coastal erosion

Louisiana leaders broke ground on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project on Aug. 10, 2023, but construction on the project has been delayed. Two separate lawsuits are challenging the impacts it could have on the state’s coastline. Louisiana is in danger of losing the more than $2 billion allocated for the project if it doesn’t commit to seeing it through.

Louisiana could be out billions of dollars if controversial coastal restoration stalls

The feds threaten to withhold $2.2 billion from the massive effort to save and restore the state’s diminishing coastline if leaders don’t act soon.

An aerial view of broken wetlands in Plaquemines Parish. Projections by Climate Central indicate that the parish could lose another 100,000 acres of wetlands by the end of the century.

Coastal Desk

Louisiana voters want federal money from offshore wind to go toward coastal restoration

Eva Tesfaye

Louisiana’s coastal restoration fund could get a boost from offshore wind revenues.

The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a man-made navigational channel connecting the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, is deemed a critical protection asset for the greater New Orleans area, and in 2017 was added to the list of restoration projects identified by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

Coastal Desk

As funding dries up for Louisiana’s coastal restoration program, advocates are strategizing to sustain it

Terry L. Jones (Floodlight)

A coalition of environmental groups is pushing 18 projects to protect Gulf Coast communities from land loss and storm damage.

Submerged aquatic vegetation, a key indicator of freshwater marsh health, is in abundance in the waters of Bay Denesse on Sept. 12, 2022, where efforts to cut small crevasses and build terraces have led to new land. Bay Denesse connects to the new, larger Mississippi River crevasse known as Neptune Pass on Plaquemines Parish's east bank.

Coastal Desk

As clock ticks down, advocates urge state to find new funding for coastal restoration

Halle Parker

Billions of dollars in procured from oil giant BP has been the main source of coastal restoration funding. But that money is set to run out in 2031. A new brief pushes urgency.

Former educators and students at Upper Little Caillou Elementary School pose for a group photo with a plaque during the Chauvin Schools Reconnect reunion on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Coastal Desk

Down the bayou, multi-school reunion helps a community reconnect amid decline, changing coast

Halle Parker

Chauvin, Louisiana has watched schools shutdown, public services relocate and people move away. Saturday's school reunion gave residents the chance to reconnect and celebrate the community's future.

Coastal Desk

Army Corps greenlights Louisiana’s $2.2 billion sediment diversion to combat land loss

Halle Parker

In a historic decision, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed off on Louisiana’s $2.2 billion plan to divert muddy Mississippi River water into Plaquemines Parish’s degraded wetlands to rebuild land on Monday.

Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe member Pete Lebeouf works with volunteers to load bags of oyster shells onto a boat on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.

Coastal Desk

A Louisiana tribe is losing cultural sites to coastal erosion. Oyster reefs could help.

Halle Parker

For the past six years, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe has battled to stop its historic earthen Indian mounds from slipping into the sea, looking to the power of oyster shells to protect them. Now, they’ve expanded that effort.

On the east bank of Plaquemines Parish, across the river from the small town of Buras, a new cut known as Neptune Pass, a new cut in the river bank has opened and is growing rapidly, stirring concerns from all levels of government and disagreement over its future.

Coastal Desk

Louisiana, coastal advocates push the Corps to keep a new cut in the Mississippi River open

Halle Parker

Louisiana’s coastal authority and advocates continue to fight the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the future of a new cut along the Mississippi River on Plaquemines Parish’s east bank. The final decision on whether the channel will remain open looms, with the potential to come down in the next few months, and, as it stands, the odds aren’t in their favor.

A bird's eye view of Port Fourchon, Louisiana's southernmost port situated on the Gulf of Mexico.

Coastal Desk

Oil and gas built Port Fourchon; now the seaport is finding its role in a future without it

Halle Parker

For the first time, Port Fourchon's staff has begun thinking about the maritime industry’s role in climate change, and they’re reimagining the port’s future as the world looks to transition away from fossil fuels.

A pipe spews sediment dredged from the Gulf of Mexico onto Trinity-East Island off the coast of Terrebonne Parish in the spring of 2021, as part of one of Louisiana's largest barrier island restoration projects to date.

Coastal Desk

Everything is more expensive — including restoring Louisiana’s coast, officials say

Halle Parker

Market volatility has raised prices in the grocery store, at gas pumps — and on Louisiana’s ongoing effort to rebuild its lower third.