Coastal Latest & Greatest: 3 Ways Louisiana is Fighting Land Loss

A weekly round-up of what’s new in Louisiana coastal restoration

1) Mr. Cochran Goes to Washington. In his opinion piece, “It’s time to invest in our nation’s coastal infrastructure,” published in The Hill today, our Campaign Director, Steve Cochran, offers suggestions from decades of experience in Louisiana for use in coastal cities throughout the nation. Steve writes, “In Louisiana, rather than pitting gray vs. green infrastructure, we’ve pursued the integration and utilization of all infrastructure types for maximum, sustainable benefits and protection for communities.” This idea builds upon the “Multiple Lines of Defense” strategy shown below.

Multiple Lines of Defense. Credit: Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.

2) “All we did is we shrunk the river and put it in a building.” – Rudy Simoneaux of CPRA, talking about the Baton Rouge Water Campus’ lower Mississippi River model – one of the largest models of its kind in the world, Danielle Jackson reports for WBRZ.

I had the chance to tour the model facility as well, and it is truly breathtaking in scale and so important for studying the management of our land-building natural resources. Watch WBRZ’s full report “Baton Rouge water campus helping researchers study Mississippi River.”

3) New Year, New Annual Plan. CPRA has released its draft Annual Plan, outlining restoration work to be done in 2019. Community input is vital to informing the plan, and public comments are being accepted until Feb. 12. Check out Holly Duchmann’s Houma Courier article, “Public learns about annual coastal plan,” to learn more and submit your comments.

ICYMI: Check out Mark Schleifstein’s Times-Picayune piece, “Speed up permits for Mid-Barataria sediment diversion, other projects, Cassidy says.”