Louisiana Highlights

• Tropical Storms: After tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico make landfall, researchers at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center are poised for many kinds research assessment, from aerial damage reconnaisance to recovery patterns of habitats, in an effort to understand how the storms affect coastal wetlands. New studies are addressing how the catastrophic storms can increase the spread of already troublesome invasive species such as the cactus moth and cogongrass. Historical studies have included geographic information system (GIS) mapping of habitats, ecological studies of vegetation and soils, effects of flooding on coastal forests, and effects of storm damage on habitat for birds and other animals.
  
  
• Coastal Wetland Loss: For the last 50 years, 34 square miles of coastal Louisiana have been lost each year, yet coastal Louisiana is of vital importance to the nation because its well being affects 35% of the U.S. commercial fish harvest, 70% of migratory waterfowl along the Mississippi River, 27% of U.S. oil, 32% of U.S. natural gas, the port of New Orleans, and countless acres of upland that can be damaged by storms and hurricanes. The National Wetlands Research Center is developing technology, identifying restoration efforts, studying causes of wetland loss, and investigating plant species for restoration.

• Gulf Coast Prairie: It is estimated that, in presettlement times, gulf coastal tallgrass prairie in Louisiana encompassed as much as 2.5 million acres of land, yet less than one tenth of a percent of the prairie remains today. Researchers at the National Wetlands Research Center are providing assistance to land managers in the revegetation, restoration, and management of the Gulf coastal prairie. Projects include evaluating planting procedures, controlling invasive species, studying effects of fire on management, and identifying community processes.

• Radar Technology: Networks of Doppler weather radar are on the verge of revolutionizing wildlife research and management. Determining the importance of landscapes for migrant birds by ground-based surveys would be nearly impossible, but radar provides an instantaneous, broad-scale, and quantitative measurement of bird abundance in relation to the landscape. Researchers at the National Wetlands Research Center are using radar to study the habitat relations of spring and fall Neotropical migrants along the Louisiana and Texas coasts as well as daily waterfowl movements between resting sites and evening feeding sites.

• Conservation Reserve Program is the largest environmental program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with enrollment exceeding 34 million acres across all 50 states. In Louisiana, 243,383 acres on 2,391 farms are in the CRP. Based on average rental payments, the CRP brings in more than $11.3 million per year to Louisiana’s farm economy. Improvement in program performance is an enduring goal of CRP. For the past 9 years and continuing today, scientists from the Fort Collins Science Center (Colorado) have been working in partnership with the USDA Farm Service Agency to help improve the program by evaluating program performance both socially (how is it working for CRP contractees) and ecologically (how is wildlife habitat improved?). In June 2004, FORT and the FSA sponsored a national meeting for more than 200 participants and presenters to address and present research on these issues as well as future CRP directions. The proceedings, The Conservation Reserve Program: Planting for the Future, was published in 2006.