Saving Louisiana's Coastal Cypress Forest

The Sierra Club's Delta Chapter (Louisiana) has joined with other groups to form the Save Our Cypress Coalition to raise awareness and stop the logging of Louisiana's coastal cypress forests to make cypress mulch. "Threatened cypress stands are being clear-cut for an unsustainable and unnecessary cypress mulch industry," says Baton Rouge Sierra Club leader Jeffrey Dubinsky. Promoting other gardening options like pine straw and eucalyptus mulch will help stop the destruction of cypress wetlands that provide habitat for endangered species and barriers to flooding and hurricanes. Delta Chapter activist Dean Wilson, below, conducts tours of the cypress forests and spearheads the Sierra Club's campaign. On February 22 the Baton Rouge Advocate ran a front-page story on the "Battle Over Cypress," and ran video spots on the six 'o'clock and ten 'oclock news that featured Wilson and Dubinsky.

Comments

[Andrew]

It is true that Louisiana's cypress forest are threatened. However, I think the Sierra Club should take a closer look at the ecological factors that are causing the coastal forest to decline in Louisiana.

The Mississippi once flowed freely and changed courses. Through this process sediment was deposited which created the wetlands in LA.The United States Army Core of Engineers (USACOE) built levees during the 20th century in an effort to protect homes and infrastructure along the Mississippi River. This prevented the MS River from depositing new sediment within Southeast LA.Traditionally, the wetlands have eroded but the soil was replaced by sediment from the MS River.The artificial levees built by the USACOE prevent the MS River from depositing sediment into our cypress forest and wetlands.
Freshwater diversions have been built to allow sediment to be deposited into the cypress forest and other wetland types. These diversions are control structures that allow a portion of the rivers waters to flow into the wetlands. However, the diversions have affected some oyster leases within Southeast LA. The owners of these leases filed suit and won. This ruling has prevented the USACOE from developing new freshwater diversion canals and existing canals only operate a partial output. Meaning they are only allowed to let so much of the MS River's water volume to flow in to the marshes and Wetlands. Keep in mind that freshwater diversion canals were developed in an effort to restore the MS River the way that it once flowed during flooding events.
I think the diversion canals are a good step forward in restoring the coastal forest of Louisiana. However, the oyster farmers have prevented these programs from moving forward.

I think there is a winning solution for both the oyster farmers and coastal forest. Perhaps the state could honor these leases in other areas that have higher salinity levels. This would prevent diversion canals from making the oyster leases into unsuitable locations to farm oysters.
However, public attention is needed in order to get proposed legislation on the agenda within the state of SE Louisiana.

This is were the Sierra Club could really help the coastal forest of LA.Preserving our coastal forest is something that I am passionate about and I think the Sierra Club has made tremendous efforts in doing so.

If anyone has more questions please post and I will respond.I am not an expert on this issue but I have studied several courses that deal with our coastal forest of Louisiana

[Mardi Gracias]

Great post and a great comment. I didn't know that Louisiana's cypress forests were in danger. If there are ecological factors that are a bigger concern to the Cypress, maybe a middle ground can be reaches.