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Nature Conservancy Statement on the Impact of the Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast Region
Nature Conservancy, Partners, to Develop Long and Short-Term Recovery Plans Across the Gulf Region
For More InformationPlaces We ProtectLearn more about how The Nature Conservancy is restoring and protecting the natural places that were recently devastated by hurricanes. Hurricane StanThe Nature Conservancy, working with partners, is assessing the ecological impact of Hurricane Stan while building an action plan for the recovery of key watersheds. Letter to the AdministrationOn September 12, 2005, The Nature Conservancy joined with partners in the conservation community to propose renewed coastal conservation efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Climate ChangeLearn more about how The Nature Conservancy is fighting the worldwide threat of global climate change. How We're HelpingNature Conservancy staff and volunteers from across the country recently volunteered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on an assignment to help with federal Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. How You Can HelpSupport our work to restore the natural ecosystems damaged by the hurricanes. |
Contact: Karen Foerstel, 703-841-3932, kfoerstel@tnc.org
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma were national tragedies and our hearts go out to those who have suffered unimaginable loss and displacement. Together, the hurricanes ravaged and forever changed an area larger than England.
The first priority must be to address the needs of Gulf Coast communities that are now coping with lost lives, homes, businesses, power and security. As these needs are met, focus must then turn to the damage caused to natural systems and resources. Immediate steps must be taken to address the ecological damage and to rebuild human and natural communities in order to ensure a safe and sustainable northern Gulf of Mexico region.
In the wake of the hurricanes, The Nature Conservancy has launched teams of scientists in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas to assess the ecological damage.
Partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Geological Survey, NOAA, the state of Louisiana and many others, The Nature Conservancy is working to compile aerial photography and satellite imagery of coastal areas impacted by the hurricanes. The information will be used to develop long and short-term recovery plans across the Gulf region. In Mississippi, the Conservancy’s state director has been appointed to the governor’s Committee on Resilience, Restoration and Recovery, and Conservancy staff is working closely with the US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the US Forest Service and the state Department on Marine Resources to restore areas damaged by the hurricanes.
In the southwest marshes of Louisiana, 2,000 square miles are now flooded with sea water. At the Conservancy’s Wier Woods Preserve in Texas, up to 60 percent of the forest areas were leveled by hurricane winds. In Mississippi, 70 percent of the longleaf pines were downed at the Conservancy’s Willie Farrell Brown Preserve. Throughout the Gulf Coast, freshwater sources are now contaminated with saltwater.
In the midst of the destruction, however, there are signs of hope. Some forest areas are beginning to sprout new growth, and science has shown that healthy and intact ecosystems rebound from natural disasters more quickly than unhealthy systems.
Throughout its 40 year history of working along the Gulf Coast, the Conservancy has understood the connection between healthy natural systems and the well being of human communities. While damage from the hurricanes would have been significant in any case, that damage was intensified by the historic loss of coastal wetlands, barrier islands, and oyster reefs. In Louisiana alone, more than 25 square miles of coastal wetlands are lost every year. By incorporating coastal conservation into reconstruction efforts along the Gulf Coast, we are rebuilding our best defense against future storms.
The natural systems of the northern Gulf of Mexico also supply critical resources to the entire nation, and the Conservancy is working with Congress, state and federal agencies to ensure their restoration is a national priority.
The Gulf Coast is responsible for providing more than one-fourth of US fish production. The region’s oyster and blue crab industries are valued at $350 million a year and the sport fisheries in Louisiana alone bring in over $1 billion.
South Louisiana houses the single largest port complex in the world. And a booming tourism industry is dependent upon visitors who come to the coast to see some of the nation’s most beautiful natural areas as well as hundreds of millions of migratory birds – representing more than 260 species – that stop along the Gulf Coast during their flights from North to South America. Today, the vast majority of that bird habitat is destroyed.
It is critical to Gulf Coast communities and the nation as a whole to provide the funding and action needed to restore these natural treasures.
More than $50 million in emergency federal funding is needed to assess the damage, to identify the highest priorities for rebuilding and to restore these natural systems. Damaged natural systems such as oyster reefs, barrier islands, freshwater marshes, and coastal forests must quickly be restored to provide natural defenses against future storms and to rebuild local economies.
The Nature Conservancy is asking policy makers to develop reconstruction plans that take into account sea level rise and the growing number of severe weather events linked to global climate change. Such storms threaten American communities as well as populations around the world. This past autumn, in the Mexico and Central America, Hurricane Stan took the lives of more than 1,000 people and left more than 100,000 homeless.
Restoration plans must also address reconnecting the Mississippi River with its floodplain and reinforcing the barrier island system. And the nation must begin implementing the first phase of the long-planned Louisiana Wetlands Restoration Project.
In the coming months, The Nature Conservancy will coordinate with willing sellers to acquire land to restore the Gulf Coast’s natural areas. And we are working with public and private partners to ensure that restoration plans are based on sound science.
Through the cooperation of government agencies, private institutions and individuals, we can work together to ensure that the natural systems of the Gulf of Mexico continue to be a national treasure that benefits us all.
For more information about The Nature Conservancy's response to the Gulf Coast hurricanes:
- Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua
- Statement: Nature Conservancy, Partners Propose Renewed Coastal Conservation in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
- Statement: Nature Conservancy Statement on the Impact of Hurricane Stan
- How We Work: Global Climate Change Initiative
- How We're Helping: Nature Conservancy Staff, Volunteers Help with Hurricane Relief Effort
Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers from across the country recently volunteered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on an assignment to help with federal Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. - How You Can Help: Support our work to restore the natural ecosystems damaged by the hurricanes
For more than 40 years, The Nature Conservancy has worked across the Gulf states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas to protect coastal habitat. Now, more than ever, action must be taken to restore these areas.
