WM: There are many different groups working on coastal restoration issues in Louisiana. How does your organization differ from others?

Mark Davis
Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana

DAVIS: The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL) exists to ensure the successful stewardship of the entire Louisiana coast — economically, culturally and ecologically. In a search for shared solutions to coastal issues, we bring diverse groups together, convene scientists and experts, conduct public meetings, educate people, support citizen participation in hands-on projects, assist in shaping legislation — we take whatever step is necessary to restore and protect Louisiana’s coast. We are more a civics experiment than an engineering one.

DUFRECHOU: In 1989 a group of citizens, remembering Pontchartrain Lake as a recreational Mecca, established the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) to restore and preserve the water quality and habitat of the region’s 10,000 square miles of land and water. The foundation identifies problems, develops solution alternatives, and acts as a catalyst to focus attention, generate public interest, provide technical support, and press elected officials to support restoration activities.

NORMAN: Title to the 35,000- acre holdings of the Edward Wisner Donation is held in trust by the City of New Orleans. Beneficiaries of this quasi-public, not-for-profit organization include the city, the state of Louisiana and nonprofit entities such as hospitals and the Salvation Army. We manage the Donation in the financial interest of its beneficiaries, investing in its long-term protection and sustainability while producing an annual income through its economic development. Deriving most of our revenue from oil and gas leases, we write strict environmental safeguards into our contracts and place observers in the field to ensure compliance. Doing so protects vital infrastructure as well as the Donation’s holdings; an eroding coast puts energy resources for the entire country at risk.

WM: Please give an example of how your organization has contributed to coastal planning, protection and restoration.

DAVIS: CRCL has been around since the late 1980s, before there was any kind of government mechanism to turn coastal planning into action, before there was any state funding. Using tax dollars for coastal restoration required amending Louisiana’s state constitution. We helped to frame the legislation and built public support for the amendment through an education campaign.

Carlton Dufrechou
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

DUFRECHOU: In 2005, the LPBF developed the Coastal Lines of Defense strategy. Basically, this identifies key natural features of our coast that have the potential to reduce storm surges, such as barrier islands, marsh landbridges and ridges. Once identified, these features become priorities for coastal restoration. Thus, we double the value of each dollar we invest – coastal restoration plus enhanced storm protection.”

NORMAN: In 2003, we brought together nine public- and private-sector partners and furnished $250,000 in seed money to kick off a community-based restoration project. We leveraged a $150,000 grant from NOAA into an $800,000 project that affected 2,000 acres in Lafourche Parish, creating marsh, restoring shoreline, protecting beaches and improving hydrology. The effort models the way private landowners, businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions and individual citizens can work together to restore our coast.

WM: What action do you consider most critical to protect and restore Louisiana’s coast?

DAVIS: We must create the capacity for success, an atmosphere of public insistence for authorizing and funding coastal restoration. Many CWPPRA projects demonstrate that we have the technical capability to change conditions in the wetlands; we can point to these successes to justify investing in larger, more comprehensive projects.

But neither CWPPRA nor any other program out there now is of large enough scale or sufficiently funded to get the job done. CRCL’s role is to organize support, to create a constituency that makes authorization and funding of projects possible.

DUFRECHOU: The most critical action for southeast Louisiana is the immediate closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO). Since the early 1960s, the MRGO has been a cancer eating away at our coast. Dredging the MRGO bisected more than 40 miles of wetlands below New Orleans, and completely altered the hydrology — the plumbing — of the coast. If we don’t plug the MRGO, we’re just whistling in the wind and have no long-term hope of restoring or preserving Louisiana’s coast east of the Mississippi River.

NORMAN: We’d say protecting and restoring barrier islands and shorelines, the first coastal line of defense, is most critical. Protecting this environment benefits all the natural and man-made resources that lie beyond it.

We need big projects. We need to establish an ongoing coastal restoration industry, like the highway department. Restoration isn’t a one-shot deal — you have to build and then you have to maintain. We should be constantly dredging offshore materials and piping sediment from the river and planting to hold it all together.

WM: As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Louisiana develop comprehensive hurricane protection and coastal restoration plans, what do you see as CWPPRA’s role?

DAVIS: We can marry the urgency and opportunity of the present moment with CWPPRA’s experience to build protection and restoration that work for coastal Louisiana. Historically CWPPRA has been successful in connecting stakeholders and modeling interagency cooperation. If CWPPRA is used well in the future, it can be a catalyst for action and partnering and a laboratory for designing and building projects.

Public outreach and engagement are strengths of CWPPRA. The public needs to know what is possible, what it has a right to expect. Expanded use of CWPPRA’s outreach vehicles and public workshops can cultivate citizen participation and foster constructive dialog in today’s transformed landscape.

DUFRECHOU: CWPPRA gives us the foundation for everything we do from here on out. Its numerous small projects spread over the entire coast give us good science, showing us what does and doesn’t work. But CWPPRA has had no comprehensive approach to coastal preservation. Following Katrina, we need to look at the big picture, at which regions of the coast are in greatest peril, and reconsider how to prioritize projects to get the most bang out of our buck. CWPPRA is a veteran in organizing citizen participation. It needs to continue to publicize the message that the near-term restoration of the coast is imperative.

Cathy Norman
Edward Wisner Donation

NORMAN: CWPPRA has been effective in building small projects and involving the public in coastal issues. Although we now need large projects that are beyond the scope of CWPPRA, there should always be a role for CWPPRA in developing and testing new ideas. There is a tremendous number of ideas for coastal restoration, many that private landowners do not know of. CWPPRA can be instrumental in educating us about them.