In 1998, the State of Louisiana and its federal and local partners approved a coastal restoration project called Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coast. It is a $14 billion fund that is hoped to be allocated over 50 years in around 77 restoration projects with the aim of creating a sustainable ecosystem of coastal Louisiana. While the plan focuses on all of Louisiana, restoration of the Barataria Basin was the first priority and Grand Isle is at the mouth of Barataria Bay. On February 18, 2000, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources signed an agreement to initiate a restoration plan to this basin. The loss of wetland in Barataria Bay is estimated at about 11 square miles per year from 1978-1990 (Fuller et al. 1995). Most strategies in the Barataria Basin region depend on the overall input, movement, and circulation of water, sediment, and nutrients in the basin. Other strategies can be implemented independently of these considerations. These include barrier shoreline restoration, marsh creation in the southwestern basin, and a delta-building diversion from the lower Mississippi. The completion of Coast 2050 was to restore and protect 450,000 acres of wetland. Congress had not approved the Coast 2050 plan, and when Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita hit, Congress was studying a less costly, scaled down proposal which could be initiated in the span of a decade.