Environmental restoration is a backyard issue in southern Louisiana.

Encroaching water threatens to swallow decks and docks, culture and commerce along with the landscape. “Coastal restoration in Louisiana doesn’t just protect habitat,” says Andrew MacInnes, Plaquemines Parish coastal zone administrator. “It also protects us – our homes, schools, businesses, jobs — and our infrastructure — the roads, the ports, the pipelines — that we use to supply essential resources to the nation.”

Economy and Environment Twin Necessities

America’s greatest catastrophe of wetland loss occurs among more than a million people, 700 schools, 900 churches, 50 hospitals, 400 shopping centers and 300 national historic sites. "When you look at coastal issues, you cannot look only at the biological and physical factors,” David K. Loomis, a human dimensions researcher from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has said. “You have to consider the social and economic aspects as well.”

MacInnes understands that compromise is inevitable when reconciling economic vitality with environmental viability. His office receives permit applications from the oil and gas industry “about every day.” MacInnes acknowledges this continued activity keeps the coast from healing itself, “but it’s the lifeblood of our economy,” he says. “It’s part of the service we provide for the rest of the country.”

While business pursuits may damage the environment, it is also true that altering the environment can damage business. Born in 1927, Ernest Voisin witnessed changes in oyster farming after the Mississippi River was constrained behind levees. “Places in Terrebonne Parish that used to produce oysters 60 or 70 years ago are too salty to be productive today,” Voisin says,” but new areas are thriving. Coastal restoration would probably damage these areas by increasing freshwater and reducing salinity, but it could also bring back beds that were productive years ago.”

“We need to restore the coast and rebuild our marshes,” says MacInnes, “but we have to allow for competing activities.”

CWPPRA Builds on Community Support

Jerome Zeringue, executive director of Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, is pragmatic about choices confronting coastal communities. “Flood protection that safeguards our buildings, businesses and infrastructure can compromise our capacity to restore the environment,” he says. “Either we build protection and temper our expectations regarding restoration, or we implement large-scale restoration and start the process of relocating our communities. We need to come to a consensus about which approach to take. To succeed, any attempt at restoration must have the support of the community.”

Involving the community in decisions about coastal restoration is fundamental in CWPPRA’s project selection process. Often the result of citizens identifying a need, ideas for CWPPRA projects originate at the local level. Open meetings engage the public early and provide opportunities to resolve conflicts between restoration and socioeconomic interests.

As Dr. Robert Gramling, professor of sociology at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, writes, “Some projects cannot be done because of social considerations and stakeholder interests and some can be done more easily for the same reasons. These considerations need to be taken into account very early on ... We need first to look for opportunities where restoration and marsh creation projects ... can be allowed to function at their full restoration potential.”

Not always are environmental and economic interests contradictory. For example, “Restored wetlands produce healthy fish stocks,” says Loomis, “and thriving stocks support the fishing industry and tourism, resulting in job growth and expanded tax revenue. Restoration reduces storm surge and minimizes property damage; in addition to benefiting people’s health and welfare, this lowers insurance costs. Protected coastal zones enjoy enhanced property values and increased community cohesion. We restore culture by restoring resources.”

“The way we manage our coastal resources is a testament to our values as a people,” says Mark Davis, director of Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy and past director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. “During the past century we converted Louisiana’s coastline because it was perceived as the economically rational thing to do. Successful restoration of this region will also be predicated on doing what is economically rational, given the most current research and values of today.”

Winds of Change

“I think, for the most part, people around here embrace the idea that the coast needs to be put back together,” says Allen Estay, owner of Blue Water Shrimp Company in Dulac, Louisiana. “Hurricane Rita proved our vulnerability — there’s nothing left to stop the water and prevent us from flooding. Community awareness of our situation is much greater than before the storms in 2005.”

MacInnes agrees. “Restoration is the grand theme uniting people now. Change is difficult, and not always welcome — we’ve built our livelihoods around how the coast is today. But we recognize restoration is for the greater good, and that point of view can reduce opposition to change.”

But Estay worries that it may already be too late. “I used to throw rocks across Whiskey Pass,” he recalls. “Now you can’t even see across it. Marshland I knew as pristine and beautiful has converted to open water. It’s not deep, but the top layers of soil have washed away. How can we stop it? It’s so far gone — if it’s not past the point of return, it will be soon.”