Defending Our
Natural Defenses
The Problem: The environmental damage
inflicted by the hurricanes of 2005 is unparalleled in scope: coastal
communities throughout the region were wiped off the map, and wide swaths of
our natural defenses were destroyed. Katrina destroyed 217 square miles
of coastal wetlands, a catastrophic loss which leaves communities more at
risk. While state officials in Louisiana
now recognize the importance of the state's wetlands and statewide support has
been galvanized around the need to stop continuing wetlands loss, Louisiana continues to
lose the equivalent of a football field of wetlands every hour. This loss
threatens the safety of Gulf communities and the natural resources (i.e. fish,
migratory birds, etc) upon which our culture and economy depends.
The
Solution:
Thousands of acres of wetlands must be restored if urban centers are to be
protected from future storm events. Research has shown that for every 2-6
miles of intact wetlands that a hurricane travels over, storm surge is reduced
by 1 foot.
Urgency: The very same agencies that
have designed, built or permitted the activity that has hastened the demise of
our coastal wetlands are now charged with the planning and implementation of
our coastal restoration efforts. The most egregious example of the
inherent conflict and inconsistency facing these agencies is the MRGO, a U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers project, the construction and maintenance of which has
destroyed over 20,000 acres of critical wetlands surrounding New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. The
MRGO was always opposed by local and environmental communities as a massive
risk, yet to this day, the Army Corps continues to deny the role the MRGO
played in the delivery of Katrina's storm surge into the city.
Action: Congress must commit to a
full-scale project to restore Louisiana's
coastal wetlands and direct the Corps to immediately begin closing the MRGO and
restoring the critical coastal wetlands and natural ridges it has
destroyed. In addition, the Corps must begin managing all their
activities in Louisiana's
coastal zone in a way that is consistent with protection and restoring our
natural defenses.
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