An Open Letter to Secretary Of The Interior Deb Haaland

The Honorable Deb Haaland
Secretary of the Interior
United States Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington DC 20240

Dear Secretary Haaland,

We at the Lowlander Center, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Louisiana's coastline and the people living there, would like to congratulate you on your confirmation as Secretary of the Interior.

Your historic appointment is both encouraging and promising, especially given your commitment to climate justice and environmental restoration. At the Lowlander Center, we couldn’t be more thrilled to learn about the Biden administration’s commitment to protecting  30% of U.S. public lands and oceans. This is critical work, and it’s urgently needed in the coastal region of Louisiana, where climate change is already doing significant — and growing — damage.

Those threats stem, in part, from the tens of thousands of man made canals that have been dug by oil and gas companies over the past century. More than 27,000 of these canals aren’t used any more and have been largely abandoned, but they haven’t been refilled. That has caused large-scale land erosion, and the loss of valuable coastline is leaving the entire region at greater risk of flooding and severe damage to the state’s key tourism and seafood industries. Unemployment will spike if businesses are forced to close because of climate change and land loss.

Native tribes, who have survived on the region’s natural resources for hundreds of years, are paying a steep and growing cost. They’re losing their homes, farms, fisheries, and sacred sites to storm damage. They’re having a harder time supporting their families and preserving their most important traditions. 

Fortunately, there is an inexpensive and scientifically-proven solution: refilling the abandoned canals. Filling the canals with sediment can restore them and encourage marshes to grow back naturally over time. When those marshes return, they can mitigate storm impact and reduce chances of flooding and refurbish habitat for juvenile shellfish and fin fish that has been diminished. We’ve already received  grants from the National Estuary Program, an initiative that is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

We would love the opportunity to share more information with you or your staff regarding this project.

We need your support to continue and expand this work. If we are going to restore and protect the Louisiana coastline and the people living there, we must act fast. Federal aid would allow us to refill more canals and protect the coastline of Louisiana from the impacts of climate change. Doing this has the potential to restore land, preserve jobs, protect tribal heritage, and save lives.

We’d be honored to meet with you or your staff to discuss the project and ways you might be able to help support it. In the meantime, we congratulate you again on making history and look forward to seeing the new path you chart for the department.

Signed,

Kristina J Peterson, PhD
Facilitator-Director
Lowlander Center 

Theresa Dardar, Elder
President, Lowlander Center Board
Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe
Grail Member 

Rosina Philippe, Elder
Lowlander Center  Board Member
First People's Conservation Council, President
Atakapa-Ishak Chawasha
Elder/Tribal Historian 

Louise Fortmann, PhD
Lowlander Center Board Member
Professor of the Graduate School
Professor Emerita of Natural Resource Sociology
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley

Michèle Companion, Ph.D.
Lowlander Center Board Member
Professor and Department Chair
Department of Sociology
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Mây Nguyễn, JD
Lowlander Center Board Member
Development Director
Asian Pacific Environmental Network 

Evan Ponder
Lowlander Board Member
Housing Specialist 

Shirley Laska, PhD
Lowlander Center  - Co-Founder
Professor Emerita
Founder – Center for Hazards Response and Technology
University of New Orleans

Alessandra Jerolleman, PhD, MPA, CFM
Associate Professor of Emergency Management, Jacksonville State University
Facilitator, Lowlander Center 

Mona Porter
Webmaster, Lowlander Center

Lowlander Center Canal Project Team

R. Eugene Turner
Dept. Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, La. 70810   

Donald Dardar
Deputy Chief
Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe  

Julie Maldonado, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN)
Co-Director, The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences 

Shirell Parfait-Dardar
Chief, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi, Chitimacha, Choctaw
Chairwoman, Louisiana Governor's Office Indian Affairs Native American Commission
Secretary, First People's Conservation Council

Mira S. Olson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Director, Peace Engineering Program
Drexel University 

Jeana C. Gómez
Greyspace Collective

Julie Torres, MS
Independent Researcher
Earth & Environmental Science

Rebecca Lovingood
Physical Oceanographer, retired

Tribal Support of Impacted Tribes

Marlene V. Foret
Chairwoman, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw 

Dana Parfait-Menard
Deputy Chief, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw 

Crystlyn Rodrigue
2nd Deputy Chief, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw

Devon Parfait
Future Chief, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw

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