Restoring Coastal Louisiana

A healthy delta protects people, jobs and energy

Coastal Louisiana is a vital national resource, and we are losing it at an alarming rate. Each day, communities find themselves closer and closer to open water, more vulnerable to hurricanes and sea level rise due to climate change.

We at EDF are working to instill a sense of urgency and a national commitment to a bold restoration of the Mississippi River Delta system.

Why restore the Mississippi River Delta?

Southern Louisiana feeds, powers and provides for North America. Ninety percent of the coastal wetland loss in the United States has occurred in Louisiana. As that land disappears, here's what's at stake:

• Coastal wetlands provide protection and are home to huge fisheries. As land along the Louisiana coastline disappears, so does the rich habitat that supports the most valuable fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as vast populations of migratory birds.
• This region is home to critical energy infrastructure, and the busiest port in North America by volume.
• Wetlands protect coastal communities including New Orleans. A healthy deltaic system (including cypress forest, wetlands, and barrier islands) can buffer storms and coastal wetlands can keep up with sea level rise.

Why is the delta in danger?

For thousands of years, sediment and freshwater from the Mississippi River created and replenished Louisiana's coastal wetlands. But more than a century of national actions to channelize and control the Mississippi River for economic development and navigation, while cutting up the wetlands for energy development, have led to a declining coast.

The lack of sediment and freshwater in wetlands starves the wetlands of the resources they need to heal and grow, while canals cut for energy development and transportation disrupt natural water flows and bring in poisoning saltwater.

The resulting wetland loss diminishes the protection for Louisiana's coastline, reduces the habitat available for fish and birds, and leaves communities vulnerable to hurricanes and other disasters.

Every 48 minutes, an area of coastal land the size of a football field vanishes. Since the 1930s, more than 1.2 million acres (1,900 square miles), an area the size of Delaware, has disappeared from the Mississippi River Delta.

Congress first directed agencies to work together on a restoration plan in 1990. But while multiple plans have been written, little has been accomplished on the ground. Restoring Louisiana's coastal wetlands must be part of a long-term reconstruction plan for New Orleans and southern Louisiana.

What we're doing

Environmental Defense Fund has teamed up with local organizations (Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation) as well as national groups (National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy) to restore this valuable resource. We are pursuing an ambitious agenda that includes:

• Closing the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) which served as "the Hurricane Highway" during Katrina. See www.mrgomustgo.org.
• Restoring the 30,000 acre Central Wetlands Unit located immediately next to the Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Katrina.
• Building land in the deteriorated Barataria Basin through large scale river diversions and other sediment conveyance methods, restoring wetlands and barrier islands.

Posted: 09-Jun-2006; Updated: 20-Aug-2008