Something Needs to be Done, But What?
Dec 20
I have had the wonderful opportunity for nearly the last six years to travel around Louisiana and elsewhere to meet with passionate outdoorsmen, business leaders, commercial fishermen, policy makers and coastal residents to discuss our state’s rapidly vanishing coastal wetlands, the importance of those wetlands and the need to make every effort possible to restore this vital ecosystem.
I approached the issue for four years as a representative of the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority trying to convince stakeholders Louisiana is making every effort to clear political, economic and financial hurdles and repair the coast as quickly as possible.
The last year and a half I have worked for the Louisiana Wildlife Federation and with the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and a host of other organizations to engage outdoorsmen and ask them to use their substantial clout to advance the cause of repairing Sportsmen’s Paradise through the Vanishing Paradise campaign.
Among the various thoughts, frustrations and ideas from the myriad of different stakeholders, two things are clear and universal: everyone involved has lost something ranging from a favorite fishing spot or hunting ground to a camp, house or a way of life, and something needs to be done to quickly fix the problem.
What aren’t so universally agreed upon are the projects and techniques that should be used by local, state and federal agencies and the definition of “restoration.”
The projects and techniques can be, and have been, debated at length. However, it is safe to say there are a handful of proven methods like shoreline protection, water and sediment diversions and dredging and depositing sediment that are part of any restoration plan.
It’s a bit easier (and in some ways more difficult) to narrow down the definition of “restoration.” Statistics such as “Louisiana is losing a football field worth of land every hour,” and “Louisiana has lost an area of coastal wetlands the size of the state of Delaware” can be found in nearly every coastal land loss report. Some want to know when they can expect their football fields back and when Delaware is going to be reclaimed.
Sadly, the truth is those football fields may be lost forever. Even sadder is the prospect of losing several thousand more if the effort is not made to restore function to Louisiana’s coast well before the end of this decade. Restoration means trying like hell to save what is still there and trying to stop it too from washing away.
That means pumping sediment to rebuild marshes and barrier islands and then doing it again and again, protecting fragile shorelines and letting the Mississippi River again spread water and sediment into its delta.
River diversions are the most divisive and, at times, controversial of those techniques. But, the undeniable fact is the Mississippi River is the reason there are wetlands in Southeast Louisiana to debate and fret over.
Geologists have illustrated the Mississippi’s delta has shifted several times in the last 10,000 years and once distributed its water and sediment through as many as 250 bayous, rivers and crevasses throughout South Louisiana including Bayou Lafourche, Oak River, Bayou Terre Aux Boeuffs, Bayou Dupont, Bayou Terrebonne, Blind River and many other well known and highly-travelled waterways.
Levees and dams that have done a decent job of protecting communities from floods and turned the Mississippi into a heck of a shipping canal have reduced that number to about a dozen. Those levees and dams, combined with man made canals like the MRGO, have created an artificial delta with saltwater and saltwater fish moving far inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
Opening more distribution points between Baton Rouge and the mouth of the river is not going to be easy for a variety of reasons. It will bring about changes that will inconvenience and anger some and maybe even put others out of business. It probably isn’t the quickest way to build back what has been lost. And, it certainly cannot be the only method used.
But it is the only way the Mississippi River delta can once again function as a delta. Since the river originally built this Sportsman’s Paradise, it only makes sense to use it to stop paradise from completely vanishing.
A version of this post was also published in Marsh & Bayou magazine.
