DU pledges 15 million to LA Coastl Marsh

[Capt Jeff]

Ducks Unlimited Pledges $15 Million to Help Restore Louisiana’s Coastal Marsh

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 9, 2005 – Ducks Unlimited, the world’s leader in wetlands restoration, is pledging $15 million to help restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“Ducks Unlimited will work with partner conservation organizations, federal conservation agencies and the state of Louisiana to protect and restore 52,000 acres along the Louisiana coast by 2008,� said Ducks Unlimited Executive Vice President Don Young.

“What’s happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a national tragedy,� said Ducks Unlimited President Dr. Jim Hulbert. “The human loss and suffering is staggering. To get people’s lives back to normal as quickly as possible requires not only that services and homes be restored and rebuilt but also that the critical coastal wetlands that help protect those homes and people be restored too. Wetlands restoration is what Ducks Unlimited does best.�

Young says the conservation organization’s $15 million pledge is the center point of Ducks Unlimited’s new Louisiana Coastal Restoration Initiative.

“We’ll leverage that money with other sources to increase funds as much as possible to work with our partners and the state of Louisiana to restore America’s Wetland,� Young said.

To date, Ducks Unlimited has conserved, restored or enhanced almost 55,000 acres of Louisiana coastal marsh and is presently working on six North American Wetland Conservation Act grants with its partners that will protect, restore or enhance more than 155,000 acres when completed. Young says the new initiative will continue DU’s long-standing work in Louisiana and restore and enhance an additional 52,000 acres by 2008.

“Wetlands do so much for people. They are great places to hunt and fish. They help purify and clean our water. They trap and hold storm water, reducing floodwater damage. And in the case of hurricanes, coastal wetlands play an important role in reducing storm surges,� Young explained.

Scientists indicate that as a general rule, one mile of coastal marsh can reduce a storm surge by one foot. The 29-foot storm surge recorded during Hurricane Katrina was the highest ever recorded during a Gulf Coast hurricane.

Before Katrina, scientists said it would take $14 billion to save Louisiana’s coastal marsh. Doing nothing would cost the public $37 billion in “public use value� by 2050.

Ducks Unlimited volunteers and staff nationwide have worked to help victims of the storm, and that work continues today.

“I’m proud of our employees and volunteers nationwide who have actively given money, food and supplies through relief organizations and churches,� Young said.

Related : Hurricane Katrina - How You Can Help
America's Marsh - by Dr. Tom Moorman

Contacts :
Gregg Patterson
Ducks Unlimited Director of Communications
901-758-3937
gpatterson@ducks.org

 

[Capt Jeff]

Wetlands in a Post-Katrina World

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 9, 2005 – In the aftermath of any disaster, we tend to date our lives in the before and after. We often hear the term “post 9/11,� and soon, anything after Aug. 29, 2005 will for many people be known as “post Katrina.� That’s the way the human mind works. Everything changes when a major disaster hits.

Compared to the damage and devastation in the news today, one such change may seem trivial, but it’s remarkable nonetheless. That difference is, in this post-Katrina world, people are actually talking about wetlands. Pre-Katrina, wetland restoration and the benefits of wetlands were rarely mentioned in major news outlets. But today, wetlands and wetland losses are getting front page news coverage because astute reporters are realizing that wetlands can help lessen the damaging effects of floods, and in many cases wetlands also help purify contaminated water. Perhaps more to the point, scientists say that as a general rule, one mile of marsh can reduce a storm surge by about one foot.

“Theoretically, if you had a healthy chunk of marsh when Katrina hit, that could have mitigated some of the damage,� explained Tom Moorman, director of conservation planning for Ducks Unlimited’s Southern Regional Office.

The storm surge that hit the Gulf Coast reached some 29 feet, the highest ever recorded. But, in New Orleans, a few miles of marsh may have made a difference.

“In terms of protecting a city like New Orleans - a city that’s below sea level - storm surge abatement is critical,� Moorman said.

“The actual surge in lake Pontchartrain was about 10 feet. That was enough to get water over the levees and actually blow out a few of them. In theory, if you’d restored the marsh, you may have lessened the effects of Katrina a little bit,� Moorman explained. “And even a little bit is enough sometimes to save a city like New Orleans.�

It’s that knowledge that has wetlands making national news.

MSNBC picked up on the benefits of wetlands and the cost of not having them, writing, “Man robbed the Mississippi Delta of its natural protection from storms�ironically, to prevent flooding. Dikes and levees that channeled silt, and would have normally been allowed to build up the bayous and outer islands surrounding New Orleans, have instead been left to sink slowly into the mud. The wetlands along the Gulf Coast have been disappearing at the rate of about 33 football fields a day.�

DU biologists say that rate of loss is closer to 48 football fields per day, or one football field every 30 minutes. Louisiana alone loses about 25 square miles of its fertile marsh annually. Unfortunately, that already totals a loss of roughly 1 million acres of the 3.1 million that existed just 100 years ago.

The good news is, we can still restore wetlands along the Gulf Coast, and Ducks Unlimited and its partners are working to do just that.

Today, Ducks Unlimited pledged $15 million to help restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Ducks Unlimited Executive Vice President Don Young announced the $15 million pledge as the center point of Ducks Unlimited’s new Louisiana Coastal Restoration Initiative. DU will work with other conservation organizations, federal conservation agencies and the state of Louisiana to protect and/or restore 52,000 acres along the Louisiana coast by 2008.

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan’s Gulf Coast Joint Venture recognizes the Louisiana coastal marsh as a top priority for conservation of waterfowl. Likewise, Ducks Unlimited’s International Conservation Plan identifies habitat along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas as one of five highest priority regions.

Ducks Unlimited is a major supporter of a plan entitled Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana. In 1998, this plan was approved or endorsed by a host of state and federal agencies and local governments that have a stake in restoration of the Gulf Coast marsh.

However, even if the plan is successful, all of the computer models used in the planning process project that an additional 630,000 acres of marsh would be lost by 2050, leaving only half of the marsh present just a century ago.

We have to do better.

According to the Louisiana Coastal Area Final Study Report, the price to save a sustainable Louisiana coastal marsh is at least $14 billion, but the cost of losing the marsh to the Gulf of Mexico is far greater.

Coast 2050 projects a loss of $37 billion in “public use value� by 2050. The estimate takes into account loss of “ecological goods and services� provided by the marsh. Simply stated, it is an estimated value of what we all stand to lose in hurricane protection, navigation and port facilities, oil production infrastructure, recreational hunting and fishing opportunities, commercial fisheries harvests, water-quality functions, and many other functions and values the Louisiana coastal marsh provides people.

In the days and weeks ahead, the world will be watching as this tragedy continues to unfold. If there’s anything positive to take away from this, let’s hope it’s that the world comes to appreciate, conserve and restore our wetlands for the now obvious benefits they provide to all of society, as well as waterfowl and other wildlife.

Contacts:
Laura Houseal
Ducks Unlimited Communications Coordinator
901-758-3764
lhouseal@ducks.org

or

Tom Moorman
Ducks Unlimited Southern Regional Office Director of Conservation Planning
601-206-5447
tmoorman@ducks.org
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands − nature’s most productive ecosystem − and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year.