Why Wetlands Are So Important
This article is part of a series about south Louisiana wetlands loss and the BP Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The first article is located here:
Today is day 74 of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill disaster.
Have you ever seen a wetland? Have you ever visited one? Been fishing or boating in one? Water skiing in one? I’m guessing probably not, unless you live in South Louisiana or around the Florida Everglades.
Without knowing what a wetland is and what it does, it’s hard to know and understand why wetlands are so vital to Louisiana and America.
This post will show you what wetlands look like, what they are, the incredible biodiversity they contain, and how important wetlands are to the economy of the Gulf of Mexico and storm protection of South Louisiana, New Orleans in particular. Wetlands literally mean life or death for people, communities, tourism, and our fishing, shrimping and crabbing industries.
Please be sure to watch the videos and visit the interactive map or you won’t be able to understand what I’m trying to explain. Words alone don’t do this environmental problem justice. You’ve got to see it.
Introduction and the story in short (4 min.):
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To recap, 1 foot of hurricane storm surge is absorbed by 2.7 square miles of wetlands. Four linear miles of wetlands between two points also absorbs 1 foot of storm surge. A 2.7 square mile area must be the shape of a long, skinny rectangle 4 miles long x 0.68 miles wide. A whole bunch of those rectangles have to be lined up side-by-side to take a storm surge down one foot. Lines of rectangles stacked in rows between the Gulf and the inland areas needing protection take down multiple feet of storm surge, depending on how many rows there are.
As the crow flies, Slidell is about 20 miles north northwest of Chalmette. You can see the difference between the damage Katrina did to both towns, and Chalmette fared far worse.
Barataria Preserve at Jean LaFitte National Park
Rachel Maddow interviews David Muth, chief of planning and resource stewardship at the park, and Dr. Larry McKinney of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christie, Texas. Notice the large diversity of plant life.
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Let’s slow down a moment. Dr. McKinney didn’t go into the process of exactly how wetlands are built or how they are lost. NOLA.com published a series by the Times-Picayune about the disappearing wetlands, and here is a 7-min. audio-slide show presentation and interactive map showing how south Louisiana came to be about 6000 years ago, how the wetlands were built, and maps of what they looked like over 75 years ago, what they look like now, and what is expected by 2020 and 2100 if we don’t do enough to stop the loss.
Be sure to click on each of the black buttons across the top of the map to see how the causes of land loss occur. At the end of the presentation you can click on date buttons and toggle the map between the 1930′s, 2005, and what is expected by 2020. The land loss is extremely clear if you start at 1930 and then click on 2005 and see how much land disappears. Then toggle back to 1930. Visualizing the land loss so clearly demonstrates just how serious the problem is.
The link to the article series is located here: Last Chance
Rachel continues her interview with David Muth and Larry McKinney on a boat out in the bayou.
On top of the other causes of wetland loss, add coating this extremely fragile ecosystem with crude oil.
Depending on how much oil gets into the wetlands, it will at least partially suffocate anything it coats. It will kill the wildlife and the plants to at least some extent. We have to hope we can keep the oil out of the wetlands. If we can’t, we have to hope that’s the worst that will happen and that the wetlands will be resilient and rebuild themselves over time, the parts that aren’t lost to other causes that is.
If oil gets into the marshes and swamps, there is no way to clean it up without doing more harm than the oil itself.
As of today, the oil is being kept out of the estuaries with booming and oil skimming. Oil is getting onto barrier islands, but so far, just around the edges and up on beaches. My next post will cover barrier island impact and preventing oil from getting further into the wetlands. We should also know soon what damage, if any, the higher tides from Hurricane Alex caused.
As Larry McKinney says, if enough oil gets into the estuaries, it could kill the plants all the way down to their roots, and that would spell the beginning of total destruction of the wetlands. It will take a few years to see them all disappear, but the oil killing the vegetation will throw the ecosystem out of balance and start the process of the wetland fauna eating the dying vegetation until it’s gone. All the sediment once anchored by the vegetation would erode into the gulf. The plants are what keep the soils and sediments in place. When the plants disappear, the soils erode quickly.
