Washington, DC – On August 29, 2005, Hurricanes Katrina wrought devastation of historic proportions on the Gulf Coast and its people. Shortly thereafter, Hurricane Rita struck the Texas-Louisiana border. In the two years since, much work has taken place. Last April, the state of Louisiana issued the Integrated Ecosystem Restoration and Hurricane Protection: Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to issue its Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Plan by the end of this year. Yet many questions remain: what lessons have we learned, how should we restore and protect the Gulf Coast’s wetlands in the future, and are we headed in the right direction?

The dozen articles presented in the September-October 2007 double issue of the National Wetlands Newsletter shed light on these questions and look at what steps have taken place since the storms. While the articles primarily focus on the restoration and protection of the Gulf Coast, they offer invaluable insight as to how wetlands should be managed and protected in a world where our natural and built environments increasingly collide. This is particularly true given our changing and less predictable climate. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have given us the opportunity to learn from past mistakes and decide how to move forward in an uncertain world. To ignore these lessons would be a true tragedy,” said National Wetlands Newsletter editor Rachel Jean-Baptiste [email].