An Earth Day Special - Environmental Success Story: Help For The Mississippi River Delta

If there's a silver lining to the BP oil spill of 2010, it's this: knowing that national attention and concern was fixed on the Gulf and Mississippi River Delta, environmentalists saw a rare opportunity to rally public support for habitat-saving ventures long overdue.

Among the main concerns is the loss of the delta itself. Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost nearly 1,900 square miles of land, or approximately the entire state of Delaware.

One reason for the land loss is the nationally-supported levees in the region as well as dams as far north as Ohio. While built to protect communities and crops along the river, the man made structures also restrict the natural flow of sediment that both builds and sustains the delta itself.

Meanwhile, the region has undergone massive upheaval as a result of the construction of thousands of miles of oil and gas canals, which in turn have allowed saltwater to penetrate the wetlands, disrupting the salinity balance and vegetation in the region.

As a result, groups like RESTORE warn that the area is liable to keep shrinking until not only wildlife but people and jobs are threatened as well.

Mother Nature hasn't been kind to the area, either, with storms like Katrina and Rita, both of whom compromised the delta's natural infrastructure and vegetation.

So when the BP oil spill took place, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) partnered with organizations like RESTORE to design the RESTORE act, which passed in June 2012, marking what the EDF calls "a major turning point for the Gulf Coast environment and economy."

Among other things, the bill directs funds from oil spill penalties - numbers often tallied in the billions - to restore the wetlands.

With legislation and funding secured, EDF scientists were able to develop the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan, which includes 145 projects designed to restore 400 miles of coastline.

As a result, Senior Director Paul Harrison said the Gulf is now home "to the first place in the developed world that's adapting to climate change on such a large scale." Going forward, he said, it's a matter of ensuring "there will be no more boondoggles and we can truly replicate nature and leave a self-sustaining delta."