. The ecology of delta marshes of coastal Louisiana : a community profile. Marsh ecology -- Louisiana; Wetlands -- Louisiana. Recently some permits for dredging in the delta marshes have included require- ments for marsh improvement elsewhere to mitigate the damage in the permit area. This is a creative mechanism for conserv- ing marsh, although at the expense of other marsh tracts. Unfortunately, the methodology for assessing the true envi- ronmental cost of canals is rudimentary, so the relationship between the canal damage and the mitigation effort is some- wh a t a rb i t ra ry. If environ
. The ecology of delta marshes of coastal Louisiana : a community profile. Marsh ecology -- Louisiana; Wetlands -- Louisiana. Recently some permits for dredging in the delta marshes have included require- ments for marsh improvement elsewhere to mitigate the damage in the permit area. This is a creative mechanism for conserv- ing marsh, although at the expense of other marsh tracts. Unfortunately, the methodology for assessing the true envi- ronmental cost of canals is rudimentary, so the relationship between the canal damage and the mitigation effort is some- wh a t a rb i t ra ry. If environmental costs of development in wetlands are to be internalized by the developer, we need much better information about how to assess these costs. In a recent article /Vnft et al. (in review) present a methodology and make a bene- fitrcost assessment of an oil well access canal in the chenier plain. Based on their methodology, they suggest that a conservative estimate of the environmental cost for a typical exploratory well is $380,000 (1981 dollars) per kilometer of access canal. common in the chenier plain than in the delta, primarily because the firner substrate in the cheniers makes levee construction much less expensive and more effective. The idea behind these impoundments is to prevent salt intrusion and thus retard marsh loss. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to show that they are effective, and some evidence to suggest that they are not. Baumann, Conner, and Gosselink (LSU Center for Wetland Resources; unpubl, MS.) analyzed marsh loss rates in impoundments compared to adjacent unimpounded areas, and concluded that loss rates ivere actually higher in impoundments than outside them (Figure 70). Wicker et al, (1983) also measured marsh loss rates in different kinds of impoundments in the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. Although they presented no comparative data, it is apparent from their maps that marsh degra- dation is occurring in all the impound- ments except perha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionbio, booksubjectwetlandslouisiana
