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Coastal Engineering Division
Since the 1930’s Louisiana has lost over 1,900 square miles of land. Between 1990 and 2000 wetland loss was approximately 24 square miles per year. Currently Louisiana has 30% of the total coastal marsh and accounts for 90% of the coastal marsh loss in the lower 48 states. The causes of wetland loss are complex and vary across the state. They can be attributed to both natural processes (e.g., subsidence and storm events) and human activities (e.g., levee and canal construction). Wetlands are valuable because they not only provide recreation such as sport fishing and hunting, photography, bird watching, and nature studies, but also ecological benefits such as hurricane protection, water quality improvement, flood peak reduction, and resource production.
Responding to the crisis at hand, the state of Louisiana has initiated a series of programs to offset the catastrophic loss of coastal wetlands. The Louisiana State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act was passed in 1978 to regulate the developmental activities that affect wetland loss. The resulting Louisiana Coastal Resources Program became a federally approved coastal zone management program in 1980. Additionally, the Louisiana Legislature passed Act 6 of the second extraordinary session of 1989 (R.S. 49:213-214), and a subsequent constitutional amendment which created the Coastal Restoration Division within the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, as well as the Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Authority (Wetlands Authority). Act 6 also established the Wetland Trust Fund, which provides revenues derived from oil and gas activities to wetland restoration efforts in Louisiana. In 2003 the LDNR/CRD was split into the Coastal Restoration Division and the Coastal Engineering Division.
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