WGL initiative = save the Wetlands, save the Gators, save Louisiana! Because if we lose the first two, the third is already gone.

Louis Maistros – Go Down Water (click to listen; live at Octavia Books, Mar. 2009 – thanks to A City Of Friends for recording)
Visit Louis website to purchase copies o’ his excellent books: The Sound Of Building Coffins and Anti-Requiem

• Louisiana’s 3 million acres of wetlands are lost at the rate about 75 square kilometers annually, but reducing these losses is proving to be difficult and costly.
• USGS and other studies indicate that major shifts in the course of the Mississippi River have contributed significantly to the demise of the wetlands.
• Human activities during the past century have drastically affected the wetlands.
• Methods to mitigate wetlands loss are costly and politically sensitive, affecting communities, agriculture, and industry.

Read more information on the Wetlands and why they need help…

Gulf Restoration Network / Gulf Restoration Network YouTube Channel

USGS Fact Sheet: Louisiana Coastal Wetlands

[notice type=approved]“The swamps and marshes of coastal Louisiana are among the Nation’s most fragile and valuable wetlands, vital not only to recreational and agricultural interests but also the State’s more than $1 billion per year seafood industry. The staggering annual losses of wetlands in Louisiana are caused by human activity as well as natural processes. U.S. Geological Survey scientists are conducting important studies that are helping planners to understand the life cycle of wetlands by detailing the geologic processes that shape them and the coast, and by providing geologic input to models for mitigation strategies.” S. Jeffress Williams, U.S. Geological Survey[/notice]

Some of Louisiana’s great wildlife reserves:

Jean Lafitte National Historic Park & Preserve

Atchafalaya National Heritage Area

Alligator Bayou (A full-throttle environmental battle was lost in what’s left of an ancient cypress-tupelo swamp just southeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Politicians and corporate mitigation bank owners banded together in Iberville Parish, west of Baton Rouge, and succeeded in emptying the 13,000-acre Spanish Lake Basin as if it were nothing more than a toilet.)

Audubon Nature Institute

Wikipedia List Of National Wildlife Refuges (Louisiana)

Videos:

More Links:

Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program – a partnership of government, business, scientists, conservation organizations, agricultural interests, and individuals for the preservation, protection, and restoration of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary in southeast Louisiana.

Bayou Grace Community Services - Providing Hope and Sustainability for the 5 Bayous

Bayou Woman – our mate, Captain Wendy Billiot live, works & raises her family in the Bayous of South Louisiana. She has written an excellent book (Before The Saltwater Came), provides Eco Tours & fishing charters of local wetlands, speaks around the country and works closely with BTNEP and other local agencies in restoring and preserving the natural heritage of Louisiana.

Louisiana Green Corps – (LA Green Corps) is a green job skills training program for 17-24 year old youth living in the Greater New Orleans Area. A collaborative partnership comprised of three New Orleans based non-profit organizations, trains youth in green job skills while helping them gain work adjustment skills, overcome social obstacles, secure a job, and identify resources to help them become successful, contributing members of the workforce. Ecologically sound restoration and revitalization projects prepare Corps members for entry into emerging green industries while galvanizing the local economy through the development of social enterprises. These enterprises create economic opportunity while meeting social and environmental needs.

Levees.org

Swamp School (Wetland & Environmental Education)

South Louisiana Environmental Watch Network