Letter: Preventing disasters key issue
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Thank you for your review of candidates running to replace U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, in the 6th District, and their positions on issues such as disaster recovery.
The National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society and Environmental Defense hope that you will devote an entire future question session to their views on an equally important issue — preventing future disasters.
To do this, Louisiana’s representatives in Washington must be leaders in restoring the coastal wetlands while rebuilding our communities and economy so that they suffer less when hurricanes hit and can spring back more quickly.
Broad swaths of healthy coastal marshes and forests help to protect levees, communities and people. Louisianians agree that we must restore the coast, and that time is not on our side.
Science tells us that we must move forward rapidly on large, bold restoration projects using the land-building power of the Mississippi River if we are to restore our lost coastal marshes and wetland forests.
Scientists and planners have worked for years so that we now stand ready to launch Louisiana and our nation into the largest public works project ever undertaken. This effort must be successful — the stakes for our state and the rest of the country are huge.
Garret Graves, the director of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Affairs, is one of the many people who recognize how important this is. Graves recently told your paper, “If we’re not going to do this (restore and protect the coast), then we need to stop the other economic development initiatives in Louisiana.”
It is critical that our congressional delegation share this sense of urgency.
The delegation must also lead reform of federal programs so that individuals, communities and businesses who want to design their towns, buildings and infrastructure to better survive hurricanes are encouraged and helped, not hindered.
In this era of sea-level rise and climate change, the rest of the nation will have a lot to learn from Louisiana if we can return to our heritage of building smarter, stronger and safer.
Success will require the engagement and support of all of Congress and the nation. The new representative of the 6th Congressional District must be a leader on these issues at the national level along with the rest of the Louisiana delegation. Let’s find out how the candidates are thinking about and preparing for this urgent work.
Maura Wood, senior program manager
National Wildlife Federation
Baton Rouge
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