04/15/2026
“To lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring... or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward... why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.” 🍃President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt’s words from his 1915 visit to East Timbalier Island ring with a haunting foresight. Today, that gallery is being dismantled piece by piece. East Timbalier itself has nearly vanished beneath the waves, a casualty of the very crisis Roosevelt feared.
Louisiana has lost over 2,000 square miles of land since the 1930s—an area roughly the size of Delaware. This disappearing act is not a single tragedy but a “perfect storm” of environmental and human factors.
The primary culprit is the taming of the Mississippi River. For millennia, the river deposited sediment during spring floods, building the delta. Following the Great Flood of 1927, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a massive levee system that successfully protected cities but effectively “starved” the wetlands, funneling that vital sediment off the continental shelf instead of onto the marsh.
Compounding this is the oil and gas industry’s legacy; the dredging of over 10,000 miles of canals sliced through the marsh, allowing saltwater to intrude and kill the freshwater plants that hold the soil together. When the roots die, the land simply washes away.
Finally, subsidence (the natural sinking of the delta) and accelerated sea-level rise have turned the “gallery” into an open sea.
In the face of this, organizations like the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana — — are at the frontline curators trying to save what remains. As the state’s oldest statewide non-profit dedicated to coastal restoration, CRCL bridges the gap between science, policy, and public action. They advocate for the Coastal Master Plan, a multibillion-dollar blueprint focused on “sediment diversions”—massive engineering projects designed to reconnect the river to the basins to rebuild land naturally.
CRCL drives restoration by recycling oyster shells into protective reefs and mobilizing volunteers to plant soil-stabilizing marsh grasses.
Roosevelt was visiting East Timbalier Island in June 1915 during a week-long inspection of Louisiana’s offshore bird reservations. This expedition was documented in the short film Roosevelt, Friend of the Birds, which shows him observing nesting colonies and advocating for the protection of species like the brown pelican. By transforming Roosevelt’s “masterpieces” into a modern mission, coastal restoration leaders like CRCL ensure Louisiana’s iconic species retain a home.
