour to celebrate the historic passage and signing into law of the RESTORE Act. Stops included Jean Lafitte, Thibodaux, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Bell City. Staff from the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign were on hand in Lafitte as the senior senator from Louisiana thanked the crowd for the time and energy spent achieving this momentous victory for …
Profiles in Resilience: Ecology and Environment, Inc.
This is the next in our “Profiles in Resilience” series, highlighting companies that work on coastal restoration in the Mississippi River Delta and Gulf Coast. By Audrey Payne, Environmental Defense Fund Ecology and Environment, Inc. (E & E) is an environmental consulting firm that was founded in 1970 and prides itself on its ability to get “the most environmental bang for your buck.” A few of their projects include helping countries around the world write environmental policy; working on environmental …
Tagged EconomicsThe 2012 State of the Coast Conference: Incorporating Louisiana’s past, present and future
By Meg Sutton, Environmental Defense Fund Last week, scientists, engineers, community leaders, policymakers, business owners and other coastal interests gathered in New Orleans for the 2012 State of the Coast Conference. The event was organized by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) and Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) with the mission of providing a forum in which to learn about advances in coastal science and engineering and to ensure that this knowledge is applied to current and …
The Next 50 Years: Nonstructural storm protection
By Brian Jackson, Associate Director – Stakeholder Engagement, Environmental Defense Fund Last month, the Louisiana Legislature passed the 2012 Coastal Master Plan, capping off years of public engagement and analysis. The 50-year plan lays out a bold path of projects and programs to restore the environment and protect the people, economies and environment of the Mississippi River Delta. The total cost of the plan is $50 billion, of which $10.2 billion is dedicated to nonstructural risk reduction measures. So what …
Groups Commend Louisiana Congressional Supporters on Passage of RESTORE Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Chris Macaluso, Louisiana Wildlife Federation, 225.802.4048, chris@lawildlifefed.org Elizabeth Skree, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.553.2543, eskree@edf.org Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, guidrye@nwf.org Karen Gautreaux, The Nature Conservancy, 225.788.4525, kgautreaux@tnc.org Kevin Chandler, National Audubon Society, 202.596.0960, kchandler@audubon.org Scott Madere, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, 225.767.4181, scottm@crcl.org GROUPS COMMEND LOUISIANA CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORTERS ON PASSAGE OF RESTORE ACT Legislation restoring Gulf Coast ecosystems and economy included in Transportation Bill (Baton Rouge, La. – June 29, 2012) Today, local and national …
Groups Commend Congress on RESTORE Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Elizabeth Skree, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.553.2543, eskree@edf.org Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, guidrye@nwf.org Kevin Chandler, National Audubon Society, 202.596.0960, kchandler@audubon.org Heather Layman, The Nature Conservancy, 703.475.1733, hlayman@tnc.org David Willett, Ocean Conservancy, 202.351.0465, dwillett@oceanconservancy.org Mary Babic, Oxfam America, 617.517.9475, mbabic@oxfamamerica.org GROUPS COMMEND CONGRESS ON RESTORE ACT Legislation restoring Gulf Coast ecosystems and economy included in transportation bill (Washington, D.C. – June 28, 2012) Local and national conservation groups have issued the following joint statement in response to the Senate and House …
Tagged ReportsProfiles in Resilience: Biohabitats, Inc.
This piece builds on the “Profiles in Resilience” series started on Environmental Defense Fund’s Restoration and Resilience blog. Please check back here for future installments. By Audrey Payne, Environmental Defense Fund “Restoring the earth, one community at a time.…” This tagline appears on the website of Biohabitats, Inc., an ecologically-driven company based in Baltimore, Md. Biohabitats specializes in conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design and does restoration work in the Everglades, Big Cypress and Tampa Bay, Fla.; Texas and …
Tagged EconomicsNRDA Trustees should consider long-term sustainability of wetland creation projects
By Whit Remer, Policy Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund In late April, the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees finalized the first phase of projects to address Gulf Coast environmental damage caused by the 2010 oil disaster. The trustees are a group of federal and state representatives charged with overseeing environmental restoration following the oil spill. The project document, known as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Phase I Early Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment (ERP/EA), comes on the heels …
On the first day of hurricane season, a call for coastal restoration
By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation Water. Flashlight. Batteries. Canned food. It’s hurricane season. In coastal Louisiana, we’ll keep a close eye on the weather until November — hoping to dodge each swirling white storm that crops up on the radar. As the world witnessed in 2005 during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana is dangerously vulnerable to strong storms. One major reason for our vulnerability is the collapse of coastal wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta in southern Louisiana. Since the 1930s, due …
Louisiana residents: Call your state senator NOW before session ends!
“I oppose the Senate Finance Committee amendment to House Bill 812. Money from the BP oil spill should be used for coastal restoration and not be redirected for ‘other purposes.’ Please support the House passed versions of HB 812 and HB 838.” Call the state Senate office today (225) 342-2040 and ask to be connected to your senator (you can give them your address if you don’t know who he or she is) and relay the message above. Once you’ve …
More than 100 Gulf Coast cities, municipalities, economic development groups and chambers of commerce urge Congress to pass RESTORE Act
Yesterday, 118 leaders representing cities, municipalities, economic development groups and chambers of commerce from all five gulf states sent a joint letter to House and Senate leadership urging them to pass the RESTORE Act. If passed, the RESTORE Act would direct the majority of fines paid by those responsible for the 2010 gulf oil spill back to Gulf Coast communities. Both the Senate and House have passed versions of the RESTORE Act as part of their transportation bills. The legislation …
Louisiana Senate Finance Committee actions could derail future coastal restoration funding
A proposed constitutional amendment introduced this week in the Louisiana Legislature that would require fines from the gulf oil spill to go into a coastal protection and restoration fund has been radically changed while under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee. The committee added language in the form of an amendment offered by Senator Edwin Murray in coordination with Senate President John Alario that would give legislators authority to redirect money to other pursuits, effectively derailing the intent of the …
Hurricane season: Remembering the past and protecting the future
By Audrey Payne, Environmental Defense Fund To mark the beginning of the 2012 hurricane season on June 1, the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign will launch a social media event to bring awareness to the importance of storm protection and wetland restoration as a line of defense against storm surge. With another storm season upon us, it’s hard not to think about the possibility of another destructive storm — like Hurricane Katrina or Rita — sweeping across the delta or …
Groups to Louisiana Legislature: Ensure oil spill fines are used for coastal restoration
Earlier this week, the Louisiana Legislature finalized passage of the 2012 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan. This landmark document lays out a bold, science-based vision for restoring the state’s vanishing coastline. The suite of restoration projects included in the plan promises to ease and then reverse the state’s staggering land-loss rates over the course of 50 years. However, this aggressive undertaking is not inexpensive. Projected costs for the plan total some $50 billion. But the state has a lifeline in the …
Restoring the Lower 9th Ward: A resilient vision for New Orleans
This post was originally published on the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Promise blog. By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation’s Coastal Louisiana Organizer in New Orleans What would you do if, in one day, you lost everything? I’m not just talking about your personal possessions; I’m talking about your entire community — your church, your grocery store, your school. The folks you meet in the video below, Warrenetta Banks and John Taylor, have lived out this scenario every day since Hurricane …