Spotlight
New MRD Photo Blog: Soaring Above Louisiana’s Coast Shows How We Can Restore It
Ben Depp is a New Orleans-based landscape photographer and National Geographic Society Explorer. He has photographed many parts of Louisiana’s coast, capturing with amazing detail the beautiful and haunting details of our disappearing swamps, marshes and barrier islands.
I sat down with Ben to get his insights on some photos that provide a unique bird’s-eye view of the opportunity to restore vanishing wetlands by harnessing the power and sediment of the Mississippi River.
"I flew over Mardi Gras Pass and Fort St. Phillip a couple of times in the past few months. With the river sediment building up these areas, there is new vegetation popping up where last year there was open water. There are thousands of ducks and other birds out there. These new deltas seem to be thriving with biodiversity. The remaining marsh on the west side of the river definitely has birds and fish, but I don’t see the huge numbers of birds and diverse vegetation like on the east side of the river."
News
White House amends Louisiana's Hurricane Laura disaster declaration - Louisiana Illuminator
According to FEMA, during the original declaration made Aug. 28, the day after the storm, “federal funding was made available for Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, and Other Needs Assistance at 75 percent of the total eligible costs.”
The amended declaration means “the federal share for Public Assistance, including direct federal assistance, has been increased to 90 percent of the total eligible costs, except for assistance previously authorized at 100 percent.”
Nicholls, federal government create database for coastal research
A new partnership between Nicholls State University and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will help streamline study of the changing environment along the Gulf of Mexico.
The university and the federal government are teaming up to develop a database of south Louisiana and Gulf Coast research, which will include oral histories and regional and cultural knowledge of the coast.
ADVOCACY: Coalition pushes outdoor, recreation priorities
Conservation and outdoor recreation groups are teaming up in a new coalition to push a variety of conservative policies in Congress, including building resilient infrastructure and better managing watersheds.
The coalition, Conservation Works for America, wrote to congressional leadership yesterday to lay out their specific priorities.
The group includes the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the National Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the American Sportfishing Association.
HOUSE: Graves to continue leading climate panel Republicans
Rep. Garret Graves has been formally reappointed to be ranking member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
The Louisiana Republican has largely led his party's innovation-focused messaging on climate change in the last two years.
Republicans have not yet announced their full roster, but Graves returns to the panel alongside Chairwoman Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and many of the same Democrats who served on the select committee during the 116th Congress (E&E Daily, Jan. 27).
Oil Spill Affecting Dolphins 10 Years Later | Earth.Org - Past | Present | Future
Scientists have found that dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are still showing signs of alteration 10 years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Even worse, their progeny displays the same traits, meaning the damage could be transmittable to offspring.
More of the same for spending in the Atchafalaya Basin, though new task force brings hope
The state's draft fiscal 2022 annual plan includes five water management projects. Some projects are part of longstanding efforts, like the contentious Buffalo Cove Water Management Project implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Construction of that project began in 2004; different elements of it were built until it was deemed substantially complete in 2016. One element that remains incomplete — Element 10 — involves the constructions of cuts into impoundments created by spoil banks and sedimentation to improve water flow.
Life Raft: Could Flood Insurance Sink Us Before The Water Does?
It’s not difficult to imagine a future in which climate-change-fueled storms and floods depopulate our coastal communities. Generations of Louisianans have been moving northward for decades, after all.
But could the rising cost of flood insurance actually drive people away sooner? That’s the question we’re exploring this week. We talk to two experts who explain the history of flood insurance in the United States, where the program is headed, and why flood insurance affordability is a political problem.