Wetlands of Louisiana
"[5] Different wetland types arise due to a few key factors, primarily: water levels, fertility, natural disturbance and salinity.
[7] High levels of flooding reduce the abundance of trees, leaving four principal marsh types: saline, brackish, intermediate and fresh.
[9] On the east side of Louisiana, coastal wetlands intergrade with long leaf pine savannas, which support many rare and unusual species such as pitcher plants and gopher tortoises.
This natural process of sediment deposition has been blocked by an extensive levee system that directs flood water past wetlands.
Therefore, rising sea levels due to global warming and coastal erosion, may not affect the western coastline as profoundly as it will the eastern half, which may be replaced in open water over substantial areas.
Wetlands provide vital ecological services including flood control, fisheries production, carbon storage, water filtration and enhanced disagreement over the relative importance of these factors,[12] although it is probably safe to say that the two major factors now acting are subsidence, mostly from lack of sediment, and salt water intrusion from canals dredged to service oil and gas wells and facilitate oil and gas exploration.
Further wetland loss is attributed to the construction of the now-closed Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which introduced salt water into freshwater and intermediate marshes and facilitated significant erosion.
Compaction rates have been conservatively estimated at 5mm to 10mm or more per year for the organic-rich Holocene sediment (peat) that predominates the Mississippi River Delta environment.
Additional recreational activities such as boating, swimming, camping, hiking, birding, photography and painting are abundant in wetland areas.
Wetland plants act as natural filters, helping to remove heavy metals, sewage, and pesticides from polluted water before reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
Animal species native to these areas include osprey, anhinga, ibis, herons, egrets, manatees, alligators, and beavers.
Although there are several naturally occurring forces that adversely affect the wetland regions of Louisiana, many believe it is human intervention that has caused the majority of the decline.
[30] Prior to the building of levees on the Mississippi River, the wetlands were kept in balance by occasional floods, which fill the area with sediment, and subsidence, the sinking of land.
[30] The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation has developed a comprehensive management plan[31] for the eastern regions of the Louisiana coast, placing emphasis upon restoration of river habitats, cypress swamps and fringing marsh.
In 2002 the Secretary of Commerce was directed by Congress to establish the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP), "for the purpose of protecting important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses", through the Department of Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations Act of 2002 by Public Law 107-77.
In 2002, Congress directed the Secretary of Commerce to establish a Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) "for the purpose of protecting important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses" (The Department of Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations Act of 2002, Public Law 107-77).
