Posted on April 8, 2026
By Donald Davidson
While listening to Executive Director Michael Hare give testimony regarding the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s 2027 annual plan, I wondered if the top brass at the agency had forgotten a critical aspect of their mission. It’s in their name. Restoration.
During this year’s presentation, I was struck by the overwhelming focus on the protection aspect of the mission. Little talk was given to restoration, as the current administration has declined to follow that aspect of their mandate, focusing instead on the festival-ready slogan of “rock the coast.” What happens to rocks on the soft substrate of Louisiana’s coast? They sink. Then they either become boating hazards or require more rocks; rocks piled on rocks. The leadership seems to think this is a prudent use of resources.
When the agency does grant attention to the restoration side of its mission, it is toward the vigorous pursuit of land bridge projects. These are not new projects, but the way they are being modified and touted gives the real impression that those atop the CPRA’s chain of command think of these as massive levees. These projects are nowhere near shovel-ready, extremely vulnerable to storms, require expensive and extensive dredging and don’t rely upon the natural processes of the river to build. Put another way, these projects will not sustain themselves. They will cost billions and be subject to the same increasingly astonishing erosion and sea-level rise rates that our entire coast faces. All that money, work and diesel spent dredging — washed away.
Without projects that engage the river’s land-building capability at a scale that matches the crisis our coast and the communities face, this version of the agency can hardly be taken seriously. They are missing a critical component of their mission, and the irony is, it is right there in their name.
