Volunteer Opportunity: Beach Restoration at Elmer’s Island, October 19-20
← Older posts Newer posts →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 …
New report studies river diversions as an important restoration tool
By Alisha Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation Since 1932, almost 1,900 square miles of ecologically and economically important land has been lost in coastal Louisiana. Historically, flooding from the Mississippi River built and maintained these coastal wetlands, but the construction of flood protection levees and upstream dams have cut off the connection between the river and its delta. River diversions direct water, nutrients and sediment back into the deteriorating wetlands and serve as an important restoration tool in the Mississippi …
Tagged ReportsWaterfowl finding new homes in thriving Mississippi River wetlands restoration project
This piece was originally posted on National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Promise blog. By Maura Wood, National Wildlife Federation Coastal Louisiana Senior Outreach Coordinator Our boat left the canal, rounded a small spit of land, and emerged into the outfall area of the Caernarvon freshwater diversion, known as Big Mar – Big Sea. Situated in the last big bend of the Mississippi River about a half an hour drive south of New Orleans, this failed agricultural enterprise of the past shows up …
Mississippi River research paves way for holistic river management approach
Conservation groups say partnership between Louisiana, Corps essential for healthy environment, communities, industries, national economy News Release (Baton Rouge–August 24, 2011) Conservation groups today expressed support for an agreement between Louisiana and federal officials to conduct an investigation focusing on the dynamic nature of the Lower Mississippi River and the interplay between restoration, navigation and flood control. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) will collaborate on the analysis, officially called the …
Unshackling the Mighty Mississippi: New Video Shows How Working With Nature—Not Against It—Can Build New Land at Myrtle Grove
By Amanda Moore (National Wildlife Federation) and Brian Jackson (Environmental Defense Fund) The Mississippi River built 7,000 square miles of beautiful, rich deltaic wetlands, but over the last century, the natural land-building processes that constructed that land have been largely shut off. Flipping that land-building switch back on is crucial for success in restoring the Mississippi River Delta and the communities, wildlife and economies that depend on it. A critical project that will build land and jumpstart restoration is the …
White House Receives Blueprint For Bringing Gulf of Mexico Back to Health
As Senators consider bill on oil spill penalties, conservationists urge lawmakers to invest fines in Gulf’s natural systems and communities that need them. (Washington, DC—August 1, 2011) Leading conservation groups working across the Gulf of Mexico have submitted to the White House a blueprint for action that federal, state and local governments can take to restore the region’s threatened natural systems and to help communities that rely on the Gulf for survival. The groups delivered their recommendations to the Presidential Task …
Tagged ReportsNew Video Builds Local Support for Myrtle Grove Diversion
By Maura Wood, National Wildlife Federation To kick coastal restoration into high gear and to create a sustainable coast, reconnecting the river to the marsh in a controlled way and allowing the delivery of sediment is key. Sediment deposited through marsh-building diversions will build an ever-expanding platform which, as it grows, will become vegetated. This vegetation will trap more sediment, leading to even more land growth. This mimics the natural processes that built our coast and offers hope of creating a …
NEWS RELEASE: Oil Spill Recovery Projects Proposed by Louisiana Deserve Prompt Review
Contacts: Steven Peyronnin, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, 225.413.6924, stevenp@crcl.org Sean Crowley, Environmental Defense Fund, 202.550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org John Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, 504.421.7348, johnlopez@pobox.com Chris Macaluso, Louisiana Wildlife Federation, 225-344-6707, chris@lawildlifefed.org David J. Ringer, National Audubon Society, 601.642.7058, dringer@audubon.org Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, guidrye@nwf.org Karen Gautreaux, The Nature Conservancy, 225-788-4525, kgautreaux@tnc.org Oil Spill Recovery Projects Proposed by Louisiana Deserve Prompt Review Conservation groups say prompt review necessary so restoration can begin (New Orleans–July 11, 2011) Conservation …
As Flood Waters Recede, New Land Appears in West Bay
By David Muth, National Wildlife Federation On June 22, members of the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign visited the West Bay Sediment Diversion site to make a preliminary assessment of effects of the great Mississippi River flood of 2011. What they found exceeded expectations. Standing where flood water had risen to waist deep level or even deeper, they now stood in ankle deep water on a hard sand bottom. Based on this observation, there is every expectation that when the Mississippi flood waters …
Tripp to Task Force: Mississippi River Delta Restoration Must Be a Top Priority
By Jim Wyerman, Environmental Defense Fund Environmental Defense Fund’s Senior Counsel Jim Tripp yesterday delivered an impassioned plea at the Galveston, Texas public meeting of the President’s Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, calling on the multi-agency group to prioritize restoration of the Mississippi River Delta as key to ecological and economic recovery of the region. After working more than 35 years on Louisiana coastal issues, Tripp brought a seasoned vantage point to the big question of what the task …
Myrtle Grove Diversion Modeling Reveals New Information on Land-building Potential
By Maura Wood, National Wildlife Federation The Myrtle Grove Medium Diversion is one of five highest priority near-term Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) restoration projects authorized by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. It is also one of a handful of projects authorized with the express authority to make changes in the project to respond to the impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This opens the opportunity to modify Myrtle Grove to divert sediment and build land. In order …
High Waters Offer Sediment-Laden Lessons Amidst Flooding Tragedy [VIDEO]
By Craig Guillot, National Wildlife Federation Read this story in its entirety on NWF.org. (NWF) – As the rising waters of the Mississippi River continue to impact communities along its banks, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and flood control managers are desperately trying to mitigate the impacts. In Louisiana, the solution has been to open spillways that relieve pressure on the levees and divert some of the river’s waters to the Gulf of Mexico. The human consequences of this …
Mississippi Floods Overwhelm Aging Control System
By Paul Kemp (National Audubon Society) and John Day (Louisiana State University) Special to CNN (CNN) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway for the 10th time since 1932. This 7,000-foot structure of gates on the east bank of the Mississippi River, 30 miles above New Orleans, relieves pressure on levees protecting the city by shunting river water into nearby Lake Pontchartrain. As the crest of the historic 2011 flood rolls downriver from …
Gulf Coast Task Force Sets Restoration Goals, Creates Citizens Advisory Committee
By Derek Brockbank, Environmental Defense Fund/National Audubon Society/National Wildlife Federation On Friday May 6, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force held a public meeting in Mobile, Al. President Obama assigned the task force to come up with a strategy for restoring the Gulf to make it better than it was to before the BP oil spill. It was the third public meeting in the Gulf for the task force, which previously had been held in Pensacola, Fl. and New Orleans, La. …