Panels blast coastal master plan

With an April 12 deadline fast approaching, the team developing the state's master plan for coastal restoration and storm protection may be gaining scientific consensus in only one area: What it's doing wrong.

On Wednesday alone, two official review panels used the current draft as a punching bag, while another group of top scientists, not included in the process, went public with its own darts in a letter to Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the head of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The list of complaints includes charges that the Integrated Planning Team, in a legislatively imposed rush, has slapped together confusing and misleading documents; excluded some of the state's top minds on the subject; and emphasized misguided plans for large levees across marshes -- derisively called the "Great Wall of Louisiana" -- that could hasten the already rapid erosion of the coast, a vital buffer against hurricanes.

from the Times Picayune

animation of LA wetlands historyfrom the Times Picayune