Restoration and Resilience

A comprehensive response to the oil spill (and preparedness for the future) requires a national vision for restoring the waters, land, and their ecosystems to health. “Restoration” is the term of art for attempting to bring natural resources back after a spill. It also describes the recovery of large ecosystems by addressing the longstanding environmental problems that have caused their deterioration. The goal of any such effort is not necessarily to rebuild wetlands and barrier islands so that the coast looks like it did 100 years ago, but rather to reintroduce elements of the natural system so that the Mississippi River Delta—the epicenter of the threatened coastal region—can begin to heal itself. Restoration has been a topic of study and debate on the coast, particularly in Louisiana, for at least two decades.

To that end, conversations about repairing the Gulf coast and marine ecosystems increasingly aim at restoring the region’s natural “resilience,” a word that is gaining popular currency and is grounded in ecological research. Prior to the spill, Gulf states and federal authorities were already in various stages of restoring parts of the Gulf. Numerous ecosystem challenges now face the regions of the Gulf coast affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill. Barrier islands and shorelines are eroding from Florida to Texas. Essential habitats in coastal bays and estuaries have been lost to or degraded by pollution, energy or other development, changes in freshwater inflows, and overfishing. Restoring natural systems—as opposed to specific historical features or land forms—to health would bring resilience back into this vital economic and ecological region.