Obama, Sutley support wetlands restoration

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Key White House officials called on Audubon coastal scientist Dr. Paul Kemp and other environmental leaders to discuss coastal restoration in New Orleans during President Obama's visit Oct. 15.

"We made it clear that we were there to help them, and I think that they were receptive that idea," said Kemp, who leads Audubon's Louisiana Coastal Initiative.

Primarily because of the separation of the Mississippi River from its delta by levees, Louisiana has lost more than 1.2 million acres of coastal land in the last 75 years, representing about 80 percent of coastal land loss in the United States. Louisiana continues to lose the equivalent of up to 32 football fields of coastal land each day.

In anticipation of the president's visit, Audubon President John Flicker joined Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana congressional delegation, energy and navigation industry leaders, community groups and other environmental groups in calling on President Obama to make concrete progress on wetlands restoration before the end of his first term.

"We stand jointly and individually ready to partner with you," the group told the president in an open letter printed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and elsewhere.

It's a message toward which the White House is increasingly receptive.

During a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans, President Obama commented on the importance of wetlands restoration:

"Here on the Gulf Coast, we're working to make sure this region is protected in the event of a hundred-year storm. We've already seen 220 miles worth of levees and floodwalls repaired, and we are working to strengthen the wetlands and barrier islands that are the first line of defense for the Gulf Coast. This isn't just critical to this region's physical protection; it's critical to our environment, and it's critical to our economy. That's why we're establishing an interagency working group that will be responsible for coordinating our restoration efforts across the Gulf at all levels of government."

Earlier in the day, Audubon's Kemp had met with Obama's top environmental adviser, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, and representatives from several environmental, community, government and industry groups to tour the Bayou Bienvenue Coastal Restoration Site in New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward and discuss the complexities of coastal restoration.

"I think the fact that the meeting took place was some indication that we had been successful in getting our message across during recent trips to Washington," said Kemp.

But despite positive statements and increased attention from the White House, Kemp said, "we still haven't seen this translated into budgets, into principles, into guidance to the agencies, or into people and leadership."

Kemp and Sutley agree that a major near-term priority will be to ensure that President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget includes significant funding for big-scale coastal restoration projects.

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