Loco Logo?

in People Issues by Admin — October 13, 2008 at 9:01 am | 0 comments

The fundamental need to integrate flood protection with coastal restoration is turned on its ear by the official Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) logo, shown here, which first appeared in 2006.

There are several different versions of the basic logo, but they all show two “natural” elements, presumably coastal wetlands and the Gulf of Mexico, each totally separated from the other by an incongruous massive black sea wall that most closely resembles an “I-wall,” the very type of structure that failed so disastrously during Katrina!

Any objective viewer of this logo would logically conclude that the ultimate goal of coastal protection and restoration is to wall off the Gulf of Mexico from the coast – the “Dutch solution.”  This is absolutely the wrong message.  Symbols are important and many coastal stakeholders are already concerned that coastal restoration interests (and funding) will ultimately be captured by coastal protection.  This logo only feeds this concern and it should be replaced by a symbol that truly reflects both coastal protection and ecosystem restoration.

Why not ask the public for suggestions?