Video: Two sides of the river
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This was originally posted by Vanishing Paradise. By Chris Macaluso, Louisiana Wildlife Federation When you invite staff from two of the most prominent outdoors publications in the country to experience south Louisiana’s tremendous fishing, you cross your fingers that the weather will allow you to show off everything the Mississippi River Delta has to offer. Unfortunately, when the staff from Field & Stream and Outdoor Life magazines came to Buras, La., they were greeted by a stiff 20-25 knot wind …
The Next 50 Years: Funding features for the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan
By Cynthia Duet, Director of Governmental Relations, National Audubon Society Louisiana’s recently passed 2012 Coastal Master Plan contains an ambitious mix of risk-reduction and restoration projects spread across the entire Louisiana coastal area. Such ambition does, however, come with a price — costing an estimated $50 billion over 50 years, and so the plan is also frank in its account of the uncertainties and complexities of funding and creating a sustainable coastal Louisiana ecosystem. To reverse generations of massive and …
RESTORE Act: A momentous victory for conservation
By Brian Moore, Legislative Director, National Audubon Society Last Friday (July 6), President Obama signed into law the Surface Transportation Extension Act that included the RESTORE Act. This landmark legislation will direct 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP and others responsible for the 2010 gulf oil spill to the Gulf Coast states to use for restoration. The House and Senate passed the bill on June 29. This legislation is truly historic – the RESTORE Act …
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 …
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 …
Coastal restoration as a climate change adaptation strategy
By Meg Sutton, Environmental Defense Fund Global climate change has induced an increase in global mean sea level with a 3.1 mm/year average rate of increase since 1991[1]. Climate projections indicate a widespread increase of more intense precipitation events, with an associated increased risk of flooding. Similarly, climate scientists also predict an increase in hurricane wind speed and total volume. The low lying, coastal Mississippi River Delta region is particularly vulnerable to the climate change threats of sea level rise, …
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 …
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 …