Hurricanes & Oil Spills

Gulf Restoration Groups Call on Oil Spill Trustees to Run Open Process

Gulf Restoration Groups Call on Oil Spill Trustees to Run Open Process

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 Rachel Guillory, Ocean Conservancy, 504.208.5816, rguillory@oceanconservancy.org Andrew Blejwas, The Nature Conservancy, 617.785.7047, ablejwas@tnc.org  Gulf Restoration Groups Call on Oil Spill Trustees to Run Open Process Standard Operating Procedures for Spending $7.1 Billion in Funding Should Engage Public  (New Orleans – February 23, 2016) Gulf restoration advocates are calling on federal agencies to increase …

$52.2 million in oil spill funds approved for Louisiana coastal restoration

Last week, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration (RESTORE) Council approved its first Funded Priorities List (FPL) of projects and programs to fund with civil penalties available from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Transocean settlement. This is an important step forward for the entire Gulf Coast that is still recovering from the spill. In particular for the Mississippi River Delta, the FPL demonstrates both the state of Louisiana’s commitment to funding Coastal Master Plan projects with RESTORE dollars and progress in …

RESTORE Council Votes to Approve Priority List of Gulf Restoration Projects for Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RESTORE Council Votes to Approve Priority List of Gulf Restoration Projects for Funding (December 9, 2015 – Biloxi, Miss.) Today, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration (RESTORE) Council voted to approve its first Funded Priorities List (FPL) – a compilation of restoration projects the Council will prioritize for funding and implementation following the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. This set of projects will be funded by a portion of RESTORE Act dollars designated for ecosystem restoration from the Transocean …

What We Know Now About the BP Oil Disaster

This post has been cross-posted from the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Promise blog. It’s been more than five years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. Since that time, a council of federal and state Trustees have been extensively investigating the impacts of the disaster on wildlife and habitats, but that information has been kept under wraps—for use in litigation against BP. Now that the case has settled, this research has finally been made public in a draft Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan. …

Louisiana Wins!

Louisiana Wins! With a flurry of last minute discussions among members of our campaign, America’s Wetland Foundation, the LA-1 Coalition, and the CPRA Board – we were able to come to an agreement that replaced the original draft resolution that would have diverted coastal restoration money to LA-1, with a resolution directing CPRA staff to develop a prioritization process for coastal infrastructure projects that could spend up to 10% of available funds under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act …

CRCL Leads the Largest One-Day Volunteer Restoration Effort to Commemorate Hurricane Rita

By Jimmy Frederick, Communications Director, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana Ten years ago the beaches of Cameron Parish were under 15 feet of Gulf of Mexico water as Hurricane Rita slammed ashore. Rita was the second major hurricane to hit Coastal Louisiana in less than a month in 2005 and was, in fact, stronger than Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall. The storm surge inundated coastal communities as far inland as Lake Charles and left thousands of homes and businesses …

Conservation Groups Pleased to See Gulf Restoration Efforts Advance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Elizabeth Van Cleve, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.553.2543, evancleve@edf.org Jacques Hebert, National Audubon Society, 504.264.6849, jhebert@audubon.org Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, schatzele@nwf.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 Pleased to See Gulf Restoration Efforts Advance NRDA Trustees Release 1,500-Page Draft Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (NEW ORLEANS – October 5, 2015) Today, the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees released …

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 …

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 …

Katrina 10 – A Coastal View of Katrina Ten Years Later

This week marks a decade since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing nearly 2,000 people and devastating communities and coastal wetlands. Louisiana has come a long way in the past 10 years in restoring coastal areas that act as a natural buffer against storm surge – but there is still much work to do to achieve comprehensive restoration that can protect our communities from future storms. Below is a look at some of the damage caused …

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 …

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 …