Results for category "NOLA"

Day 6

Today started out with our plant surveys. After completing a lot of work we headed to southern Louisiana where the decline of wetlands is very drastic and problematic. 
We met up with a man named Foster. He spoke to us about the land of southern Louisiana. I learned that southern 

 Louisiana did not always look the way it does right now. The Mississippi River is a delta, or a river that naturally divides into smaller rivers and empties into a larger body of water. This means that over time the Mississippi River twists and turns, changing and evolving the land. As it flows the river carves and deposits large amounts of nutrients and sediments from higher parts of the river. However, today there are levees in place along the Mississippi delta that keep it flowing “straight”, making it a river and preventing it to naturally occur as a delt. The purpose of this is to prevent the river from branching and alternating which would then result in the formation of sand bars in the middle of the river. Sand bars would inhibit the pathway for cargo boats. The Mississippi River is known for its selling and trading ports. If the river were to alter and form sand bars, the industrial boats would not have access to the city. In turn this would impact the city economically, but the levees are also impacting the city environmentally. 

Man has depleted majority of this land within the last 120 years. As a result major environmental consequences have occurred. The biggest consequences were caused from-

(1) Harvested oyster banks for food and other uses- causing a decrease in water filtration of the ocean

(2) Cutting down of cypress trees for their wood- accelerating the depletion of wetlands and inhibiting the wetlands ability to act as a buffer against storms

(3)BP oil companies- oil spills causing negative affects on wildlife and then their ability to contribute to their niche in the ecosystem.  

(4) Levee industry- the installation of levees throughout Louisiana which have prevented the land from naturally draining and caused more unnecessary flooding. 

Together these factors serve as a catalyst for wetland degradation. Over the last 50 years the state has seen a significant loss of wetland. If nothing is done, it is predicted that the amount of land lost will increase significantly. 

The real debate comes down to whether it is more important to save the city or the enviornment. However what most people do not seem to realize is that if we don’t save the enviornment, there will be no city. 
Foster shared with us some ideas to restoring the land 

(1) Lower the levees and utilize a drainage system allowing the delta to flow again

(2) Build homes higher to prevent effects of flooding 

(3) More projects 

The main idea is that a balance needs to be found if we wish to see recovery in Louisiana. However it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take a lot of change, education, and knowledge. But Foster is confident that it can be done. 

Crawfish!!!

At first, I was kind of scared to try crawfish; they are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They turned out to be delicious! The kind people at Woodland plantation served us some awesome food. (We got to see their gators too!)

Day 6 – a night out

The morning was a little crazy but good. We had to pack up a different set of clothes because we are staying out at a place called Woodland Plantation, which is a bed and breakfast. Before we headed out for our h new place we did some veg work. We had 5 hours to do 3 transects and we all rose to the occasion!! Which made Sean happy and everyone very happy. The group was supposed to get a boat tour of the restoration project going on in the marshes that are close by but the boat wasn’t working so we got a mini tour of the pump system that takes the silt out of the Mississippi River and into the marsh. We spent the rest of the day walking around the plantation looking at it all and learning about the system. We also got see some alligators get some food ( they got steak and fish!). It was really cool, these reptiles are amazing. For our dinner we had a salad, garlic bread, jambalaya. The main course was Craw fish boil. It was really good, not a lot of meat on a craw fish but it was really good. Now we are enjoying a quiet night inputting our data.

Me next to a giant cypress tree

Me next to an alligator

Everyone enjoying an afternoon in front of the main house of the old plantation

Me about to eat a craw fish

Me eating craw fish

A great sunset in Louisiana

Crawfish boil at Woodland Plantation

Love me some crawfish and corn. It’s the only way to eat crawfish. A crawfish boil is used as a way to socialize, because eating crawfish is very time consuming. This time gives people the chance to really sit down and not rush through their meal. 

Gators galore! 

Spirit Hall was once a church and is now ironically a bar and a restaurant at Woodland Plantation. Foster saved this church from being demolished and restored it. He had to cut the church in half in order to transport it over to his plantation. It is a beautiful place with blue and yellow stained glass windows, hard wood floors and many historical stories from newspapers on the walls. This place is now used for socializing. We met the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Billy Nungesser. He told us the story of how he pardoned a crawfish after Mardi Gras!!! 

Mark Schleifstein

Mark schleifstein is an environmental journalist for the Picayune Times at Nola.com. He has written numerous articles about hurricane Katrina and exposing the unsafe levee conditions. 
Quick history about the times: It was basically a solid newspaper business, but with the rise of the Internet the business slowly began shrinking. The company had to downsize drastically along with numerous other newspaper companies. Due to growing utilization of the internet, Mark created Nola.com which allowed all publications to be posted online. In addition he also reduced the amount of days that the print papers were delivered from seven to three. This was necessary in order to make the business thrive again. Most of the community did not seem to like this. One of the more affluent citizens (millionaire) founded the “New Orleans times” to rival Mark’s paper. They distributed 7 days a week, but it’s range is not large enough to be considered competition. However, due to the founder being wealthy, the company usually doesn’t worry about money or going out of business.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, new flood walls were built in order to counter the storm surge from future storms. In addition, a 26 foot wall connecting three wetlands was built facing the Lower Ninth Ward. It was termed the “golden triangle”. The height of this wall could not be built any higher without the side effect of sinking into the sediment. If water spills over this wall, it can be reserved within the wetland areas. 

A similar flood wall was built along the industrial canal to a height of16 feet. On the western bank, only 40% of the levees had actually been completed. Since this area has never been built on before, the ground has not compacted enough to hold the levees. In the same area an industrial grade pump was installed. The purpose is meant to pump water out during hurricanes to reduce the amount of flooding. 

The Louisiana 2017 draft costal master plan indicates that 120 projects will be built, 150 billion dollars saved in future damage costs, along with over 800 jobs established. What they fail to mention is that the land lost in their future projection is still greater than the land gained. 

3/22 Nola Blog

Today we started our day off in the fields finishing our transect. We came across a heavy set of Blackberry and tree’s which was challenging to get through at first. Once we finished at the fields, we went to the Historic New Orleans Museum and viewed different time eras of artwork. After viewing the art, we meet Harry Shearer, creator of the documentary “The Big Uneasy”. Harry explained to us Americorp’s failure with the construction of the levees. Along with this Harry explained to us the corruption of politics as well and how this all came together to harm the New Orlean’s society. After speaking to Harry we visited Nola.com, Mike spoke to us about the wetlands environment and AmeriCorps participation in Katrina as well. After all Nola.com, we enjoyed our night watching a pianist at a joint a little out of downtown.