Efforts to save Gulf coastline slog on in face of massive oil disaster
Published: Sunday, July 18, 2010, 10:00 AM
By Kari Dequine. contributing writer
Cynthia Zmetromak of Metairie and Letitia Huckaby of Texas carefully push the roots of each stem of marsh grass into the thick mud, then give it a tug to make sure it will not come up.
It was immediately apparent that walking upright wasn't going to work. With each step, the merciless muck sucked every boot, sandal or shoe into the depths -- and didn't want to give it back. It was better to crawl, using caution in case of sharp oyster shells, or better yet, dip down into the bayou's muddy water and move in a half-squatting, half-swimming motion.
The benefit of the soft squelch, however, came with the ease in which the roots of the California bulrush could be shoved into the mud using only one's fist. And on one of the seemingly endless days with a heat advisory, the benefit of submerging up to the neck was that being wet was cooler than being dry.
"I wish I could do this every day," said Che Gilliland, a kindergarten teacher on Whidbey Island in Washington, who had come to southeast Louisiana to pitch in on the Gulf oil spill cleanup.
Despite months of oil gushing in the Gulf of Mexico in the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the work of rebuilding Louisiana's rapidly vanishing coast slogs on in the face of the massive disaster and its accompanying cleanup effort. A football field of the state's wetlands is lost every 38 minutes.
The 2,000 stems of marsh grass planted by volunteers on Tuesday just east of Golden Meadow in Bayou L'Ours will help the marsh defend in the daily battle against enemies such as erosion, storm surge and even oil, said Mel Landry, public involvement coordinator for the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. Still, Landry is realistic about the ongoing battle, reminding volunteers during their six hours spent in the mud that far more marshland had been lost than gained.
"We're not going to save the coast in a day," he said. "But anywhere we can improve the habitat and help offset impacts of the spill--it's definitely a clear benefit."
Unified effort
Tuesday's planting was a partnership between the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the estuary program and the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The task of restoration is immense, said Jennifer Hathorn, the coalition's coastal restoration coordinator. "We realized we needed to work together," she said.
While restoring lost land is the coalition's principal goal, the oil disaster "gives us even more reason why we need to get out there and get out there as fast as possible," she said. A direct consequence of erosion, she said, is that oil is allowed to permeate farther inland.
Volunteers Shannon Kirkpatrick of Houma and Betsy Gosling of Metairie get down and dirty planting marsh grass in the muddy waters of Bayou L'Ours.
The partnership joined other conservation groups to start a website and an entirely new acronym, GRIT, for Gulf Response Involvement Team, where people could register to volunteer. More than 20,000 people have signed up.
Volunteers come at all levels and types of skills and expertise and at varying motivating forces and places of origin. Willingness is the only requirement.
"I went through Katrina, and I know that we need to have wetlands or we won't have much of a city left," said Metairie resident Betsy Gosling, explaining why she finds herself waist-deep in muddy water among the fish, crabs, bugs and potential (though never sighted) snakes and alligators on a hot July day. "I won't go into politics, but no one else is going to do it."
Planting the marsh grass is a considerable investment, Landry said, as the plants cost about $2 each. In addition, research must be done on such factors as salinity, and test plots must be planted to determine the species with the highest chance for survival. Logistical support, especially in finding boats to use, is always an issue.
First, do no harm
Repairing the marsh always begins with the question of finding ways that do more good than harm, Landry said.
That is often the case when cleaning oil that has washed into the marsh. "It would be better if we just left it. The grass is very resilient. But that's a hard thing for people to understand -- they are upset and desperate. They want to see something done,'' he said. "The fact that it might be best not to do anything can be a hard pill to swallow."
With the oil-related safety concerns, coastal restoration efforts have been limited significantly in what sites can be selected for plantings. Yet the overall goal has never held such importance.
"Given that we can't go and actually have contact with the oil, we try to go to the surrounding areas that are affected," Hathorn said.
She also pointed out that the need will last for decades. "This is not a short-term disaster," she said. "It's not a simple fix -- it's a slow process. When everyone says it is safe to go in, we will go in and replace any parts of the grass that has been damaged."
On one of the few positive notes, Landry said the oil has brought national attention to the perils the marsh has faced for many decades. "It provides us the opportunity to reach out to people who otherwise would not have been interested or had the opportunity to be involved," he said.
'All you can do is laugh'
One key element in fostering successful volunteer projects and thus an increased sense of stewardship over the land, Hathorn said, is fun.
"This is a kick," Gosling said. "How many people get to go out and play in the marsh like this?"
Throughout the day smiles never left faces. Laughter abounded, and as one volunteer pointed out, when you are stuck in the mud and frequently falling over, "all you can do is laugh."
From a Jefferson man who just retired from a long career with Shell Oil Co. to a young woman from Bourg about to head off to veterinary school, the volunteers ended the day's work drying off on the dock and bonding over watermelon. The strongest bond -- wanting to do something to help save the coast -- was there before they met. Gilliland pressed the staff as to whether there would be another project while she was still in town.
As he thanked them for their "important and valuable work," Landry pushed for his volunteers to aid in one of the most powerful aspects of conservation: education. It will take a national effort, he said, to garner the vast resources needed to truly make an impact.
"Go home and tell the story of what you did," he urged. "Tell your friends why this place is so important."
