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Taking the Tour: Top Officials See the Sites

When top-level decision makers from Washington, D. C., travel to problem areas of the country, two important things happen:

  1. They acquire a better feel for what their policy decisions will mean in real places and for real people, and
  2. By their very presence, they frequently draw regional, if not national attention to the problems.

That's what took place this summer in Louisiana when two high-level delegations came to the state to tour coastal wetland areas. In June, Charles Fox, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency, and Michael Armstrong, associate director of mitigation for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), toured Louisiana's coast. In late July, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited Louisiana as part of a three-day, three-state tour of the lower Mississippi River. He was accompanied by Paul Westphal, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, who oversees the Corps of Engineers.

"We can't afford to lose the  natural sponge for storm surges that the wetlands provide. We can't afford to lose the barrier islands, which protect the coastline from the ravages of hurricanes."

FEMA Pledges Support

Fox and Armstrong focused their attention particularly on barrier islands and areas in the active Mississippi River Delta that might prove feasible for delta building by river diversions, dredging or other means. Expressing concern about the continuing loss of coastal wetlands, Armstrong said, "We can't afford to lose the  natural sponge for storm surges that the wetlands provide. We can't afford to lose the barrier islands, which protect the coastline from the ravages of hurricanes." Armstrong, speaking on behalf of FEMA Director James Lee Witt, pledged an increased presence by FEMA in coastal Louisiana and a new commitment to partnership with state and federal agencies in restoring coastal wetlands. 

Babbitt Commends Coast 2050

In a news conference following his tour with Westphal, Babbit praised Louisiana for adopting Coast 2050, a far-reaching landscape restoration strategy approved by the Breaux Act Task Force, Louisiana's State Wetlands Authority and all 20 coastal parishes. He said that in approving the plan, the state has elevated solving the wetlands loss problems to the national agenda and is making Louisiana's disappearing coast as well known as the problems of Florida's Everglades.