Louisiana Coastal Wetlands.

The louisiana coastal wetlands amount for about 40% of america’s wetlands, but result
in 90% of loss of wetlands in the country every year. With 75 square kilometers being
lost every year, louisiana is quickly losing its land and making communities, like New
Orleans, below sea level. It is proving to be costly to fix this issue in a certain amount of
time and residents in New Orleans are getting all of the damage when it comes to the
wetlands being lost. These wetlands are disappearing due to dredging for canals, filling
for agriculture, grazing, development, and mostly rising sea levels.

- The Louisiana coastal wetlands are usually found around the waters of the gulf of
Mexico or the Mississippi river. Around the wetlands, you can find farmlands
that have been placed with or without having to destroy some of the coastal
wetlands in the first place. Now, these lands are to serve as a buffer for storm
impacts, storing and conveying floodwater, absorbing nutrients, sediment and
contaminants, serve as biodiversity and productivity, and be a base for the
ecosystem for food. In terms of human life, diminishing these lands often result
in ruining the soil for farmers out in these areas as certain contaminants are to
spread without being glued into the water. The contaminants just spread.
Farmers have to retreat or locate somewhere else because when storms hit, the
areas they hit are often flooded due to the “sponge’ being gone. The sponge is the
wetland and wetlands can help soak up the water and decrease the impact of the
storms. This is also a reason why New Orleans has bad flooding during hurricane
season. New Orleans is surrounded by levees and these levees serve as a barrier
against storms and the water since New Orleans is actually below sea level.
Damage to homes and hundreds of thousands of people would have to relocate
from New Orleans if these wetlands were to be gone. A direct service towards the
people from wetlands is the protection from coastal damage to infrastructure
from hurricanes and storms. New Orleans is a bowl when surrounded by the
levees and with New Orleans being flat, a decrease in wetlands may be the start of
the end for New Orleans. (Thankfully restoration projects will prevent that)
- The coastal wetlands help protect oil and gas facilities that values at $7.4 billion
dollars a year just from the coasts of louisiana. Petroleum has a huge market here
as $20 billion dollars a year are made from the coastal regions of Louisiana. The
pipelines from these industries are protected by the wetlands themselves and
transporting these resources are very low cost. However, not only does Louisiana
have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a decade trying to revive these
lands, the fishing industry is being killed off due to invasive species and work is
being lost. $235 million dollars used to be the annual to the state from the fishing
 industry, but now the number has dropped to $180 - $190 million a year. Cargo
ports around the coastal wetlands are not needed by the wetlands, but definitely
do serve as a protective shield during storm seasons. The $30 billion dollars in
cargo shipped around these areas annually have to stall since the risk of damage
to items or accidents increase.
- The society of Louisiana is not in a safe state. Often times people in New Orleans
get worried around storm season since they know that in the future, the storms
impact will be worse because there would be no natural barrier to help calm the
impacts down. Have there be more and stronger wetlands, then the people will
not worry as much. The country has seemed to have forgotten about the crisis
with these wetlands as no one brings it up nowadays. You probably would hear
about this only in the southern region of the United States.
- Even though the society has moved on from the decreasing lands, the state of
Louisiana has pledged a $50 billion dollar restoration act over the next few
decades to not only solidify the remaining lands left, but also try to revive the
ones already lost. It actually has recently begun to expand the lands, but only by a
small amount. Something is better than nothing.

Sustainable Solutions
A solution presented is called “Sediment Diversion” It involves using the power of the
river to move sediment and fresh water into basins. Sediment diversion is a popular
project that provides sand and mud to increase the lifespan and long term benefits of
marshlands, barrier islands, and ridge restoration.

The sediment diversion immediately takes effect as this is a natural source that is only
being used by diverting the flow of the river. However, a con in this is that it takes a long
time to actually create visible land in open waters compared to other restoration
projects.

It is entirely cheap as the only thing that is to be bought are possible machines and tools
to help create a new irrigation system to transport sediments to other bodies of water

Advantages of using this restoration project is that this can build new land. Sediment
diversions are important for nourishing and sustain existing wetlands by increasing
their recovery and strength against storms and sea level rise. These new wetlands can
inhabit a new ecosystem within it. However, the disadvantage is that while it is useful
and cheap, it takes a while for this new land to be created; Not days, not weeks, but
months. Depending on the size of the new land, it could also take years.
If this is not taken into effect, then this will not provide a balance for all other
restoration projects such as barrier island restoration, marsh creation, oyster reef
restoration, shoreline protection, and hydrologic restoration. Though these projects can
do without sediment diversion, it will take a lot longer because there is no new land or a
new land being created.

Personal Habits
I attribute extremely little to the destruction of the coastlands. The main cause of
destruction to the coastlands are by construction means, not pollution. However, the sea
level rise is a big impact on the demise of the wetlands. What I can do is to educate
others on what destroying the lands for industrial means results in for Louisiana during
the storm season. However, the work has slowed immensely and one thing is for sure is
that it is starting to not be the constructive side that hurts the lands, it is now
environmental. Environment vs environment. We need to stop polluting. It is that
simple, but it is up to the people on how they want to stop polluting. We must keep the
sea levels low and fix the pollutants in the ocean. It is also crucial that we let time take
its course in hopes that the restoration projects can restore more land that is lost per
year. It is on us to keep the rate of depletion at a minimum so health can be restored
back.