World Wetlands Day~Feb. 2, 2007

    Tomorrow, Friday February 2, 2007, was proclaimed as being World Wetlands Day by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Baton Rouge, Louisianna.  The state of Louisianna is in great need of more coastal development and protection because they are rapidly losing their wetlands.  Louisianna is known as America’s wetlands and ever since Hurricane Katrina, they have been majorly suffering from the losses of coastal lands.  Governor Blanco proposed this World Wetlands Day in order to make not only the residents Louisianna more aware of the problem at hand, but also to make the entire world aware of this problem.

Louisianna Wetlands

Image from: http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/outreach/wint9596/limg0079.gif

     Louisianna can typically be expected to have about 6,000 square miles of wetlands.  However, if the state continues to lose coastal wetlands there will be anywhere near this amount of wetlands.  In the 1990s, 230 square miles of coastal lands were lost.  The amount of coastal wetlands lost after the horrible hurricanes that Louisianna experienced have increased the amount of wetlands that are going to be lost this decade.  In Governor Blanco’s proposal, she lists an extensive list of all the many reasons that protecting the coastal wetlands is so beneficial and vital to Louisianna’s ecosystem.  These are some of the reasons that stood out to me in her proposal:

• “America’s WETLAND is an area of world ecological significance and of strategic importance to our national economy and energy security, and is at great risk;
• America’s WETLAND is the wintering habitat for millions of waterfowl and migratory birds whose habitat is lost as the wetlands disappear, and the nation relies on Louisiana’s working wetlands to provide protection for oil and gas pipelines that serve as a major artery for delivering more than 25 percent of the nations energy;
• the state has lost 2,100 square miles of land since the 1930’s and is expected to lose another 500 square miles over the next 50 years if nothing is done to save it;”

Image from: http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/outreach/wint9596/limg0085.gif

     As you can see, it is vital that the people in Louisianna take notice of this World Wetlands Day and try to become more active participants in helping to preserve such a fragile part of their environment since it is so important to how their ecosystem works.  It is also very important that the rest of us get involved and are also supportive of this issue and try to become more knowledgable on the issue on World Wetlands Day.  We should take note of all the issues that Governor Blanco brought up and do everything in our power to make sure that these coastal wetlands are not lost.

Source:

http://www.americaswetland.com/article.cfm?id=485&cateid=2&pageid=3