The Gulf Coast Post - November 2021

It’s been two months since Hurricane Ida came ashore in southeast Louisiana, and many of the people affected by the storm are still in need of assistance. Frankly, many people in southwest Louisiana are still in need of help after being hard hit by Hurricane Laura a year earlier. CRCL is not a disaster aid organization, but we hope that our members and supporters will consider ways to get involved in the recovery.

It is often said that we are on the front lines of climate change in south Louisiana. Science tells us that we can expect stronger and more frequent hurricanes; our experience in the past few years makes the importance of confronting our rapidly disappearing coast vividly clear.

Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are important for a vast number of reasons. One is that they are a buffer against hurricanes and tropical storms. The concept is simple: The more land that stands between us and the Gulf of Mexico, the less storm surge and damaging winds we face. This natural protection directly benefits millions of people – not to mention jobs, businesses and wildlife.

If you’ve volunteered with us in the past, you may wonder how our restoration projects fared in Ida. We wondered too. The good news is that our newest oyster reef, in the waters of Plaquemines Parish, remains in place and is helping to minimize erosion, even as the mound of land it protects was damaged. Our other reefs showed similar stability after the strongest storm ever to hit Louisiana.

We also recently joined Pontchartrain Conservancy at Lake Maurepas to check on our volunteer plantings there. We are happy to report that most of the sites were doing well. All trees had new growth on them and showed no signs of vine competition or herbivory. The bull’s tongue was in full bloom, and we noticed increased bird activity.

We are planning more volunteer events for the coming months. We will be planting trees and marsh grasses and bagging oysters to build more reefs. Volunteering is one of the easiest ways to get involved in coastal restoration, and it’s also fun. Make plans to join us soon!