All efforts to corral the Mississippi River have been successful at protecting the highly populated regions of southern Louisiana since the 1930s, but now the state is feeling the repercussions of confining a mighty river to a narrow, rigid path. Mike Tidwell’s Bayou Farewell deals with the effects of the Mississippi River’s confinement most directly through Tidwell seeing the land loss from the levees and lack of floodplains, then detailing further the history of the river and how this ecosystem has come to react to human intervention. Sadly, it seems that we have created our own problems. The combination of “10,000 miles” of canals cut through the marsh by big oil companies, like Chevron and BP, and the erosion from the wakes of the boating and fishery industries has laid a beating to the marshes and bayous along the Louisiana coastline (Budreau). Without any replenishment from the Mississippi River, it has sadly eroded to a mere “25% of the total wetlands that made up [coastal Louisiana back] in 1932” (Couvillion).
The Mississippi River had always been a free-flowing force of …show more content…
Do we really know enough about the river to make multi-billion dollar calls about how to best get the Louisiana coast back on track? Is there enough time for the marshes to be saved, or are they already condemned to a watery grave? Perhaps an explosion of support mounted for river diversions and hundreds of billions of dollars is poured into saving the marshes, but the river diversions fail. The last thing that would be beneficial to the situation is a public disregard for the loss of the lands and the ability to say, “Hey we tried, and it didn’t work. We’re done, it’s your problem.” Would the government even be able to efficiently take hold the reigns of coastal restoration, or is that burden reserved for the public or its