Plan 2 for BP Oil Spill NRDA restoration money will spend three quarters of its fifteen million dollars on building up oyster spawning reefs along coastal Mississippi.
Letting Oysters do their Thing (for a time): NRDA Plan 2 Spawning Reefs Read More »
We need your help to stop a project that would cost $400 million dollars, destroy 200,000 acres of wetlands, and only be 32% effective at stopping flooding—leaving 68% of the recently flooded Mississippi Delta vulnerable to future floods. The Yazoo Pumps simply don’t add up for communities impacted by flooding or for taxpayers.
The Yazoo Pumps are a bad deal for the Mississippi Delta Read More »
NRDA Restoration Plan 2 for Mississippi has been published for comment by the Mississippi Trustee Implementation Group and MDEQ. Three quarters of the spending in Plan 2 is focused on restoring oysters: placing cultch material on water bottoms to create reefs, and four years of new funding for the Mississippi oyster gardening volunteer program, managed by MS-AL Sea Grant Program.
Oyster spawning reefs and Oyster Gardening featured in NRDA Plan 2 for Mississippi Read More »
Economic justification for the One Lake project will be tough to examine if Corps agency technical reviews and independent peer reviews of the project are not released when the Final Environmental Impact Statement is published later this year. The Rankin Hinds Drainage District has jealously guarded access to these reviews so far.
One Lake Sponsors Play Hide and Seek with Project Costs and Benefits Read More »
A recently released document from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goes into detail about why a lake dredging alternative for flood control on the Pearl River in Jackson Mississippi is the most environmentally damaging alternative the project sponsor could choose. Yet it is pushing this plan forward for approval by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Pearl River One Lake Sponsors Keep Information Tight as Final Project Review Begins Read More »
The last of three Floodplain Resilience presentations was given in Madisonville, La. to engage citizens and decision makers about the 2014-2018 wetland loss trends in the Parishes in the Lake Pontchartrain drainage basin.
A blog article on USM’s “Sturgeon in the Watershed” curriculum, presented at MDEQ’s Restoration Summit in Biloxi, along with a look at the recently published Biological Opinion on the impacts of the One Lake Project in Jackson, Ms to two protected species living in the Pearl River.
Gulf Sturgeon, Ringed Sawback turtles and two kinds of Jeopardy Read More »
Healthy Gulf Participated in the “Focus on St. Tammany” forum last Friday night and addressed floodplain and wetland issues on a panel of speakers.
The first of two community meetings on wetlands and floodplain resiliency was held in Hammond at the old train depot. Wetland fill permit data from the past 5 years for St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Livingston, East Baton Rouge, St. John and St. James Parishes was presented in a series of maps showing where impacts have been most intense. We also looked at available mitigation banks to offset those fill permits. Possible restoration of sand and gravel mines was also presented as a way to stabilize river floodplains and restore riverine wetlands above population centers along the Interstate 12 Corridor along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
Floodplain Resilience Presentation Debut in Hammond, La. Read More »
At the Sun Herald newspaper’s recent Community Forum on the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and its effects on coastal Mississippi, the discussion moved from the advertised topic to Louisiana’s Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion, as yet unbuilt, but part of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s coastal master plan. Unfortunately, the sponsoring Louisiana agency, CPRA, was not represented on the Sun Herald’s speaker panel to take part in the discussion.