BACK
ENVIRONMENT
Wetland loss is a natural part of coastal-delta cycles and has occurred for thousands of years but Louisiana's wetlands have been disappearing much faster than they are being replaced. Among the contributing factors receiving the river water, nutrients, and sediment needed to nourish wetland vegetation and counteract long-term natural subsidence. Wetland loss degrades animal habitats, depletes fisheries, decreases such ecological services as water filtration and nutrient cycling, and increases the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level and storms.
Accelerated wetland disappearance in the Mississippi River delta plain allowed storm surge and flooding from Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) to move farther inland and persist longer than if healthy wetlands had been in place. In terms of natural services, biologic productivity and infrastructural investments, the value of Louisiana's coastal wetlands exceeds $100 billion.
When the Acadian people migrated from Canada to Louisiana in the 1700s, bountiful natural resources prompted them to settle in the extensive wetlands of Louisiana. Today, Louisiana's coastal wetlands support a diverse population represented by cultures from around the world. The lifestyle for many coastal residents is centered around harvesting wetlands resources and has been preserved through time primarily because Louisiana contains over three million acres of marshes, swamps, bottomland hardwoods, forest and barrier island habitats. Louisiana currently has the highest acreage of salt marsh of any state in the U.S., a system more productive than many intensely used agricultural lands. However, Louisiana also accounts for 80% of the nation's coastal land loss, with its valuable wetlands disappearing at a dramatically high rate.
Living Resources
With greater than 1.1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish harvested annually, domestic and commercial landing statistics indicate that Louisiana provides more fishery landings than any other state in the conterminous United States. As much as 16% of the nation's fisheries harvest, including shrimp, crabs, crayfish, oysters and many finfish, comes from Louisiana's coast. Over 75% of Louisiana's commercially harvested fish and shell fish species are dependent on the wetlands. Coastal wetlands provide breeding, spawning, feeding and nursery grounds for many of these species at some point during their life cycle.
Once wetland deterioration proceeds to the point where the length of the land-water interface begins to decline, there will be a long-term decline in fishery productivity. These declines have already begun and will continue to do so rapidly in coastal Louisiana unless the situation is remedied.
Nesting Land
In addition to its valuable fisheries harvest, Louisiana is undoubtedly one of the most important states in the southeastern United States in terms of colony sites and total number of nesting waterbirds. The state provides habitat for five million wintering waterfowl, and is utilized as a stopover point for waterfowl during migration to and from Central and South America. Louisiana's coastal wetlands also provide for several federally listed waterfowl during migration to and from Central and South America. 70 pair of nesting bald eagles. Some species have experienced declines, Louisiana's coastal wetlands also provide for several federally listed reportedly due to the loss of wetland habitat over the last two decades. threatened and endangered species, including the brown pelican and at least Migrating birds will lose vital resting areas as acreage of barrier islands and natural levee forests decline.
Endangered
The Louisiana Black Bear was considered numerous at the time of early colonization, however occupation of the land and habitat destruction contributed to the bear's population decline. The bear normally hibernates in hollow cypress trees or along sloughs, lakes or riverbanks in bottomland hardowoods - all of which are rapidly disappearing. The Louisiana Black Bear is mobile, opportunistic, largely herbiverous omnivores - eating everything from plants and insects to eggs and other animal proteins. Important elements of the Louisiana Black Bear habitat include hard and soft mast, escape cover, den sites, travel corridors - also disappearing at an unprecedented rate due to wetland erosion.
The bear is now restricted primarily to the Tensas and Atchafalaya river basins in Louisiana. Tupelo Gum and Cottonwood. Scrub plants such as the Saw Palmetto and Wax Myrtle and aquatic plants such as Water Hyacinths and Duckweeds need the wetlands' vegetation helps remove heavy metals, sewage and pesticides from the polluted waters. The flow of nitrogen and other chemicals that pour overabundance of nutrients that rob the water of oxygen. The natural vegetation of the wetlands helps clear out the "bad" nutrients before the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is sustained - more than 975 square miles of low-oxygen water limiting the sustainable fisheries of the region.
