Coastal Marsh Dieback Conference

Below is a news release concerning the Coastal Marsh Dieback Conference.
The agenda has been included as an attachment.
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Group to Tackle Unprecedented Marsh Dieback

Several hundred scientists, landowners, and resource managers will
convene in Baton Rouge Jan. 11-12 to tackle the unprecedented coastal
marsh dieback plaguing much of coastal Louisiana and parts of Texas and
Florida.

The conference, "Coastal Marsh Dieback in the Northern Gulf of Mexico:
Extent, Causes, Consequences, and Remedies," will take place at the
Radisson Hotel and Conference Center from 8:45 a.m. Jan. 11 to 2:30 p.m.
Jan. 12.    To register, contact Traci Thibodeaux, University of
Louisiana at Lafayette (337-482-5712) or traci-t@louisiana.edu.
Conference fees are $30.

Coastal marsh dieback, also known as "brown marsh," is a term that
Louisiana scientists have given to the rapid and unusual browning of
Louisiana's intertidal smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).  This
browning began during the spring of 2000, long before marshes usually
turn brown in the fall.

The phenomenon has been observed in parts of Texas and Florida, but
primarily throughout much of coastal Louisiana.  For example, the
Barataria-Terrebonne intertidal salt marshes, covering 390,000 acres,
have had 110,000 acres severely affected by the dieback; 17,000 have
actually converted from dense vegetation to open mud flats with little
or no vegetation.  About 150,000 additional acres are considered
moderately affected.

No dieback as extensive as the current Louisiana problem has been
observed in recent history.  Possible causes may be drought, high
salinities, heat, evaporation, low Mississippi and Atchafalaya River
discharges, or other factors stressing the shallow-rooted Spartina
alterniflora.

Several government agencies and the private sector are sponsoring the
conference to share information and propose solutions.  Governor Mike
Foster is expected to attend, and State as well as U.S. Senators from
the affected states have been invited.

Among the speakers will be Dr. Charles Groat, Director, U.S. Geological
Survey, Reston, Va.; Dr. Donald F. Boesch, President, University of
Maryland's Center for Environmental Sciences; and  Dr. Robert R.
Twilley, Director, Center for Ecology and Environmental Technology,
University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  For the complete agenda and more
information on the conference, see
http://www.lacoast.gov/brownMarsh/meetings or contact Gaye Farris at
337-266-8540 or Gaye_Farris@usgs.gov.

Sponsors of the conference include Burlington Resources, Inc., Castex
LaTerre, Inc., U.S. Geological Survey's National Wetlands Research
Center and the USGS Louisiana Water Resources District, Louisiana
Department of Natural Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 3001, Inc., Entergy, Society of Wetland Scientists,
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.

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