Thoughts from A Special Place
"Bayou Bienvenue has been good to us, it's time for us to be good to it." - John Taylor
8 posts categorized "Water"
Thoughts from A Special Place
"Bayou Bienvenue has been good to us, it's time for us to be good to it." - John Taylor
Thoughts from A Special Place
"There is always a way to find beauty in something you really care about." - John Taylor
John Taylor works for the CSED as Wetlands Specialist. "Thoughts from A Special Place" will be made of his quotes and photographs about the Bayou.
John has spent most of his life enjoying Bayou Bienvenue hunting, fishing, admiring, interacting, (teaching people) and taking photos of the bayou and the wildlife in and around the triangle
Please stay tuned to this blog to see some of his beautiful work!
"Living With Water": New Site Focuses on Managing New Orleans' Water as a Asset
Great new online resource has just been launched: Living With Water.com. A team, led by Waggonner & Ball Architects, is developing an Comprehensive, Sustainable, Integrated Water Management Strategy for St. Bernard Parish and the East Banks of Jefferson and Orleans Parish. Sign up to receive updates on this important initiative.
"Greater New Orleans is defined by its relationship to water, and the abundance of water in this region. The Mississippi, Lake Pontchartrain, cypress swamps, and winding bayous once defined our landscape. Today the water is almost invisible. Levees, floodwalls and buried culverts keep it out of sight and out of mind.
We can use water as a resource to improve safety, quality-of-life, and economic vitality in our three parishes. By using vegetation and landscape design to delay water along its drainage pathway, to store water in our landscape so that it nourishes our soils and vegetation, and to drain water only when necessary, we can improve urban and environmental quality, increase biodiversity, and balance groundwater levels."
Community Conversations on Coastal Restoration
Join the National Wildlife Federation on Tuesday June, 19th at the New Orleans Healing Center at 2372 St. Claude Avenue. Free food will be provided and it is sure to be a laid back atmosphere with lively conversation! Join us!
Recognizing a Great Partnership Between Lower 9th Ward CSED and Sierra Club
Tracy Nelson, Executive Director of CSED and Robin Mann, Sierra Club President on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform (Caffin & Florida)
What a thrill it was for CSED to be recognized by an organization as well known and well respected as the Sierra Club. And it was an honor and delight to not only meet Michael Brune and Robin Mann but the board members of both the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation as well. The highlight for me was receiving the award out on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform where so many events, press conferences and influential people have gathered. This platform, built from the desire of the community to be reconnected to the water, shows how great collaborations can bring a project to fruition in situations where very little progress was originally anticipated. In partnership with the Sierra Club, the University of Wisconsin biology students, University of Colorado at Denver design students, Common Ground volunteers, CSED staff, residents and local carpenters, this platform has become a symbol of the ‘can-do attitude’ of one small community. Used daily by residents and visitors alike, the platform is a vital link for our community to the wetlands that border our neighborhood.
If you have not been to this special site within the Lower 9th Ward, it is located at the end of Caffin and Florida Avenue. If you come early in the morning you may, by chance, run into local resident John (Swamp Red) Taylor. John not only maintains the site for CSED but he is an endless wealth of knowledge about the wetlands and how it used to be when he was a coming up.
Left: John Taylor with young gator at site
Right: Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform
NOLA.com: Louisiana coastal restoration 50-year blueprint released
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune
Declaring Louisiana’s loss of coastal wetlands “nothing short of a national emergency,” state officials today released a $50 billion, 50-year strategy for rebuilding land and increasing protection from storm surge for coastal communities that they say can be paid for with money the state is reasonably sure it will receive.
The strategy is outlined in the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s draft five-year master plan update, which for the first time contains maps showing the location and scope of proposed projects and maps showing what the state’s coastline will look like in 2061 if they’re built. Lists of the projects also show their cost.
The master plan was made available on the Web Thursday at noon at www.coastalmasterplan.la.gov.
Also included is a map showing the wetlands loss that will occur by 2061 if the master plan isn’t implemented and the extent of flooding from storm surges that will accompany a 100-year hurricane in 2061 if the projects aren’t built.
The document makes clear that some smaller coastal communities, and some segments of rapidly eroding coastal wetlands, will be losers in the expensive race to restoration. READ MORE >>
via www.nola.com
Greater New Orleans Region to Develop Sustainable Integrated Water Management Strategy
Greater New Orleans, Inc. announced that Waggonner & Ball Architects, APC will be awarded the contract to develop the Comprehensive, Sustainable Integrated Water Management Strategy for St. Bernard Parish and the east banks of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes for storm water, waste water, ground water, flood control, water infrastructure, public rights of way, and other public properties.
The funding to execute the program is provided through a $2 million Comprehensive Resiliency Program award from the Louisiana Office of Community Development-Disaster Recovery Unit (OCD-DRU) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to GNO, Inc.
"Many areas in St. Bernard Parish and the east banks of Orleans and Jefferson parishes depend on a large-scale pumping system susceptible to failure even during normal rainfall, resulting in flooding that divides these neighborhoods," said Paul Rainwater, Louisiana Commissioner of Administration. "Additional threats, such as subsidence and rising sea levels, also contribute to the need for a solution-based approach to an integrated water management strategy that is vital to the continued recovery, growth, and development of the region."
GNO, Inc. invited experienced, multi-disciplinary teams to submit proposals for this initiative through a competitive bidding process that included a selection committee consisting of parish officials and experts in engineering, planning and design, community engagement, environmental sustainability, and flood protection.
"Due to the geography and topography of the Greater New Orleans region, water management is an important issue for businesses and residents in our area," said Michael Hecht, President and CEO of GNO, Inc. "Waggonner & Ball has proven experience in research, interpretation and modeling, policy, infrastructure, design, and implementation. We expect the consultant team to produce a valuable and implementable strategy based on international best practices, and we congratulate them for earning this contract."
The announcement coincides with the 19th annual World Water Day. Held each year on March 22, World Water Day focuses attention on the importance of freshwater and advocates for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme for 2011 is "Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge." The United Nations General Assembly designated March 22, 1993 as the first World Water Day. READ MORE >>
