![]() ![]() A series of gates that look like a spillway will control how much water flows through. ![]() The $2.2 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, primarily paid for by money BP paid the state to recover from the Deepwater spill and run by the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, will cut a hole in a levee, reconnecting the Mississippi River to marshes south of the greater New Orleans metro area. This year the state begins construction on the largest coastal restoration project in the country - one that will drastically redistribute water flow through this area. Each time, though, they’ve adapted.īut now, another huge change is coming to these fragile wisps of land. For the tribes that have lived here for generations, every shift in the shoreline is deeply felt. All together, these elements have worked in a destructive synergy, causing Louisiana to lose, on average, a football field of land every hour since 1932, as wetlands become open water. Hurricane Ida in 2021 destroyed the state, and the coastal tribes are still struggling to recover from the damage. Decades of oil-and-gas drilling plus the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest marine oil spill in history, wreaked additional havoc on the coast, killing off plants and wildlife. ![]() As sea levels rise and hurricanes intensify, washing away barrier islands and trees, it makes wind damage, storm surge, and flooding a greater threat. The Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha Tribe has lived on this land for thousands of years, just above the mouth of the Mississippi River, which fans out like a bird’s foot where it meets the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal indigenous communities in Louisiana practice subsistence living, meaning they try to only take what they need, growing crops and harvesting shrimp, oysters, redfish, and crabs to eat or sell. Today, modest houses that are only accessible by water balance on wooden pilings, and docks jut out in front, stacked with crab traps and enormous green wharf nets used to catch shrimp. ![]()
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