WaterMarks Interview with Gary Fine

WaterMarks: Compared to largescale restoration projects like freshwater diversions, putting plants in the ground as a way to save Louisiana’s coast doesn’t fire the imagination. What are we missing?

Fine: When we talk about land loss in coastal Louisiana, we don’t just mean we’re losing ground, the stuff you walk on. We’re losing an entire ecosystem involving marine life, mammals, birds, reptiles and, of course, plant life. But it’s the plants that support all the rest of the ecosystem. That’s why they’re called the primary producer.

WaterMarks: And that means they do a lot more than stabilize the soil.

Fine: I wouldn’t underrate that function, but yes, they do a lot more. It’s easy to forget that we don’t build freshwater diversions for the sake of freshwater diversions. We build them to save and restore the plant community because plants define the marsh. They build soil, improve water quality and create habitat.

WaterMarks: How does your work at the NRCS Plant Materials Center fit into all this?

Fine: The Plant Materials Center isn’t some abstract research center. We’re here to play a very specific role in saving Louisiana’s coast. Our job is to find the native plants that will be the most effective when used in wetlands restoration. That might mean a plant that has a high tolerance for salinity, the ability to grow in varying water depths, or a capacity to propagate quickly. Then another important factor is the plant’s ability to survive and persist in ever changing coastal environments. When we identify a plant that meets our standards by thoroughly testing and proving its performance, we make it available to commercial growers who produce it for large-scale projects.

WaterMarks: Obviously one plant won’t work everywhere.

Fine: That’s right. A tidal environment requires a species with different characteristics than one that’s planted in a terrestrial environment at a higher elevation. Our goal is to offer a suite of plants that are performance proven for specific conditions.

WaterMarks: Does your research anticipate future problems like the possibility of sea-level rise due to global climate change?

Fine: We don’t have any choice but to look ahead because it takes so long for a plant strain to prove itself — literally evaluating hundreds of plants over time in the case of a fully proven species or cultivar. Sea-level rise is a good example. We’re searching for plants adaptable to rising sea levels and greater water depths now, even though its full effects probably won’t be felt for some time.

WaterMarks: When you say searching, do you mean that literally?

Fine: When we’re identifying native plant species that have the characteristics we need, the first step is to search for and collect samples of plant materials found growing in natural plant communities. When we find what we want, we start a series of tests to determine how well adapted to our needs the strain really is. Sometimes people will say that we’re developing a super plant. That’s not the case. Our focus is on searching out native plants— plants that already exist in the wild and display the desired adaptive characteristics.

WaterMarks: Some professionals argue that it’s unwise to plant for coastal restoration, that the best option is natural colonization. How do you respond?

Fine: Our work supports natural colonization; it’s not a substitute for it. So I don’t see this as an either/or situation. Part of our research involves determining when to plant and when to let nature restore vegetation. I think planting offers the same results as natural propagation, but at a faster rate. And often speed is important. The faster the plant community is established, the faster the entire ecosystem is stabilized.

WaterMarks: But what about the danger of diluting the genetic base by introducing a nursery grown plant into the ecosystem?

Fine: Remember that we start with a wild, native species, indigenous to Louisiana. We are not introducing a super plant but identifying a native one that is tested and proven successful for an intended use. For example, the most common plant used in coastal restoration is smooth cordgrass and one specific release widely used is named ‘Vermilion’. This is a clonal release that has been planted throughout the coastal area of Louisiana and has proven very successful.

Having said that, I think the question of genetic dilution is important. Because Vermilion smooth cordgrass — or any other single strain of a species— if used extensively in plantings, may dominate an area or cross breed with adjacent wild smooth cordgrass populations, possibly making adjacent communities more genetically homogenous. With less genetic diversity, is a species more vulnerable to a catastrophic event? Possibly. Or is the Vermilion strain hybridizing and improving local smooth cordgrass populations, making strains more adaptive to evolving conditions? That’s also possible. Studies on this issue are ongoing.

What we do know is that coastal wetlands in Louisiana are in deep trouble. We don’t have the luxury of time; we have to use all the tools we have available, and right now one of the best is vegetative plantings.

WaterMarks: Plants cost five dollars or more a container, and that’s before they’re put on barges and hand planted. When you’re considering large projects, aren’t those costs often prohibitive?

Fine: That’s a common misconception, but vegetative plantings are a small part of the total cost of most restoration projects. When you consider that restoring vegetation is probably one of the key measures of a project’s success, plantings are highly cost effective. The fact is that we’re not trying to create mud flats — we want marsh, and that means vegetation. If it occurs through natural colonization, all the better. If not, or if the colonization will be too slow, planting is the logical alternative.

WaterMarks: What’s the challenge ahead for you?

Fine: Even among the professionals in coastal restoration, the role plants play in the coastal ecosystem is often misunderstood and sometimes undervalued. But that’s not the professionals’ problem, it’s ours. We have to raise awareness by making a long-term commitment to communicating the work we’re doing, the advances we’re making and the possibilities we envision. This has to be done because every tool, including vegetative planting, needs to be used to its fullest advantage if we have any hope of saving Louisiana’s coastal wetlands.