Yesterday, the White House released a plan to restore Mississippi and Louisiana wetlands and barrier islands, which have been disappearing at a rapid clip for decades and continue to do so. Hurricane Katrina brought to the fore what many residents of these states already knew: federal, state, and local authorities were neither coordinated nor prepared to protect the Gulf Coast, its ecosystems, and its people from Mother Nature’s worst. (See CPR's report on Katrina).
The White House roadmap is designed to bring some much-needed order and leadership to Gulf Coast restoration efforts. It’s a strong sign from the Obama Administration that it is serious about protecting the Gulf Coast.
The roadmap also strives to put ecosystem restoration and sustainability “on a more equal footing with other priorities such as manmade navigation and structural approaches to flood protection and storm risk reduction.” It rightly notes that these priorities make up complex pieces of a larger whole: wetlands protect inland ecosystems and communities from dangerous storm surges, for example; bayous, bays, and estuaries produce much of the fish and wildlife that coastal fishermen and communities depend upon for their livelihoods. The elevation of these “ecosystem services” to having “value” on par with priorities such as river navigation is a heartening sign.
This effort is also worth following closely for the lessons it may teach us about ecosystem management across jurisdictions. It may seem obvious to say that nature organizes itself without taking political boundaries into account, but it’s a real problem, because many of the decisions we make – from funding to restoration to levee building – happen on a variety of local, state and federal levels, often with competing interests and with little consideration to how decisions will affect the larger ecosystem as a whole. At this point, it remains unclear what kind of governance structure will emerge from the White House’s effort. According to the roadmap, a proposal with recommendations for a government structure or entity to oversee Gulf Coast restoration efforts will be released in spring 2011. What this governance structure ultimately looks like will be critical. As we have often pointed out in the Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco Bay-Delta contexts, collaborative processes without accountability often result in lowest-common-denominator solutions. While these regions have much to teach the Gulf Coast about planning and accountability, the lessons learned aren’t always necessarily the ones to be repeated.
To conclude: The Obama roadmap is a big deal for a region that has desperately needed strong federal leadership for many years if its ecosystems are to be saved and sustained. Here’s to hoping the effort not only succeeds, but that it provides a roadmap for improving other regional restoration efforts as well.
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Shana Campbell Jones | March 5, 2010
Yesterday, the White House released a plan to restore Mississippi and Louisiana wetlands and barrier islands, which have been disappearing at a rapid clip for decades and continue to do so. Hurricane Katrina brought to the fore what many residents of these states already knew: federal, state, and local authorities were neither coordinated nor prepared […]
Matt Shudtz | March 4, 2010
Today the top brass from OSHA opened their doors to the many stakeholders who have something to say about how the agency is doing in its efforts to protect U.S. workers. Of course, they got an earful. The event marks a new path for OSHA, in that the head of the agency and top career […]
Ben Somberg | March 3, 2010
This post, by Sarah Vogel, is cross-posted from The Pump Handle. If you thought the scientific debate about bisphenol A was over or even quieting down, you haven’t been reading the latest issues of Toxicological Sciences. (What are you doing with your spare time?) Last month in an editorial piece published in the journal, Richard […]
Matthew Freeman | March 2, 2010
Ordinarily, if an organization with the word “recycling” in its name said unkind things about the Center for Progressive Reform, I’d worry. But the other week, we got dinged by a newly launched outfit called “Citizens for Recycling First,” and I’m thinking it’s a badge of honor. Before proceeding, let’s dwell for a moment on the […]
Rena Steinzor | March 1, 2010
The congressional hearings so far on “sudden unintended acceleration” (SUA) in Toyota cars should have made two truths obvious to Washington policymakers. First, the strategy of counting on major manufacturers to voluntarily ensure that their consumer products are safe is unworkable in a competitive market, and second, safety agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety […]
Ben Somberg | March 1, 2010
Water pollution / water law on the front page of the Times and the Post on the same day?! Yep. NYTimes: Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Hampering E.P.A. WashPost: Rising with a bullet among top pollutants: Number Two
Rena Steinzor | February 26, 2010
Thirty-eight years ago today, the dam holding back a massive coal-slurry impoundment (government-speak for a big pit filled with sludge) located in the middle of Buffalo Creek gave way, spilling 131 million gallons of black wastewater down the steep hills of West Virginia. The black waters eventually crested at 30 feet, washing away people, their […]
Matt Shudtz | February 25, 2010
Add arsenic to the list of carcinogenic chemicals that will see delayed regulation from EPA as a result of OMB’s meddling. Last week, after almost seven years’ work, EPA released a draft assessment of the bladder and lung cancer risks posed by arsenic in drinking water. But the release of the final arsenic risk assessment […]
Rebecca Bratspies | February 24, 2010
A few thousand fishermen and women are making port in Washington, D.C. today to rally against the best hope for the future of fishing. They don’t see it that way, of course, but a look at the evidence leaves no other conclusion. The simple truth is that American waters have been overfished for years. When […]