Essay about Coastal Restoration in Louisiana

The characteristic warming climate of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene resulted in rising sea levels which contributed to the formation of the various deltas in the New Orleans area (Dunbar, Britsch, 2008). The natural formation of these deltas produced coastal wetlands that represent 30% of coastal wetlands currently in the United States (Cigler, 2007). In addition to these wetlands, the Mississippi River was surrounded by substantial forest growth (Pabis, 1998).

New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees.

Louisiana should be concerned about the wetlands because of the wildlife and fisheries. Without it, Louisiana would not be able to supply seafood and wildlife. Another concern, is the land going under and people could lose their homes. According to Allured and Martin, “the destruction of the wetlands came from the coastal and offshore oil and gas development” (p.332). Also, there is some thought that humans play a role in the destruction. According to Allured and Martin, “swamps symbolize as dark and chaotic places of the earth” and “marsh as a type of wet area that harbored disease” (p. 333). The importance of ascertaining the cause of the vanishing wetlands is to help restore the wetlands and protect from a hurricane

Many wetlands are beginning to die out. Look at the everglades for example they’ve been here for 5000 years! Back then they were pretty and all new, but now it is starting to look like the famous scene from the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Ark" says the article "Are the Everglades Forever? My first reason is that Its majestic waters will turn into swampy waters filled with snakes and who knows what. Also if wetlands die out there will be habitat loss until they cannot find home and eventually dies out plus people are releasing animals out into the wild which is not a good thing because then animals start to compete for food The final reason we should care about wetland is that they provide thing for us to such as the everglades provides

"In addition to endangering the wildlife and economic prosperity of an area, the loss of wetlands also puts humans at risk. Wetlands serve as a natural buffer zone against storms and hurricanes, slowing down the storms and reducing their force before they move inland. However, as the wetlands disappear, some cities are becoming more exposed. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has already suffered the consequences of this gradual depletion of wetland buffer zones. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes in the entire history of the United States, hit the Gulf Coast. There were more than 1,800 casualties, with the greatest number of them concentrated in New Orleans. Eighty percent of the city was flooded, and there were more than 700 dead. Many blamed the destruction of New Orleans on the failure of the levees, which are manmade barriers that prevent water from flooding into a city. However, scientists and researchers believe that the hurricane would have done far less damage to the city if the surrounding wetlands had been intact. Since the storm, there has been a greater national focus on preserving and restoring the wetlands on the Gulf Coast. Preserving our wetlands and maintaining a buffer zone against storms will only become more crucial in the future, as climate change may increase both the frequency and the severity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes. " There are so many

My audience the Louisiana flood victims fall into a variety of demographic characteristics, political beliefs, as well as many other profiles.

    Schleifstein begins by going straight into how much land Louisiana is losing. He states that the coastline is “losing wetlands at a rate of 16.57 square miles a year during the past 25 years”, which is about a football field every hour (Schleifstein 1). Most of the wetlands that were lost were results of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Gustav and Ike in 2008. A study found that “a post-Katrina and Rita estimate of 217 square miles of wetlands” but there were

There was a large amount of money made along the Mississippi river through trade. The problem was that westward expansion was starting to become proftable for other cities while New Orleans was missing out on the opportunity (class notes). Many New Orleanians were also distrustful of the river after the yellow fever outbreak in 1853. They realized that were being too reliant on nature (Kelman, 114). In order for New Orleans to compete with the other cities it started to build its own railroads system. This allowed for New Orleans to compete with the rest of the country in the market of the west. Especially since it now had the Mississippi River and its own

Iowa’s wetlands are a large part of Iowa history and an important part of our current society that have been almost wiped out. The restoration of wetlands not only affects the ecosystem on a small scale, but also the nation as a whole, and society itself. It provides a source of recreation, a benefit to the economy, and improves certain aspects of farming. Wetland restoration is a difficult task that often requires many levels of planning, management, and monitoring. But once finished, the benefits that it can bring are almost countless, just a few being protection of native wildlife, flora and fauna, improving water quality naturally, and preserving a sense of Iowa history and heritage. There are many

The Mississippi River influences the states of Louisiana in numerous ways. The river can be both beneficial and harmful to the state. It may help with industries, but at the same time it may be harming by taking away from Louisiana’s coastline. While erosion is widely considered to be a destructive occurrence, it does have some necessary features. For example, erosion provides many nutrients for animals living in the water, and it creates new deltas that many animals live in. Since the beginning of Louisiana, the Mississippi River has been a crucial factor in the creation and the development of Louisiana’s economy. It has helped with things like trade and the growth of crops. The Mississippi is also significant in the way Louisiana is shaped

New Orleans was built on a marsh. The city was inundated by water during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, causing a tremendous loss of human lives and costing the economy billions of dollars in damage. Since the storm, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has built a system of lift stations and levees to control the flow of water around the city. This has created what is best described as a bathtub surrounded by water. To further elaborate, New Orleans is the bath tub, while Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River surround the city. Over the years keeping water from entering the city has become more difficult because the city continues to sink lower below sea level. Subsidence of marshy soils lowers the ground elevation in and around the City of New Orleans. The gradual caving in or sinking of land is known as subsidence.

At this moment, Louisiana is losing football fields worth of wetlands every hour all due to giant oil and gas companies. The oil and gas industry have been bidding for control over Louisiana’s wetlands so that they can engage in offshore exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands were ground zero for where drilling started in Louisiana. These companies carved 10 000 miles of canals in search of oil and gas causing salt water to flow into fresh water marshes. The damaging effects are the deterioration of wetlands, coastal erosion and lack of fishing all due to industry activity. What’s even worse is that these marshes serve as a natural barrier from hurricanes, which Louisiana is susceptible to. The wetlands are the first line of defense

History will affirm that from the beginning of the settlement of New Orleans in 1717, it was then and continues to be a location destined to periodic flooding caused by the Mississippi river and rising storms. Throughout time, New Orleans would challenge nature by primarily fortifying the river’s natural levees to periodically engineering levees to combat issues of flooding, only to return to reinforcing or rebuilding according to damages inflicted as time progressed. Each attempt to fight nature from overwhelming New Orleans kept setting engineers back. Refusal to abandon the coastal areas became more costly over time; the intent to preserve the coast became more valuable than the value of life and property.

I know this because in the passage it states “Wetlands along the southern coastlines of the United States serve as natural speed bumps to approaching hurricanes by starving them of warm ocean water and creating physical barriers to surging flood waters. However, in the last 100 years, the construction of levees and canals has turned thousands of square miles of wetland habitat into open water. This video from NOVA science NOW explores the importance of these critical habitats and examines the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to one stretch of Louisiana wetland (History 2010).

New Orleans is a city known largely for its culture involving such things as Mardi Gras, Jazz, Art, and even the culinary dishes of exotic foods prepared just to name a few things. It is no secret that the city of New Orleans has faced adversity before when it comes to natural disasters. Furthermore it has been documented that during the past century hurricanes have flooded New Orleans at least five times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, and 1965. Consequently New Orleans has always been at risk, though due to its geographical location being that it is utterly bounded by mass amounts of water. Engineers created a system of levees and barricades with the hopes of trying to keep the city from flooding as they stretched levees and barricades along the Mississippi river, and other calculated locations that had been mapped out and listed as possible at risk areas.