NGA CENTER FOR BEST PRACTICES

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NGA CENTER FOR BEST PRACTICES
Waves of Change Examining the Roles of States
in Emerging Ocean Policy
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Key Issues Confronting State Officials The
Americas WETLAND Restoration Initiative
Karen Gautreaux Louisiana Governors
OfficeSeptember 4, 2003
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THE PROBLEM
1956-90 Land Loss 1993-2050 Predicted
Land Loss
EXISTING PREDICTED LAND LOSS
1956-2050
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(No Transcript)
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THE IMPACT

• At least 25 of all oil and gas consumed in the
  U.S. and over 80 of offshore oil and gas supply
  travels through Louisianas wetlands
• More than 30 of U.S. fisheries catch from the
  lower 48 states comes from offshore Louisiana

ECONOMIC ENERGY SECURITY
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THE IMPACT

• One of the largest habitats for migratory
  waterfowl in the world
• Many plant and animal species in wetlands listed
  as threatened or endangered

WORLD ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
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• Louisiana Coastal Area Study
• Continuation of efforts beginning in 1989 with
  state legislation and 1990 passage of the Coastal
  Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration
  (Breaux) Act.
• Coast 2050 developed under auspices of Breaux Act
• LCA - Comprehensive plan for rehabilitating LAs
  Coastal wetland ecosystem

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Our Direction

• Vision
• Sustain coastal ecosystem that supports and
  protects the national economy, significant
  environmental values, and the unique culture
  of coastal Louisiana.
• Study Goal
• Explore strategies and develop long-range,
  large- scale plans to restore and protect
  central Gulf coast.

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Our Direction

• Objectives
• Hydro-geomorphic
• Maintain salinity gradients
• Increase sediment delivery
• Maintain or establish natural landscape features
• Ecosystem
• Improve productivity and sustain diverse flora,
  fauna, and habitat
• Reduce nutrient delivery to the gulf
• Achieve consistency of all coastal activities in
  support of the vision

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Report Purpose

• Present compelling rationale for national action
  and long-term commitment
• Present a Plan of action at a coast-wide scale
• Provide basis for Congressional approval of a
  Comprehensive Plan in WRDA 2004

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What will the report include?

• Benefit focused primarily on National Ecosystem
  Restoration
• Broad-scale description of potential economic
  effects
• Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
• General Project feature locations
• Cost estimates

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LCA Comprehensive Report

• Mississippi River Delta
• Mississippi River Basin
• Meandering of the Delta
• Gulf of Mexico
• Change over time
• Building the delta
• Natural Characteristics
• Introduction to Coastal Louisiana (map)

• Building the Nation
• Managing the River
• LA Purchase
• 1912,1927 floods
• Navigation Projects-Benefits/Effects
• Development of Communities
• Agriculture/ Forestry
• Soil Conservation
• Energy action/ effects/ benefits
• Fisheries

• Loss of America's Wetlands
• Rates and causes of losses
• Ecological impacts of future without
• Economic impacts
• Hurricane protection systems
• Navigation systems
• Oil and Gas
• Fisheries
• Cultural

• Saving Americas WETLAND
• Initial Phase
• Breaux Act
• Other Activities
• Not solving the Problem

• Saving Americas WETLAND
• Comprehensive Plan
• LCA Teams
• Alternatives (brief descriptions)
• The plan
• Comparison plan costs to benefits to the Nation
• Coastal Consistency
• Implementation Strategy

Storyboard
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COASTWIDE RESTORATION PLAN
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The Nations Resource
Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA)
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Funding Strategies

• Provide for use of multiple appropriations to
  fund project construction
• Define new funding sources
• Develop Federal partner programs in support of
  LCA
• Reallocate existing funding sources

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LCA Project Schedule
FY02 I FY03 I FY04 I FY05 I
FY06
OMB/CEQ Briefing 04 Sep 03 Submit Preliminary
Report to 12 Sep 03 OMB/CEQ File DEIS/Report
with EPA 18 Sep 03 Public Review Begins 26
Sep 03 Complete Public Review 24 Nov 03 File
FEIS/Report with EPA 20 Feb 04 MRC
Meeting 31 Mar 04 Chiefs Report Sent to
ASA(CW) 30 Jun 04
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LESSONS LEARNED
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LESSONS LEARNED

• GOALS
• Adopt specific goals for the plan
• Periodically review and revise programmatic goals
• Establish a formal process for review and update
  the restoration plan at defined intervals

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LESSONS LEARNED

• LEADERSHIP
• Secure and maintain support at the highest levels
  possible
• Program management leadership should create a
  vision and organizational identity
• Plan for leadership succession to ensure
  continuity
• Assign a single project manager for each project

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LESSONS LEARNED

• STAKEHOLDER PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
• Provide opportunities for involvement at both the
  program and project levels and implement outreach
  and education
• Target opinion leaders and the leaders of key
  stakeholder groups
• Fully utilize the Governors Advisory Commission
  as a vehicle for outreach and as a forum for
  consensus-building on key issues
• Provide adequate funding and staff support for
  outreach and educational activities

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LESSONS LEARNED

• PROGRAM AND PROJECT CONTROLS
• Focus early on programmatic policy and procedures
• Invest early in the development of program and
  project control systems
• Put program-specific policy, procedures, and
  controls in place before ramp-up of project
  development

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Lessons Learned

• PROJECT DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION
• Establish process for definition and
  prioritization of projects
• Define project development process before
  initiating project development
• Provide flexibility in the project development
  process
• Consider regional approaches to project
  development and implementation

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LESSONS LEARNED

• SOUND SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
• A science program should be established to
  support the implementation of the restoration
  plan and should include
• Decision support systems (DSS)
• Adaptive management
• Research Development (RD)
• Independent scientific peer review

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LESSONS LEARNED

• SOUND SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
• Overall objective is to reduce uncertainty and
  improve decision-making
• RD should focus on critical gaps in data,
  information and knowledge
• Define an organizational structure that provides
  formal linkages between science and programmatic
  and project-level decision-making

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LESSONS LEARNED

• SOUND SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
• Provide stable funding and staff support for
  science program
• Establish formal process for identification of
  needs and priorities review and update at
  regular intervals
• Establish programmatic monitoring and assessment
  program early

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LESSONS LEARNED

• RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
• Commit resources early to the development of
  program management infrastructure
• Evaluate human resources requirements in terms of
  both capability and capacity
• Determine which functions will be performed with
  in-house resources and which will be outsourced
• Allow adequate time to build capability and
  capacity

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LESSONS LEARNED

• PROGRAM ORGANIZATION DECISION-MAKING STRUCTURE
• Dont defer discussion and resolution of
  organization issues
• Embrace collaborative and consensus-oriented
  decision-making
• Ensure high-level representation and clearly
  define the roles and responsibilities of
  participating agencies
• Define a process for dispute resolution

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LESSONS LEARNED

• PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
• Continuously monitor and assess program
  performance
• Metrics should be quantitative and time-specific
• Report results regularly
• Demonstrate success and learn from failure

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SPECIAL THANKS TO

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Parsons Engineering
• PBSJ
• USGS
• Americas WETLAND Campaign to Save Coastal
  Louisiana