Throughout the Gulf States,
and the entire United States,
we have been losing wetlands at an alarming rate. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service estimates
that over half of the wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico
were lost between 1780 and1980. In fact,
the nation has lost almost 30,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the past six
years! Also, if you don't include
man-made ponds, the nation has lost over 500,000 acres in the same time
period.1
(click to enlarge image) Image Courtesy of USGS
This rampant wetland loss is due to many reasons, most of
which are caused or exacerbated by human influence. Some of the causes of wetland loss include:
- Oil
and gas canals
- Construction
and run-off
- Salt
water intrusion
- Subsidence
- Sea
level rise
- Hurricanes
and other storms
- Logging
With the intimate relationship that the Gulf Coast
community has with wetlands, we must protect all that we have, and actively
restore the wetlands that are in peril.
GRN advocates for the protection of our wetlands through
- participating
in post-hurricane rebuilding processes,
- monitoring wetland destruction permitted
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
- preventing the clear-cutting of coastal
forests, and
- watch-dogging state and federal agencies.
1 Dahl, T.E. 2005. Status and trends of wetlands in the conterminous United States 1998 to 2004. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. www.fws.gov/nwi
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