Office of Coastal Restoration
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 went through an administrative reorganization
and was subsequently divided into the Coastal Restoration Division and the Coastal
Engineering Division.
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