Latest Mississippi River Delta News: August 20, 2012

Duck hunting season looks good this year, the future is a different matter
By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). August 18, 2012.
“Here’s the good news for the local duck season: There’s record drought gripping states to the north of us. Here’s the bad news: There’s record drought gripping the states north of us…” (Read more)

BP oil spill cleanup report expected at U.S. Senate committee hearing
By Bruce Alpert and Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune. August 18, 2012.
“Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing, probably in late September, on the Restore Act and the status of cleanup efforts since the disastrous 2010 BP oil spill…” (Read more)

Gulf fishermen face hard decisions over BP settlement
By Karen Savage, Bridge the Gulf.
“At the Gulf Organized Fisheries in Solidarity & Hope (GO FISH) conference held August 4 in Westwego, La., oysterman Byron Encalade of Pointe a la Hache, La. was adamant. Encalade described his Gulf oyster grounds as such: “No spatting at all, nothing. The whole public sea grounds on the east bank of the river, except for a very small area…there is not one spat to be found. That is disturbing…” (Read more)

A community united
By John Horn, The Los Angeles Times. August 18, 2012.
“Members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe and Cajuns have called the Isle de Jean Charles – a swampy spit about 130 kilometres south-west of New Orleans – home for generations, but their numbers are shrinking as rapidly as the island. Erosion is swallowing the soil, saltwater intrusion is killing the cypress trees and the island’s wooden houses and bridges are toppling into the brackish water. A 115-kilometre levee system will be built to the island’s north, eternally bequeathing Isle de Jean Charles to the Gulf of Mexico…” (Read more)