The Coastal Crisis and Louisiana's Response

Even a cursory review of the data shows that Region Four, like all of coastal Louisiana, has suffered severe wetland loss in the last century. From 1932 to 1990, the region lost approximately 25 percent of its wetlands. The causes of this dramatic loss are commonly cited as:

• saltwater intrusion brought about by the construction of major ship channels, oil- and gas-pipeline canals, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
• the construction and operation of locks and gates that cause high water
• shoreline erosion in lakes, bays and the Gulf of Mexico
• regional subsidence of the marshes

Looking into the future, scientists project that the region will lose an additional 13 percent of its wetlands by the year 2050. While this is the lowest loss projection among the four Coast 2050 regions, it represents the disappearance of 100,000 additional acres of marsh.

US Army Corps of Engineers Photo

Although many people living in the Vermilion, Cameron and Calcasieu parishes had been aware of the problem for decades, its full dimension was not quantified until mapping studies were completed in the 1970s. These studies gave citizens and political leaders the scientific data they needed to push through a series of federal initiatives that culminated in the Breaux Act of 1990. Coast 2050, approved in 1998, provided the all-important comprehensive strategic plan that an effective response required.

Coast 2050 identifies three broad habitat objectives for Region Four:

1. maintain most of the habitat in the northeast portion of the region (Lakes Subbasin) as fresh and intermediate marsh
2. convert the existing saline and brackish marshes in the southeast portion of the region (Chenier Subbasin) to brackish and intermediate marshes
3. create fresher conditions in the Calcasieu-Sabine Basin by converting the central portion to fresh marsh and the remainder to intermediate marsh

The Breaux Act projects listed in the following chart summarize the concrete action that has been taken thus far to preserve and restore the marsh in Region Four.