Restoring Wetlands Key to Avoiding Another Katrina

"The levees aren't going to be as successful against the Gulf of Mexico if we don't do this restoration"

This excerpt is from an article in TIME Magazine.

For decades, the Central Wetlands on the eastern edge of New Orleans have seemed little more than a dreary pond with stumps of dead cypress trees poking above its surface like gray razor stubble. But these days, from a lookout point at the upper edge of the wetlands known as Bayou Bienvenue, you can see newly planted islands of spartina grass bringing the moribund marsh back to some semblance of life — enough, at least, to attract the curiosity of egrets. And that could mean more to the future of post-Katrina New Orleans than any number of levees, tourists or Super Bowl victories ever will.

...

As the region and the nation mark the somber anniversary, New Orleans is hailing (warily) the Corps' near-completion of a 350-mile, $15 billion system of new and stronger levees. But engineers and environmentalists alike say it's even more important five years later to get the wetlands revival on track — with the critical object of keeping pressure off those barriers in the years ahead. "The levees aren't going to be as successful against the Gulf of Mexico if we don't do this restoration," says Amanda Moore, Coastal Louisiana Organizer for the National Wildlife Federation. "The city will still be vulnerable.

Read more.