What is the Fish and Wildlife Service doing to restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands?
The Service is very concerned over the ongoing loss of 24 square miles/year of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands and its effects on nationally important waterfowl, wading bird, and seabird habitat; sport and commercial fisheries; and 10 National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs). We are actively involved in interagency restoration efforts funded via the CWPPRA Task Force. Sam Hamilton of the Service’s Southeast Regional Director represents the Secretary of the Interior on that task force. About $597 million in Federal (CWPPRA) and matching State funds have been committed for coastal wetlands restoration projects in Louisiana. The Service is implementing 20 of the projects approved by the Task Force, as well as extensive wetland restoration and preservation actions on several NWRs in coastal Louisiana, using other (non-CWPPRA) funding sources. We are also a member of the LCA Co-Location Team, working on several LCA feasibility studies of large-scale coastal restoration measures. In FY 2004 we assisted