If (worst case scenario) the wetlands become open water, the habitat for all the animal life will be gone, and so will a very large part of America’s fish and seafood supply. Thousands of people will lose their livelihoods of fishing and tourism, and the inland areas that were once surrounded and protected by the wetlands will be so vulnerable to hurricane storm surges that they may have to be abandoned permanently.
I can’t imagine a world without New Orleans in it, but it may come to pass in my lifetime if we don’t stop the wetland loss and rebuild them back to the way they were before man interfered with nature.
Here is an example of the human encroachment problem:
References:
Photo: Maddow Blog
Video: The Rachel Maddow Show
Interactive map presentation: Last Chance Graphics
Times-Picayune South Louisiana land loss and restoration article series: Last Chance Series
Filed under: Environment, History, Photos, Science, Videos
Reading your post must be the next best thing to being there. I’m impressed by the depth and scope of your investigative research – and am sure I’m not the only one. Nature and animal life don’t speak for themselves, but must be spoken for. Lucky for all of us nature and animal lovers, to have you among the wetland’s advocates. I hope to be visiting New Orleans – and the wetlands! – again. Hopefully by then the huge clean-up and restoration work will have born fruit. Hats off to you and best wishes for continued strength.
Beat
Beat Schindler´s last [type] ..Where Americans Are Moving
Why Wetlands Are So Important…
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
…
[...] here to see the original: Hurricane Katrina Pictures » Why Wetlands Are So Important Retweet this post Hurricane Katrina [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michelle Vandepas, Sherri Joubert. Sherri Joubert said: RT @joubess Why Wetlands Are So Important http://bit.ly/ayTG70 new blog post @maddow #maddow [...]
I can’t stand to watch the news or look at photos. I’d rather have my head in the sand and ignore it.
I’m not of course, but it would be easier. This is heartbreaking. Everyone needs to get out of blame and guilt and finger pointing and clean up the dang mess fast.
I also love New Orleans. Nowhere like it in the world.
Michelle Vandepas´s last [type] ..Carl Bozeman – On Being God- Beyond Your Life’s Purpose
Hi Sherri,
I didn’t know how important the wetlands are. You really have some great information and eye openers in this aricle.
I do wish that people would quite pointing fingers and just work on the problem. Disasters happen from both nature and by human hands. When they do happen if everyone worked together to solve the problem rather then blaming, the problem would get resolved much sooner.
Thanks again Sherri for teaching me why some places like Louisiana needs them.
Debbie
This is a major, major article. I hope that there will be wide readership because people do not understand the importance of wetland.
As you say -
“1 foot of hurricane storm surge is absorbed by 2.7 square miles of wetlands. Four linear miles of wetlands between two points also absorbs 1 foot of storm surge. A 2.7 square mile area must be the shape of a long, skinny rectangle 4 miles long x 0.68 miles wide. A whole bunch of those rectangles have to be lined up side-by-side to take a storm surge down one foot. Lines of rectangles stacked in rows between the Gulf and the inland areas needing protection take down multiple feet of storm surge, depending on how many rows there are.”
Corinne Edwards´s last [type] ..INTERNET VIDEO – 101 – and a few wild ideas
Very interesting post and videos, I learned a lot. It does make you think, and now as an adult I have a lot more interest and respect for nature and what it brings and offer us. Thanks, as always.
Joel´s last [type] ..More Income Blogging Guide Feedback
Hi Sheri,
a fascinating article. We are all hoping for the least damaging impact on the wetlands from the BP disaster. Huricane season could make it all worse. Fingers crossed for all. Thanks for sharing
Lance Nelson´s last [type] ..Tsvetana Pironkova From Plovdiv- The Next Famous Bulgarian
A lot of natural beauty.
It is unfortunate that the populace at large doesn’t seem to appreciate it until it is gone.
Hopefully this situation will be different.
keep smiling,
Benjamin
This is such a useful post, drawing attention to the plight of the Wetlands. It’s tragic that human error can cause such massive destruction to the environment. I think if we don’t soon start to make amends for the devastation we are causing, as you say, we’ll come to a point in the world where there is now world left.
