U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Norco, Louisiana on Monday to announce a new environmental initiative aimed at private landowners along the Gulf Coast.
The Department of Agriculture and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are looking to fund conservation projects as part of the ongoing recovery from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
80 percent of Louisiana marshland is privately owned. Ted Falgout of Larose is one of those owners. He’s an alligator and crawfish farmer, a fisheries biologist, and previously the head of Port Fourchon, where he served as executive director for 30 years. Falgout owns 1,500 acres of coastal wetlands.
“My wetlands border the Intracoastal Waterway, one of the most rapidly eroding waterways where nothing is being done to curb the erosion of it," says Falgout. "I’m hoping it means that I can submit a project that fits the criteria and I’ll be considered.”
He's talking about the $40 million that’s now available to eligible private landowners impacted by the spill. The Department of Agriculture wants projects that include stream restoration, wetland restoration in both freshwater and tidal wetlands, and rehabilitating migratory bird rookeries.
Falgout says he’d use any Federal conservation money he gets to stabilize the disappearing marsh on his personal property. Falgout says some of the other big coastal landowners include the Golden Ranch Foundation, the mineral company Apache, and gas giant Conoco Philips.
Support for WWNO's Coastal Desk comes from the Walton Family Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and the Kabacoff Family Foundation.