Coastal Protection

Louisiana’s ambitious plan to save and restore its coastline is stalled amid lawsuits seeking to halt the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project. And now Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has voiced his own concerns about the project which environmental advocates fear could stall the project indefinitely.

Coastal Desk

Uncertainty looms over plan to save coastal Louisiana

Terry L. Jones (Floodlight)

Federal leaders and Gov. Jeff Landry clash over the state’s projected spending for the $3 billion project.

Adler Stelly on his boat in Abbeville, Louisiana on March 15, 2024. Stelly has been farming crawfish his entire life and said he's been hit hard by the drought.

Coastal Desk

The Coastal Desk's biggest news stories from 2024

Eva Tesfaye

WWNO’s Coastal Desk is taking a look back at the local and environmental news we produced this year.

Louisiana leaders broke ground on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project on Aug. 10, 2023, but construction on the project has been delayed. Two separate lawsuits are challenging the impacts it could have on the state’s coastline. Louisiana is in danger of losing the more than $2 billion allocated for the project if it doesn’t commit to seeing it through.

Coastal Desk

Louisiana could be out billions of dollars if controversial coastal restoration stalls

Terry L. Jones (Floodlight)

The feds threaten to withhold $2.2 billion from the massive effort to save and restore the state’s diminishing coastline if leaders don’t act soon.

An aerial view of broken wetlands in Plaquemines Parish. Projections by Climate Central indicate that the parish could lose another 100,000 acres of wetlands by the end of the century.

Coastal Desk

Louisiana voters want federal money from offshore wind to go toward coastal restoration

Eva Tesfaye

Louisiana’s coastal restoration fund could get a boost from offshore wind revenues.

The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a man-made navigational channel connecting the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, is deemed a critical protection asset for the greater New Orleans area, and in 2017 was added to the list of restoration projects identified by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Coastal Desk

As funding dries up for Louisiana’s coastal restoration program, advocates are strategizing to sustain it

Terry L. Jones (Floodlight)

A coalition of environmental groups is pushing 18 projects to protect Gulf Coast communities from land loss and storm damage.

Politics

Fingerpointing The Blame For Coastal Lawsuits

Five coastal parishes -- Cameron Parish, Jefferson Parish, Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard Parish and Vermillion Parish -- are suing oil and gas companies…

Coastal Desk

For Lack Of Mississippi Silt, The Gulf Is Losing Coastal Land

Lynn Neary

Thousands of miles of Louisiana's coastline have been disappearing over the last century. NPR's Lynn Neary talks to fishing guide Ryan Lambert about…

Saltwater wetlands that include marshes and shoals on Virginia's Atlantic coast. U.S. coastal wetlands losses were 25 percent greater from 2004-2009, according to a recent federal study.

Coastal Desk

Rate Of Coastal Wetlands Loss Has Sped Up, U.S. Study Says

Bill Chappell

The U.S. lost an average of 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands from 2004 to 2009, according to recent government data. In a recent period, more than 70 percent of the estimated loss came in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coastal Desk

For Strengthening Levees, Bermuda Grass Is Hard To Beat

BOB MARSHALL

The idea that grass can armor anything is hard to believe. But on a recent visit to the Lake Pontchartrain levee, LSU agronomist Jeff Beasley explained...

Coastal Desk

The Louisiana Coast: Last Call — Diversions?

BOB MARSHALL

Anyone following the development of the Master Plan for the Louisiana coast knows that the central part of the plan is also its most controversial:...