Coastal wetlands are very valuable resources to Louisiana They protect against flooding, provide habitat to wildlife. Coastal environments are important economically, generating billions of dollars annually through such industries as tourism and commercial fisheries.
Unfortunately, this fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Due to erosion from storm surges especially hurricanes. Louisiana has already lost coastal land area equal to the size of the state of Delaware. An average of 34 square miles of South Louisiana land, mostly marsh, has disappeared each year for the past five decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This loss is at an average rate of an acre every 38 minutes. If the current rate of loss is not slowed by the year 2040, an additional 800,000 acres of wetlands will disappear, and the Louisiana shoreline will advance inland as much as 33 miles in some areas.
Importantly, New Orleans and surrounding areas will become ever more vulnerable to future storms.
Wetlands also provide habitat for a variety of wildlife. Coastal Louisiana lands are the breeding grounds and nurseries for thousands of species of aquatic life, land animals, and birds of all kinds – including our national symbol, the bald eagle. This ecosystem also provides a migratory habitat for over five million waterfowl each year.
people also benefit from Louisiana’s coastal lands. Louisiana is responsible for a major part of our nation’s oil and gas production, shipping commerce, fisheries industry, fur harvesting, and oyster production, accounting for over 55,000 jobs and billions of dollars in revenues.
CWPPRA project managers, scientists, and engineers use a variety of techniques to protect, enhance, or restore wetlands. Each restoration project may use one or more techniques to repair delicate wetlands. These techniques include: * marsh creation and restoration * shoreline protection * hydrologic restoration * beneficial use of dredged material * terracing * sediment trapping * vegetative planting * barrier island restoration * bank stabilization
My duck hunting camp located right outside new Orleans, we are constantly trying to find new ways to improve and maintaining the shoreline on lake ponchatrain. Just last week we completed a project called the Labranche shoreline restoration which placed rocks on the shoreline that creates the habitat for crabs and fish. It also stablizes the shoreline and
