Coastal Erosion

Louisiana marshes are disappearing pulling the state’s land into the Gulf of Mexico and turning into open water. This is due to coastal erosion, global warming, and the increase in human activity. These can and will affect New York and the rest of the country just as much as it is going to affect Louisiana, which is why this issue should not only drawn to the attention of New York, nevertheless in other states too. Tax money contributed by New York and other states combined can help prevent the state from ever so slowly disappear.

Coastal erosion is when land wears away due to currents, drainage, or high winds. This concern is literally making the state of Louisiana to disappear little by little, as stated on page 11 of the textbook, “an area

The search for oil is one of the major causes of coastal erosion, in order to extract oil there are pipelines and canals in the coastal marshes. These contraptions would often allow saltwater intrusion and it allows, according on page 12 of the textbook, “Saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico moves into the marshes along these avenues and kills the marsh grasses that holds the soil in place”. The saltwater is annihilating the grasses in the marshes when they’re killed; the soil that the plant’s roots are holding together vanishes. In addition to saltwater intrusion, numerous of vast holes created from oil drilling underneath the marshes. In many of these areas the marshes steadily sink as a result of the earth’s crust not being able to hold the weight of the marsh. Rivers have dams to make reservoirs, however they are trapping sediments, which leads to the fact that only half of the sediments reaches the gulf today unlike 100 years

About 23 million migratory birds go to Louisiana’s wetlands during their migration. As stated on page 12 of the textbook, “In the last 50 years, an area the size of Rhode Island has vanished.” Regarding the amount of land that was already lost and that about 2.5 acres are disappearing per hour, migrating birds would need to fly further north during the migration season, in addition to native birds in need to look for a new habitat. This can cause a problem with the repopulation with birds. Likewise, this issue is affecting fishes and other animals as well. Since the disappearing land turn into open water, at first glance this issue would have a better impact on the fishes and water critters, instead like the birds, fishes can have an issue with repopulation. Coastal marshes are thought to be a critical nursery habitat for both fish and shellfish, without the wetlands that Louisiana provides, these water creatures can have a repopulation issue; in addition to the migrating birds along with some species of the native