What practical difference does combining hurricane protection and coastal restoration make?
Coffee: Now we look at protection and restoration simultaneously. We won’t just create levee alignments with no thought to natural processes or, when it isn’t appropriate, undertake ecosystem restoration without an eye toward how it contributes to hurricane protection. We’re using each effort to complement the other. The last thing the state wants is a “great wall of Louisiana.” We want a sustainable coast. If we just wall off the coast, we’ll lose an ecosystem that is of huge economic and environmental benefit to the entire country. It’s important not only to fisheries and wildlife, but also to the nation’s energy infrastructure and navigation routes. WaterMarks: Even with an integrated plan, won’t you still have to make choices between protection and restoration? Coffee: Of course. Trade-offs between protection and restoration are inevitable. In developing the master plan, science and engineering are guiding us, telling us what can be done. Then we can go to communities and say, “If
