Green Options

What a great way to both help restore a critical ecosystem while teaching young kids valuable lessons about the real world: encourage schoolchildren to grow wetland plants at their schools for later planting in coastal habitat restoration projects.

That’s what Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Coastal Roots Project aims to do. Established in the pre-Katrina days of 2001, the program is now more vital than ever and — happy to say — schools across the state have come on board to join the cause.

A new report from the National Research Council (NRC) finds numerous problems with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ followup recommendations for restoring wetlands and protecting southern Louisiana from another Katrina-like disaster.

Among the most worrisome findings in the paper: the Corps’ failure to “consider the potential for structural failure of levees and floodwalls.”

“As a consequence,” the NRC report states, “the true risk to homes and businesses and people behind structures has not been determined.”