| Coastal Louisiana has lost an average of 34
square miles of land (mainly marsh) per year for the last 50 years.
From 1932 to 2000, the total land loss is 1,900 square miles ... about
the size of the state of Delaware. If we don't stop this land loss,
Louisiana could lose 700 more square miles of land ... an area the size
of the Washington,D.C.-Baltimore area ... in the next 50 years. Louisiana
contains 40% of the coastal wetlands for the lower 48 states, and in the
1990s accounted for 90% of the loss of our coastal wetlands.
[See Concerns below for more statistics.] |
 |
So What Can We Do About
It?
| Writing
to Your Louisiana State Congress |
Terrebonne Parish makes
up all or part of 3 House
Congressional districts ... 51, 52, and 53. Your representatives
for these 3 districts are:
51 -
Carla
Dartez (western part of the parish plus other parishes)
52 -
Hunt
Downer (mainly the Houma area); he will be succeeded by Gordon Dove
in 2004
53 -
Damon
Baldone (eastern part of the parish extending over the parish line)
Note: the
extreme northern tip of the parish is in district 55 (Rep. Warren Triche)
Terrebonne Parish is part of 2 Senate Congressional
districts ... 20
and 21.
Your senators for these 2 districts are:
20 -
Reggie
Dupre. (eastern part of the parish)
21 -
Butch
Gautreaux (western part of the parish)
By clicking on their name, an email window
will pop up so that you can send them a message. |
| Writing
to Your Representation in Washington DC |
Terrebonne Parish is in District
3, so our U.S. House Representative is::
Billy
Tauzin. [2183 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515]
Our U.S. Senators are:
John
Breaux [503 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510]
Mary
Landrieu [724 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510]
Besides our own congress representation, you will
also want to contact three senators that serve on the U.S. Senate Subcommittee
on Transportation and Infrastructure. They are:
Lincoln
Chafee [141A Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510]
John
Cornyn [517 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510]
Lisa
Murkowski [322 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510]
The complete list of Subcommittee members
can be found HERE. |
| Concerns
that our legislature needs to be reminded of ... |
Coastal Louisiana is losing
land at a rate of 25 to 35 square miles per year, which is equivalent to
approximately a football field every 30 minutes.
Approximately 60% of Louisiana's
land loss occurs in our backyards, in the Barataria and Terrebonne basins
in southeastern Louisiana.
As a result of the human activities
and natural coastal processes, during the past century the state of Louisiana
lost between 600,000 and 900,000 acres of valuable coastal vegetative wetlands.
Estimates reveal that another
342,000 acres will be lost between now and the year 2050.
Approximately 30 percent of
the land losses being experienced in coastal Louisiana are due to natural
causes. The remaining 70 percent are attributable to mans effect on the
environment, both direct and indirect.
Louisiana's coast is a "working
coast" with national economic significance.
Louisiana's coast supports
the infrastructure, such as highways, ports, pipelines, and navigational
waterways for up to 18 percent of our nation's oil and gas supply.
Louisiana's coast has world
ecological significance with its abundance of wildlife, fisheries, and
waterfowl, and it also serves as a critical migratory flyway.
Louisiana's coast is America's
Wetland because it drains 41% of the nation's floodwaters and has national
ecological and economic significance.
The coast provides natural
protection for our coastal communities from storm surges of the Gulf of
Mexico. Without it, over 2 million people living along the coast
are more vulnerable to the life-threatening risks of storms and hurricanes.
Restoring Louisiana's coast
is important to our community's survivial and to our way of life.
Without coastal restoration we will eventually be forced to move out of
south Louisiana.
The estimated cost to restore
Louisiana's coast is $14 billion, but the cost of not restoring
our coast will be more than $100 billion in infrastructure alone and will
have devastating impacts to our nation.
Please support the Louisiana
Coastal Area (LCA) Study in the Water Resources Development Act authorization
in 2004.
You will be helping us save
what Louisiana and the nation cannot afford to lose. |
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