Gillman takes a detailed look at the relation between oil and gas and  coastal wetlands. 
The first 1/10 describes the current condition,  and the rest focuses on alternatives and
problem solving plans to  protect seas.  She separately assesses the influence of OCS
oil,  tankers, oil ashore, rigs and refineries and platform construction.   This is
obviously the product of a natural resource background  author, not a wetland
environmentalist.  She finishes with a section  on liquefying natural gas and protecting
communities and the land.

Wren used statistics from Science and AAAS to state the interesting  argument that
perhaps hurricanes help wetland renewal.  Hurricanes  Katrina and Rita succeeded in
supplying necessary sedimentary silt  and other inorganic material to the wetlands. She
also clearly states  that the worst threats to wetlands today are caused by “canal 
dredging, sinking of the land due to gas and oil drilling, and the  introduction of a
plant demolishing rodent called the nutria.”  She  emphasizes that according to the
Army Corps of Engineers, the biggest  problem regarding the Mississippi is preventing it
from taking its  natural path.  Instead, water, and therefore sediment, is forced down 
the same channel and not allowed to flow out and deposit.

Holling takes a more environmental view of coastal situations  relating to offshore oil
and gas and its effect on ecology and  quality of life.  In his investigation he
describes energy  alternatives and government and ecological strategies relating to 
saving wetlands.  He claims that our government is selling our coast  to big oil
companies based on demand.

Turner analyzes wetlands from an economic standpoint.  She first  describes their current
condition through case study examples.  She  then focuses on the significance of wetland
loss and the effect on  the economy and society through monetary terms and usefulness as
a  resource. She attacks the source of the problem in addition to  evaluating current
observations.  Pollution-induced changes  (industrial, agricultural and sewerage
effluent) are often unnoticed  in short-term observations thus stating that our
assessment of  wetland condition is inaccurate.

Taking place about a month before Katrina, this article  relates the minutes of
a meeting about offshore oil and gas  industries.  The first speaker, Louisiana
congressman Bobby Jindal  commends the government on their work on preserving wetlands as
well  as supporting oil and natural gas extraction.   The meeting talks  especially to
distributing government dollars.

Hallowell’s novel style book, written for a general  audience, assesses the
Gulf Coast’s environmental situation with  emphasis on wetland ecology, Louisiana, and
environmental conditions.  He writes like a local, capturing geological history as well
as  cultural.  He is mainly concerned that the wetlands “are in disarray  and in danger
of continuing decay,” (xiii).  The focus lies in  saving “the southern edge of the
state, including New Orleans, the  stat’s coastal communities, the oil and gas
infrastructure, and the  region’s abundant marine life” (xiii). His arguments are
usually  immersed in bauble cultural and historical facts, but are clear and  meaningful.
 Written in 2001 however, the book doesn’t assess  Katrina or Rita’s effect on the
area, but rather earlier hurricanes  like Betsy in 1965.

This quatitative report written for a specific audience  uses rigorous
methods to compare and contrast wetlands across the  world.  It emphasizes the dramatic
acceleration of coastal  transformations in recent centuries.  The article treats
Hurricane  Katrina as a bottom-line worst case scenario.  The graphs included  discuss
abundance of wetlands, level of species guilds, invasions,  depletions and diversity of
species.  Important aspects are  the predictions for future activity and raw
data.  This article is  especially helpful considering it was published not too many
months ago.

This article, though less reliable than the others,  gives a very lean and
authoritative assessment of hurricane Katrina,  the oil industry and New Orleans. The
facts are useful and his  bibliography and sources seem to be very well formatted and
chosen.

           
An authoritative source, this article describes the  situation just after
hurricane Katrina.  It emphasizes historical  facts, as well as initial plans to fix the
damage.  While it  covers  many plans including the Army Corps of Engineers and National
Academy  of Sciences (NAS), it puts a lot of hope into a National Academies  plan for
action, which hope to implement large-scale changes. It  quotes respectable sources such
as professors at the University of  Florida, Gainesville and Louisiana State University. 
Most  importantly, it evaluates sophisticated plans such as Coast 2050,  Louisiana
Coastal Area (LCA) study, and Mississppi River Gulf Outlet  (MRGO).

           
While this source is old, it gives a good, detailed  background of the
mechanics of the coastal area.  Complete with  geologic maps of the area, it documents
all the environmental  conditions in rigorous terms.  If one has any questions about 
detailed composition of the coastal areas, this book can offer very  well organized raw
data.  The hardest part is interpreting, and  locating the exact information.

           
This article gives the most authoritative facts because  it is produced by
the researches first hand.  Of the many facts it  offers, the most important include land
loss figures, restore cost  projections,  most targeted geographical areas, figures from
the  census bureau and suspected causes for wetland erosion.

Eerily, this article predicts the effects of a hurricane just like  Katrina, except it
was written in October 2004.  Despite its  publication, it is another good resource for
reliable facts. After  it’s movie-in-print style opening describing a hurricane hitting
New  Orleans, it reviews the vulnerability of the area. This article is  interesting
because it presents facts of why Louisiana’s coast might  be in danger without using
hurricane Katrina as an excuse to further  question the area.  It mentions the eroding
coast, the Mississippi’s  redirection, plans by organizations to preserve the area as
it was in  2004, projected cost of a restoration plan and the government’s  reaction,
past engineering effects and even possible restoration  plans. It’s mostly very
interesting to read and compare to what we  know now, post Katrina.

Published before Katrina, this article gives an interesting and  unbiased evaluation of
the state of wetlands.  This is most helpful  for understanding procedures for restoring
wetlands.  It describes  the manner in which restoration must be achieved for full 
effectiveness.  It acts as a check on the Environmental Protection  Agency and U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers since its focus is on a  specific report produced by the National
Research Council that  discusses how uneffective the current restoration plans are. 
It’s a  good general article that introduces this very helpful report.

Describes in-depth methods to restoring the wetlands and critiques  current projects and
their affiliated agencies.  Though it was only  published in June of 2001, it provides
great insight into the state  and methods necessary to repair wetlands from industrial
use and  sediment starvation and the resulting erosion. It begins with a  chapter which
heavily critiques wetland restoration and creation.  Then it goes into political
situations involving permitting land  building, mitigation and achieving “no net loss.”

This is a formal report formed by Federal, State and  local officials to
project rebuilding Louisiana’s Coast.  This  document is well cited in many review
articles based on restoring  wetlands.  It is sectioned into chapters covering the need
for a  plan, the plan, the current state of Louisiana, reasons for the  deterioration,
what the coast should be by 2050, consequences if plan  is not implemented, the
accompanying ecosystem, institutional issues,  science and technology required, and
finally the urgency for the  plan’s implementation.  Though written in 1998, it
includes 173 pages  of tables, graphs, images and factual information about the project.