Post-Katrina, Restoring Wetlands Stymied

Government gets a D+ for efforts to protect in Louisiana's natural hurricane buffer

Posted: 25-Aug-2006; Updated: 28-Dec-2006

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Hurricane Katrina above the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 28, 2005. Making landfall the next day, the deadliest storm since 1928 began its path of destruction. Source: NASA.

One year ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana, flooding New Orleans and ripping apart communities from Mobile, Alabama, to Slidell, Louisiana. What have Congress, state and federal agencies done to protect and restore the state's coastal wetlands, its natural hurricane buffer that is fast disappearing?

Very little, according to the new report One Year after Katrina: Louisiana Still a Sitting Duck, from Environmental Defense and a coalition of other groups.

Lost opportunity to protect economic hub

This lack of progress is disheartening, given the economic importance of this region to the nation’s oil and gas resources, to Mississippi River navigation, to Gulf fisheries, and to coastal Louisiana’s unique urban communities. In the last year, the nation should have made a clear commitment to its restoration. Sadly, we have not risen to the challenge, and major opportunities have been lost.

Over the past century, almost a third of Louisiana’s original coastal marsh and swamp forests that formed the coastal delta of the Mississippi River has disappeared -- an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Katrina and Rita underscored the link between wetland loss and storm damage, and thus the critical importance of coastal wetland restoration. 

Unless these losses are reversed, the communities of Louisiana are increasingly vulnerable – as are the shipping and oil and gas infrastructure of south Louisiana, and the key fisheries supported by the Mississippi Delta.

Links

• Read full report - One Year After Katrina, Louisiana Still a Sitting Duck: A Report Card and Roadmap on Wetlands Restoration, August 28, 2006 (Environmental Defense, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, National Wildlife Federation, Gulf Restoration Network, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation).
• Hurricane Katrina by the Numbers – These stunning facts speak powerfully of the devastation Katina wrought. Yet our leaders in Washington have offered almost no federal funding for the restoration of coastal wetlands in the Mississippi Delta. These wetlands act as natural buffer zones that protect populated areas from the full force of powerful storms.
• Take Action!  Support Gulf Coast wetlands restoration. Email Congress today »