Natural Resources 



The principal natural resources on 

 which the economy is based can be di- 

 vided into four groups: (1) petroleum 

 and other nonrenewable minerals; (2) the 

 soils and climate that contribute to 

 agriculture; (3) natural habitats that 

 produce fish, wildlife, timber, and 

 other products and natural work ser- 

 vices; and, (4) waterways that provide 

 both inexpensive transportation routes 

 and fresh water. The economic system of 

 the MDPR is intimately connected with 

 and dependent upon its ecological sys- 

 tems; it uses both the current produc- 

 tion of these systems and the past ac- 

 cumulated production (in the form of 

 petroleum and soils) . Recreational use 

 of the area is highly dependent on fish, 

 wildlife, and other natural resources. 

 Larson et al. (1980) provided a detailed 

 inventory of the natural resources of 

 the MDPR, as summarized below. 



The MDPR has been the site of sig- 

 nificant oil and gas production during 

 the last 50 years, and oil production 

 and proven reserves in the Mississippi 

 Delta and Gulf waters off Louisiana and 

 Mississippi represented about 51% of the 

 Nation's total current production and 

 reserves, excluding Alaska in 1979 

 (American Petroleum Institute 1982). A 

 plot of oil production in Louisiana from 

 1938 to 1980 is shown in Figure 14. 

 Production is shifting to deeper water 

 (Figure 14) as nearshore State-owned and 

 private reserves are depleted. 



The MDPR is a difficult and expen- 

 sive area in which to drill for petro- 

 leum, relative to other onshore sites 

 such as in Texas, Oklahoma, and central 

 Louisiana. The marshes and coastal 

 waters preclude the use of conventional 

 land-based transportation and drilling 

 systems. Most of the onshore oil and 

 gas wells have been drilled from barges 

 moved to the drilling site through 

 canals dredged for that purpose. Off- 

 shore wells have been drilled from huge 

 platforms and the products transported 

 to shore via pipelines. These pipelines 

 are laid by barges that also require ac- 

 cess canals through the coastal marshes. 



About 64,000 ha (160,000 acres) of 

 canals and their associated spoil banks 

 were present in 1978, the majority of 

 which are oil and gas-related (Craig et 

 al. 1979). Canals have been implicated 

 as a major contributor directly and 

 indirectly to the deterioration of MDPR 

 marshes (Craig et al. 1979). Oil and 

 gas mining and undisturbed marsh habi- 

 tats produce economic benefits for the 

 MDPR. Assessing the trade-offs implicit 

 in disturbing marshes by dredging canals 

 is a primary prerequisite to effective 

 management (see MANAGEMENT ISSUES). 



Agriculture has long been an im- 

 portant economic activity in the MDPR, 

 but it has been steadily declining rel- 

 ative to other economic activities in 

 the region, both in terms of employment 

 (Figure 15) and dollar value. This 

 decline coincides with the national 

 trend, as farms have become larger and 

 more industrialized, and as manufac- 

 turing and service industries have 

 become more dominant. Agriculture, like 

 oil production, entails certain trade- 

 offs with natural ecosystems (see 

 MANAGEMENT ISSUES). 



The natural levees of the present 

 and historical Mississippi River dis- 

 tributaries include the most fertile 

 agricultural soil in the MDPR, and most 

 of the agricultural activity continues 

 to be concentrated in these areas. As 

 the agriculture of ancient Egypt 

 flourished on the silt and sediment 

 deposited by the annual Nile flood, so 

 agriculture in the MDPR has flourished 

 on the alluvial soils deposited during 

 centuries of spring floods. 



The value of farm products in the 

 MDPR in 1974 was about $236 million 

 (Larson et al. 1980). The major crops 

 were sugarcane, soybeans, livestock, 

 tobacco, fruits, pecans, and vegetables. 

 In addition to using soil resources, 

 agriculture uses groundwater and results 

 in the discharge of nutrients and pes- 

 ticides into downstream habitats. 



Natural habitats are defined as all 

 habitats that are not the direct result 

 of cultural activities. Natural habitats 



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