Earlier this week, the state of Louisiana unveiled their 50-year, $50 billion plan for restoring and rebuilding the Louisiana coast. Their plan is the most comprehensive the state has seen regarding Gulf restoration. Much of the Gulf’s destruction can be linked to current management of the Mississippi River, its surrounding agriculture and its levee system, as the River drains directly into the Gulf.
Since the 1930’s, when the Mississippi’s levee system was first built, Louisiana’s Gulf coast has lost an amount of land equaling the state of New Jersey. Louisiana’s ambitious plan asserts that not only will it stop land loss in thirty years and will in fact rebuild 859 square miles over the next fifty years.
For more information, read this report from the Associated Press.