Breaux Act Newsflash - CWPPRA Announcements for November 20-23, 2007
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Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA)
Technical Committee Meeting
December 5, 2007
January 16, 2008
9:30 AM
La Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries Louisiana
Room 2000 Quail Dr Baton Rouge, La
Contact Info: Melanie Goodman (504)862-1940 or
Melanie.L.Goodman@mvn02.usace.army.mil
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Ducks Unlimited and partners receive $998,000 for Louisiana Gulf Coast
restoration Federal NAWCA grant supports long-term wetland conservation
LAFAYETTE, La., November 12, 2007 - Ducks Unlimited was awarded a North
American Wetlands Conservation Act grant to enhance over 1,300 acres of
coastal marsh habitat in Cameron Parish. Partners contributed more than
$2.2 million to match the $998,391 received from the federal grant. The
project will restore high priority wintering habitat for waterfowl and
other migratory birds along the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
"This project represents a continuation of long-term efforts to protect,
restore and enhance important wetland habitats along the Louisiana Gulf
Coast," said Bob Dew, Ducks Unlimited regional biologist in Louisiana.
"Louisiana's coastal marshes provide some of the most important wintering
habitat for ducks in North America, but much of this habitat is
threatened. Louisiana has already lost 1.2 million acres of coastal
wetlands, and another one-half million acre loss is projected by 2050,"
Dew said.
Large areas of wetlands along the Louisiana Gulf Coast have been lost to
subsidence, altered hydrology and saltwater intrusion. The overall health
of the coastal marshes and the benefits they provide to the wildlife and
people that depend on them are in jeopardy.
To help the coastal wetlands continue to fulfill their role, project
partners will restore estuarine intertidal marsh by constructing levees
and installing water control structures to manage water and salinity
levels.
Greater than 75 percent of the North American gadwall population and
substantial proportions of northern pintail, American wigeon, blue-winged
teal, green-winged teal and lesser scaup populations annually overwinter
in the marshes and flooded agricultural fields along the Louisiana and
Texas Gulf Coasts. Consequently, top priority has been placed on
conservation of winter and migration habitat in this region.
"Like all of our projects, the partners involved in the Gulf Coast
wetlands enhancement project make it all possible," Dew said.
Ducks Unlimited partnered with BP America, Louisiana Department of Natural
Resources and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service on this project.
"Louisiana's coastal wetlands are vitally important to the people who live
here, the state's economy and the oil and gas industry," said Karl Connor,
government affairs director for BP America. "It's important that we work
together to restore America's Wetland. We are glad to partner with Ducks
Unlimited on this project."
In Washington, D.C., Ducks Unlimited's governmental affairs staff works
with Congress to raise support for annual funding of NAWCA. Congressman
Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (R-La.) represents Louisiana's seventh district
where this restoration project will occur.
"The importance of restoring our coastline in Louisiana cannot be
overstated, and this grant to Ducks Unlimited recognizes their continued
commitment to the people of Louisiana, our wildlife, and our way of life,"
said Boustany.
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) also supports restoration efforts along the
coast. "It is great news for Southwest Louisiana that Ducks Unlimited and
its partners combined a federal grant and private dollars for a total of
more than $3 million to restore the habitat for migratory birds," Landrieu
said.
"Our wetlands have been disappearing at an alarming rate, and we are
working at the federal and state level to restore them. This great news
compliments the legislative accomplishments of passing the Water Resources
Development Act and last year's success of finally securing revenue
sharing for oil and gas revenues we generate off our coast," Landrieu
said.
"The work of private citizens, like Ducks Unlimited, buttresses these
efforts. I have long supported wetlands restoration in Cameron Parish and
throughout South Louisiana and will continue to fight for all of
Louisiana's coast," Landrieu said.
To date, NAWCA has helped fund more than 1,800 wetland projects on 23
million acres in all 50 states, every province of Canada, and areas in
Mexico. Thousands of partners, including private landowners, corporations
and state governments have worked together to conserve wildlife habitat
through NAWCA grants.
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 - natures' most productive ecosystem - and continues to
lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.
Contact: Andi Cooper
Regional Biologist- Communications
(601) 206-5463
acooper@ducks.org
For more information on NAWCA, go to http://www.ducks.org/nawca.
For more on DU's coastal restoration efforts, go to
http://www.ducks.org/states/44/news/pub/article1241.html.
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Science and the Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005
Edited by G.S. Farris, G.J. Smith, M.P. Crane, C.R. Demas, L.L. Robbins,
and D.L. Lavoie
< http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1306/ >
This report is designed to give a view of the immediate response of the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to four major hurricanes of 2005: Dennis,
Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Some of this response took place days after the
hurricanes; other responses included fieldwork and analysis through the
spring. While hurricane science continues within the USGS, this overview
of work following these hurricanes reveals how a Department of the
Interior bureau quickly brought together a diverse array of its scientists
and technologies to assess and analyze many hurricane effects.
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The Draft of the Revised Hypoxia Action Plan is out for public comment
- deadline Jan. 4.
Go to: www.epa.gov/msbasin/
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GIS land cover and change maps are available for the conterminous U.S.
New GIS land cover and change maps are available, free of charge. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Coastal Services
Center (CSC) seeks to complement existing data in your region by providing
these land cover and change maps, circa 1996-2001, for the coastal areas
of the conterminous United States. In addition, land cover updates for
2006 and their corresponding change maps are available for the Gulf Coast
region and parts of the Northeast.
The land cover maps can be downloaded from the following
www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/lca/locateftp.html.
Contact the NOAA Coastal Services Center or visit our Web site
(www.csc.noaa.gov/landcover) to learn more about our land cover mapping
program:
* data specifics
* sample maps
* existing data
* examples of how data is used
* the data gathering and distribution process
* background information about the program
Please contact me to be added to our mailing list for future updates. We
would appreciate it if you would also give us some information about your
data needs and existing data sources. Please distribute this email to
others who may be interested.
The NOAA Coastal Services Center's Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP)
C-CAP products are part of a nationally standardized database of land
cover and change information, developed using remotely sensed imagery, for
the coastal regions of the U.S. This data captures land cover on a
regional scale and allows users to effectively document changes over time.
The C-CAP mapping effort is being conducted in coordination with state
coastal management agencies, the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics
(MRLC) consortium, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other federal
programs.
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[Edited 2007-11-20 -Webmaster]