Nature and Society, Ecology and Technology
Cultivating Benefits From
Paradoxical Pairings
Louisiana’s coastal ecosystem is a geography of paradox. Land emerges from sediment-laden floodwaters; land spared from flooding converts to water. The river nurtures vast deltas; the deltas’ size forces the river to abandon them to starvation and subsidence. Environmental management allows people to live in and develop the region; management techniques undermine the region’s physical existence.
The natural cycles of ebb and flow, accretion and subsidence, increase and demise alternated undisturbed for about 7,000 years. But new inhabitants arriving on the continent in the 18th century were intent on protecting permanent settlements and improving navigable channels. They began to put their human imprint on the landscape.
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CWPPRA
Louisiana is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Approximately 40 percent of the coastal wetlands of the lower 48 states is located in Louisiana.
This fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh a year for several decades - that's 80 percent of the nation's annual coastal wetland loss. 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.
This prompted Congress to pass the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in 1990. It funds wetland enhancement projects nationwide, designating approximately $60 million annually for work in Louisiana.
Project List
The CWPPRA Task Force annually develops a list of high-priority projects to be constructed. To date, seventeen such priority lists have been formulated. The projects funded by CWPPRA all focus on marsh creation, restoration, protection or enhancement.
Site
The Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force Web site contains information and links relating to coastal restoration projects in coastal Louisiana.
This site is funded by CWPPRA
and is maintained by the USGS National Wetlands Research Center