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" Home to more than 400 species of animals, plants and birds, Louisiana&amp;#039;s bayou is more than just a gorgeous natural resource and major source of revenue: It serves as a natural defense against the hurricanes that already ravage the state. Even though Hurricane Katrina left another huge swath of natural habitat destroyed in its sweeping aftermath over a year ago, every 2.7 miles of the quickly disappearing wetlands can actually decrease a hurricane&amp;#039;s storm surge by a foot.  With New Orleans still the most vulnerable to one of many natural disasters, an important bill\u2014one that would help rebuild the ailing wetlands with profits from expanded oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico\u2014now awaits House approval in the lame-duck session following today&amp;#039;s elections, as a wave of attention finally swells back toward Louisiana&amp;#039;s natural shield. All of which makes the new IMAX movie &amp;quot;Hurricane on the Bayou&amp;quot; that much more timely for its Dec. 22 release. The film, which began production before Katrina and shot the storm&amp;#039;s aftermath (with the aid of a faux police helicopter borrowed from the set of &amp;quot;Miami Vice&amp;quot;), aims to raise awareness for the wetlands&amp;#039; plight and drive their restoration. Director Greg MacGillivray contrasts sweeping aerial shots in &amp;quot;Hurricane on the Bayou&amp;quot; with sunlit underwater scenes featuring the bayou&amp;#039;s most dangerous inhabitant, the American alligator.  &amp;quot;Hurricane&amp;quot; tells the turn of the tide for Louisiana&amp;#039;s wetlands, from a protective ecosystem sustained by annual flooding to a bed of land sunken by development\u2014even before Katrina. Levees and jetties designed to protect farms from floodwater had prevented sediment from reaching the delta, but as swamps were drained for more farms and channels were dug into the wetlands, salt water invaded the freshwater marshes, killing trees and grass while steadily increasing erosion. Today, the Gulf Coast&amp;#039;s wetlands are disappearing at a mind-boggling pace. According to the National Wetlands Research Center, wetlands in the Gulf Region are eroding at the speed of one acre per half hour, with an area roughly the size of Manhattan lost each year. And according to a recently released report from the U.S. Geological survey, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed another 217 square miles. Some experts predict that, without action, the Gulf of Mexico will move another 30 miles inland by 2050, leaving residents almost completely vulnerable to storms. Among the steps that need to be taken\u2014and soon\u2014says Ron Forman, president of the Audubon Nature Institute (which produced the film with help from the state of Louisiana), are establishment and preservation of grassbeds, redirection of the Mississippi&amp;#039;s silt, re-evaluation of the levees and barrier island restoration. &amp;quot;New Orleans is going to come back slowly,&amp;quot; Forman says. &amp;quot;It doesn&amp;#039;t make sense to build back the lowest levels of the city until we have Category Five protection.&amp;quot; That view stands in contrast to a new proposal by the U.S. Army Corps that would streamline development of the area by allowing developers to bypass the conventional permit process. Under the plan, projects that impact five acres or less of &amp;quot;low-quality&amp;quot; wetlands in six Mississippi counties proceed straight to the building stage without public knowledge. The Corps&amp;#039; Jason Steele, however, told MSNBC.com that the development proposal would likely change after the 30-day period for public comment. After all, with the sudden attention Louisiana&amp;#039;s wetlands are getting, those comments ought to be nice and loud. For more information on what you can do to save coastal wetlands, visit America&amp;#039;s Wetlands. \u2014Erin McCarthy  The Louisiana wetlands have severely deteriorated over the past century. MAP COURTESY OF THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Director Greg MacGillivray contrasts sweeping aerial shots in &amp;quot;Hurricane on the Bayou&amp;quot; with sunlit underwater scenes featuring the bayous most dangerous inhabitant, the American alligator. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a3622/4201568/>