Jen
Jen @ Blog Writer´s last [type] ..How to title your messages effectively
Corinne, Michelle, Debbie, Jen, Beat, Joel, Lance and Benjamin;
Thanks so much for taking the time to read the article thoroughly and learn from it. I hope to educate a lot of people as to why this is such a vital and urgent issue.
This blog began so I could vent on what Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and later Gustav and Ike, did to our lives here, but has become a turning point in ecology, geology, and environmental science that is causing hurricanes to be so much more destructive than they were just 30 years ago.
Thanks again,
Sherri
I am from NC where we have lots of wetlands too. Where we have allowed them to be destroyed, we have storm troubles.
I am amazed at how thorough you are. You should be writing for someone who needs this type of coverage for their business or for their state. I have a friend who had a college age daughter in love with a particular place. She wrote so much so well the town bought the site from her for a tidy sum. I bet you could do the same thing. I am in awe.
Bruce´s last [type] ..Breast Cancer -4 Ways To Screen -Which One Is Best For You
This post is like coming to the ‘real news’ channel and I learn so much.
When is the ‘world’ going to realize the impact (and future impacts) this is having…then when are they going to get together and work together to find the resolution?
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last [type] ..The Bloggers Holiday: How To Manage Your Blog While You Are On Vacation
Sherri
This is an incredibly informative post on a topic I was very ignorant about. Along side your previous post this forms a very graphic account for someone thousands of miles away reliant on sound bits from news bulletins.
David
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Bruce, Andrew, and David,
Thank you for your kind words. I write so passionately about South Louisiana and the wetlands because their survival ultimately means the survival of my favorite city on Earth, New Orleans.
Before I went into industry, I spent 3 years working for Dr. Ed. Overton at LSU Environmental Studies, and while in college I worked at the LSU Wetland Soils and Sediments Lab. I did everything from wash glassware to prepare dirt and plant samples to running statistics on my professor’s data. I learned a ton about wetlands and exactly what they do. I spent a few weekends on barrier islands planting sea grass, being fed like a queen, and getting very tanned (sunburned on one trip).
We’ve been working actively on saving the wetlands for decades, yet our efforts are still failing. We have somehow got to do better, and fast.
Bruce, thank you for the compliment on my thoroughness. I appreciate it. I don’t believe you can tell a story so everyone understands it unless you cover all the bases. Having interactive maps and video resources readily available helps a lot, too. Being a scientist makes me a geek for running down all the details and obsessing over getting everything absolutely correct. I hope to be in the position to write for the state or a university, or even a small town newspaper like Grand Isle, Venice or Houma.
I’m a Myers-Briggs ENTJ, meaning I was born with my combat booties on, and I’m going to be a staunch advocate for everything and everyone that I can. I would save the whole world if I could, but I’ll settle for saving the small piece of it right here. I’ll continue writing about other injustices on my other blog and hope others who can make a difference will read it and take action.
This is why I tutor math and science and why I would love to teach high school science. Being a practicing scientist instead of a science educator gives me a lot of real experience and stories to inspire my students to want to be scientists. It’s time to inspire the next generation to work on these horrendous problems.
Thanks,
Sherri
Sherri,
Indeed, this is quite fascinating and may I say that just like David this topic is quite new to me.
Thanks for the education!
Krizia
Eat Smart Age Smart´s last [type] ..How to Boil Water
Hi Sherri:
Thanks for the informative article. You did an incredible job of conveying your point and educating us about the importance of wetlands.
I am heartbroken watching the effects of the oil spill. I can only hope that BP will keep it’s promise to restore our ocean and land to it’s prior state or better. I have hope that they will. I am an optimist.
)
I have never thought that wetlands are so important.
Thanks for sharing the information with us, Sherri.
Raymond Chua´s last [type] ..Attracting Wealth With the Law of Attraction
Krizia, Raymond and Lisa,
Thank you. I think one of the most important things I can do, without actually cleaning up oil myself (I won’t do it without a respirator), is to get the word out about the importance of what is being harmed and why it must be restored. All wetlands around the world are just as important and may be at just as big a risk of disappearing. Like rain forests, we need to protect and preserve our wetlands world wide.
Sherri
Dude, that was a good post. Lovin your blog like crazy.”
Thanks you for this wonderful post admin.Good job.