BP's Gulf oil spill reminds us we can't ignore wetlands: a look at books

Reporters covering the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico refer to our shores here as "Louisiana's fragile coast." If they mean easily damaged, then the word "fragile" is appropriate, and for decades now, trying to save the wetlands along the Louisaina coast has been a dark waltz of abuse, calls for restoration, abuse, and more calls.

If you're keeping up with the news about the BP oil disaster, if you read the blogs, listen to NPR, CNN, Fox News, and other media outlets, some dicussing a silence lately in the "Drill, baby, drill sector!," you grasp one fact of life quickly: Everything is political. But to residents along the Gulf Coast, "Can home be a political thing?" And if you don't live in a state that kisses the Gulf coastline, should you care about the impact of the oil spill and what is happening to Louisiana's coastal ecosystem?

With the news building over what's being called possibly the worst national environmental disaster in decades, some readers may be interested in books that will educate them about the ecology of the Louisiana wetlands as well as the oil industry and its impact on the state's natural environment and financial health. The New Orleans Literature Examiner, who's also written about the oil spill at her personal blog, points you to three books that address or touch why saving and restoring our wetlands is important. In the next few days, she'll consider which books on the oil industry are easy to digest.

This first book, Saving Louisiana? The Battle for Coastal Wetlands by Bill Streever was published in 2001, four years before Hurricane Katrina. Like many books addressing environment, it was published by an academic institution, the University of Mississippi Press.

This Examiner.com piece places discussion of the wetlands in the context of Katrina because it was that storm that reawakened some average Americans to the importance of restoring them. Streever begins his book asking, what if "the Old River Control Structure, a series of gates mounted in the Mississippi River levee 170 miles upstream from New Orleans," failed?

From there the author moves on to how deltas develop to misunderstandings about wetlands and to a discussions with Dr. Gene Turner, a professor at the LSU Coastal Ecology Institute. According to its website, "The Institute's mission is to provide university-based leadership and scientific expertise in finding solutions to environmental problems affecting coastal and marine environments."

Streeve's book is described as "An objective look at an ecological uproar pitting scientists, oil companies, and citizens in coastal conflict." From a review at Pop Matters:

Another prospective environmental disaster of interest only to Green Freaks? Hardly. When a Louisiana coastal marsh dies, it isn't just grass and wildflowers that go. The marsh continues to consolidate under its own weight. It subsides and is reclaimed by the Gulf of Mexico. This has happened to an area about the size of Rhode Island and is obvious even to casual observers. Highway engineers watch roads subside. Petroleum engineers fret about wells and pipelines moving out to sea. Commercial fishermen suffer. Even city-slicker sportsmen notice. Gumbo slurping rednecks don't have to be told.

The death of the Mississippi Coastal Wetlands is a hot topic in Louisiana and well it should be. Streever offers a clear synthesis of the problem, which is remarkable since he does so by recording his extensive travels through the Coastal Wetlands and beyond. He is involved. He gets wet. He gets cold and muddy. But his interviews with scientists, scholars, bureaucrats, lawyers and just plain folks who are involved in the death and rehabilitation of the marshes are what comprise the substance of his book. (More)

 This next book, America's Wetland: Louisiana's Vanishing Coast, has great photos from Bevil Knapp with text by Mike Dunne:

America's Wetland sounds the clarion call of the catastrophic effects of Louisiana's vanishing coastline--not just for Louisiana but for the nation and the world. This vital landscape known as America's Wetland is currently disappearing at a rate of twenty-four square miles per year and could lose another five to seven hundred square miles in the next fifty years if no action is taken. New Orleans could become "America's Atlantis," one of the country's unique cultures lost forever. Bevil Knapp's beautiful, sometimes startling photographs and Mike Dunne's incisive commentary bring the urgency of this problem into full view. The book makes clear that as coastal erosion in Louisiana worsens at an alarming rate, the nation's economic and energy security is put at ever-higher risk and the environmental repercussions become unthinkable. Aerial photographs show how the oil and gas infrastructure is becoming increasingly exposed to the Gulf. Wells, pipelines, ports, roads, and levees that are key to delivering energy to the nation have been made vulnerable. Louisiana wetlands are the natural nursery ground for much of the country's seafood and the wintering habitat for more than five million waterfowl and migratory birds. Stunning photographs of owls, pelicans, egret, crab, crawfish, and alligators illustrate the vast array of wildlife whose home--if not very survival--is endangered by the possible collapse of this intricate ecosystem. America's Wetland not only maps the causes and effects of Louisiana's diminishing coast but also outlines restorative and conservation initiatives such as tree planting, rebuilding fisheries, and setting aside wildlife refuges. With the active support of allAmericans, there is still hope that this imperiled border of the country can be saved. (Google Books)

Like the first book listed, Saving Louisiana?, America's Wetland was written before Hurricane Katrina.

Finally, consider The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley, a historian and Tulane University professor who joined its staff less than a year before Katrina hit:

Through coastal erosion and man-made engineering mistakes, nearly 100 million acres of buffering wetlands in southern Louisiana disappeared between 1930 and 2005. Public awareness campaigns with names like Coasts 2050 and No Time to Lose were launched but did little good. Too many Americans saw these swamps and coastal marshes as wastelands. "The impact of losing their wetlands was overwhelming," explained Park Moore, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "All the habitat for animals and invertebrates was disappearing along with a vital natural filter, which prevents pollution in the Gulf from toxic agents from oil and gas. Dredging killed the wetlands, which in time would leave Louisianans more vulnerable to hurricanes."

You may continue reading in the frame below, which captures part of chapter one, "Ignoring the Inevitable." While Brinkley's book is more about the aftermath of Katrina, it reminds us how easily things fall apart along the Gulf coast. 

The Great Deluge, Hurricane Katrina - Excerpt

While more a personal list of books about the Louisiana coast rather than a comprehensive roster of vetted sources, these three books remind us that often while we weep over ecological losses, none of the news is actually new. If we can keep the momentum of concern stirred during catastrophes, perhaps we can act more wisely before the next one comes.

Lagnaippe:  "Bird coated in oil as Louisiana Gulf spill nears wetlands," Huffington Post photos. Also, "Disappearing Wetlands Taint New Orleans’ Rebound From Katrina," this September 2009 article quotes John Barry, a New Orleans resident and author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, who's been monitoring how the Obama administration handles restoration of the coastlines.