Coastal Louisiana was built over the past 5,000 years, and within the past 100, Louisiana has seen an unprecedented amount of its coastal wetlands disappear.

Attempting to explain this phenomenon, Southeastern’s department of sociology and criminal justice hosted a lecture panel on Sept. 29, headlined by sociology professor Dr. David Burley and geography instructor Gerald McNeill.

Geography assistant professor Molly McGraw’s discourse was presented by McNeill because she was not able to attend the lecture herself.

Burley opened the presentation with a photo essay by photojournalist Kael Alford entitled “Home on the Water,” which displayed what it is like to live in a community undergoing erosion of place and culture. This problem is further compounded by the consequences of the BP oil spill.

“Documenting these communities seems like a race against time,” stated Alford in the photo essay narration.

Burley also read an excerpt from his new book, the result of over 140 interviews with Louisiana residents directly affected by coastal land loss, titled “Losing Louisiana: Coastal Land Loss and the BP Oil Spill.” In the book, Burley documents the outrage felt by the affected communities who find frustration not only in the erosion but also in the way that the government treats them.

Burley also described frustration with studies on coastal erosion, how some feel that they are a waste of time and that action should be taken soon.

“‘Then, something organizes, and then it grows into this big permitting process and this big arena of studies and millions of dollars are being wasted on these studies when, dang! Just go do something,'” said Burley, quoting a Plaquemines Parish president. “‘It’s a constant battle.'”

McNeill presented next, speaking for McGraw. In her presentation, McGraw vicariously outlined the physical nature of the disappearing wetlands, saying that the bulk of the problem lies within Louisiana’s levy system.

The system prevents the Mississippi River from undergoing natural spring flooding. This deprives the wetlands of the restorative silting that comes annually as the waters rise.

The next blow against the wetlands came from the oil and gas industry. To obtain the petroleum, canals and channels were carved into the land. These man-made waterways polluted the surrounding ecosystem and hastened erosion by giving naturally weathering forces a direct route into the heart of the marshland.

In spite of this, the BP oil spill was viewed as far less desperate than the rest of the challenges facing Louisiana’s wetlands.

“Fortunately, if this marsh is only exposed to the oil one or two times the top is going to die, the vegetation that’s sticking out the water … but the roots won’t die and it will regenerate itself,” said McNeill.

McGraw’s presentation went on to point out that oil also naturally degrades, implying that, other erosive factors aside, the oil-affected regions will recover.

McNeill’s personal lecture focused on the cultural attributes of Louisiana’s plight, demonstrating how much of Louisiana’s rich prehistoric Native American heritage is being lost as a direct result of coastal erosion.

He explained how much of what we know about these tribes comes from their ancient refuse mounds, called middens, where sundry items such as bones, pottery and shells can be found.

Many of these sites are coastal, which places them in danger of destruction. This makes the middens far more difficult, if not impossible for archaeologists to study.

For those descendants of Louisiana’s older cultures, such as the Isleños of Saint Bernard Parish, the erosion represents as much displacement and cultural strain as it does for other residents of the coastal lands.

McNeill’s point was that as the shoreline steadily retreats, so does the heritage of those who were the original settlers of the region.

McNeill ended his presentation by reciting lines of the poem “Ode to Isle de Jean Charles” by Native Americans T. Mayheart Dardar and Thomas Dardar, which also appears at the end of Burley’s book.

“How do you replace paradise? How do you make a memory real? How can your children see a place that they can no longer touch or feel?”