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Work continues on large marsh restoration project in Southwest LA - Dredging Today
The Cameron Meadows Marsh Creation and Terracing project is making progress in Southwest Louisiana, according to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA).
As CPRA reported, almost 3 miles of terraces are complete now and the 300-acre marsh restoration is underway.
The aim of this restoration project is to address a large area of marsh that has degraded into open water due to subsidence, saltwater surge from Hurricane Rita and other storms, excessive drought, and salt water retention as a result of silted-in canals which prohibited adequate drainage.
‘No way to keep up’: Efforts to rebuild coastline in Cameron Parish may be an unwinnable fight
The restoration of the Oyster Bayou marsh is part of a series of projects by the state in its fight to keep this vulnerable part of Louisiana from vanishing. The effects of climate change, particularly rising sea levels, and decades of other man-made factors may mean it’s an unwinnable fight over the long-term.
We can save our coasts with a $10 billion investment
Natural infrastructure including salt marshes, mangroves and other coastal habitats not only act as nurseries for fish, birds and animals, filter runoff pollution and recharge our aquifers, but they sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide while protecting hundreds of billions of dollars of coastal property at risk of flooding and storm damage. Natural infrastructure acts as storm barriers (hence the term “barrier island”) while reducing tidal surges at a far lower cost than “hardened” or “gray” solutions including bulkheads, levees, seawalls and giant floodgates that have been proposed for Houston and New York or the installation of more and larger water pumps in places such as New Orleans, Annapolis and Miami Beach.
Here's why Louisiana faces a special challenge from climate change
As scientists deliver increasingly dire warnings to curtail the greenhouse gases that are changing the world's climate, Louisiana faces special challenges in reducing its emissions: More than half of the carbon emitted in the state comes from chemical plants and oil refineries.
Rebuild or relocate? Storms leave Louisiana city facing tough choices.
After back-to-back storms struck southwest Louisiana last year, Monty and Nashonna Aucoin were left without a home to return to. Many of their friends and family, in a similar position, decided not to go back, citing the exhausting rebuilding process that lay ahead.
Welcome to ground zero of climate chaos
“The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable,” they tell us. No kidding.
Welcome to my home, Lake Charles, La. We are ground zero of the age of climate consequences.
Infrastructure act is the best way to save Louisiana's coast
In the past I spent many years fighting Washington gridlock to fund projects that would help Louisiana’s vanishing coast. I have served as president of the Morganza Action Coalition, on the board of America’s Wetlands, on the executive committee of Restore or Retreat and almost 10 years on the Governor’s coastal commission. Over the past two decades, we have had to beg and scrape for federal funds to stave off our looming coastal disaster.