Wildlife & Birds

Barrier Island Restoration: An Investment in Coastal LA’s Future and for Nesting Seabirds, Part 3

Barrier Island Restoration: An Investment in Coastal LA’s Future and for Nesting Seabirds, Part 3

Our partners at Audubon Louisiana published a series of blog posts that we are cross-posting here. View the original blog post here. As we mark the sixth anniversary of the BP oil spill this week – an event that significantly and negatively impacted Louisiana’s already disappearing barrier islands and the species that depend on them – we will examine the status of barrier island restoration. Over the coming days, we’ll publish a series of blog posts that detail what work has …

Rebuilding after the BP Oil Spill

By our partner, National Wildlife Federation. View the original post here. Six years ago this week, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months. At the time, many representatives from the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition were on the ground, cataloging the impacts to wildlife and the habitats of the Gulf of Mexico. Six years later, we are still hard at work. …

Barrier Island Restoration: An Investment in Coastal LA’s Future and for Nesting Seabirds, Part 2

Our partners at Audubon Louisiana published a series of blog posts that we are cross-posting here. View the original blog post here. As we mark the sixth anniversary of the BP oil spill this week – an event that significantly and negatively impacted Louisiana’s already disappearing barrier islands and the species that depend on them – we will examine the status of barrier island restoration. Over the coming days, we’ll publish a series of blog posts that detail what work …

Barrier Island Restoration: An Investment in Coastal LA’s Future and for Nesting Seabirds, Part 1

Our partners at Audubon Louisiana published a series of blog posts that we are cross-posting here. View the original blog post here. As we mark the sixth anniversary of the BP oil spill this week – an event that significantly and negatively impacted Louisiana’s already disappearing barrier islands and the species that depend on them – we will examine the status of barrier island restoration. Over the coming days, we’ll publish a series of blog posts that detail what work …

Help Count Birds for Science during Audubon’s Annual Christmas Bird Count

The National Audubon Society invites birdwatchers to participate in the longest-running citizen science survey, the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC). From December 14 through January 5, birders and nature enthusiasts in Louisiana will take part in this tradition, many rising before dawn to participate. “Louisiana is home to millions of birds each winter, including waterfowl, shorebirds, and songbirds. Understanding how the populations of these birds are changing is revealed through CBC efforts, which is critical for knowing how to …

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. …

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 …

Afternoon on the Bayou, Seeing Restoration Firsthand

By Matthew Phillips, Outreach Assistant, Mississippi River Delta Restoration Coalition, National Wildlife Federation Last Thursday, the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Coalition team traveled south to Plaquemines Parish to tour some of Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands. Andy Buchsbaum, National Wildlife Federation’s Vice President of Conservation Action, was in town to see our work firsthand. We packed the cars and drove to Buras, La to meet Ryan Lambert, owner of Cajun Fishing Adventures. We piled into two bay boats and set off through …

Audubon Louisiana training volunteers for Coastal Stewardship Program

By Ashley Peters, Communications Associate, National Audubon Society In May, a group of more than 30 volunteers gathered at the Grand Isle Community Center to learn about issues facing Louisiana’s beach-nesting birds and how people can help. Cute, fuzzy chicks of birds such as Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers need our help during each spring and summer to protect them from human disturbance and other threats. “There are many ways birds and people can share the beach, it’s just a …

8th Graders Present Project to Louisiana House on Coastal Restoration

By Eden Davis, Outreach Coordinator, Louisiana Wildlife Federation This was originally posted on the LA Camo Coalition blog. On April 29, a group of 8th graders from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Belle Chasse presented to the Louisiana House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment about the importance of coastal restoration. The Committee diligently listened as the 8th graders used Cat Island as a call to action on the urgency for restoring our coast. Cat Island, located in Plaquemines Parish, …

5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Audubon Stewards the Gulf

In the wake of the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history, Audubon is working to protect bird populations and restore critical habitat across all five Gulf states. By Chris Canfield, Vice President, National Audubon Society, Gulf Coast and Mississippi Flyway This post has been cross-posted from an article originally published on the National Audubon Society’s website. This Monday marks five years since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, claiming 11 lives and unleashing the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history. …

5 Years Later – Birds Still Need Your Help

By Ashley Peters, Communications Associate, Audubon Louisiana In 2010, waves of oil in the Gulf strangled and crippled the very birds that conservationists had been fighting so hard to protect, like the Brown Pelican and Piping Plover. The outpouring of support was incredible as tens of thousands of people signed up to volunteer with the National Audubon Society, all of them asking, “How can I help?” In response to the 2010 Gulf oil disaster, the Audubon Coastal Bird Survey (ACBS) …

BP's Sleight of Hand

This post has been cross-posted from an article originally published on the National Audubon Society’s website By: Melanie Driscoll, Director of Bird Conservation, Gulf Coast Conservation/Mississippi Flyway, Erik Johnson, Director of Bird Conservation, Audubon Louisiana A BP-authored report claiming that the Gulf has recovered is inaccurate and insulting—here’s why. Nearly five years after the largest accidental marine oil spill in U.S. history, BP is doing its best to convince the public that the 4.9[1] million barrels of oil that leaked …

Five Years Later: Gulf Oil Disaster’s Impacts to Habitat and Wildlife Still Evident

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 Five Years Later: Gulf Oil Disaster’s Impacts to Habitat and Wildlife Still Evident Leading Conservation Groups Highlight BP Spill’s Ongoing Effects, Continued Need for Restoration (New Orleans, LA—March 31, 2015) Five years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 men and spewing at least 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of …