Gulf's coastal wetlands surviving despite oil

By JOHN FLESHER AP Environmental Writer

BELLE CHASE, La. (AP) - From a seaplane 1,000 feet above Louisiana's coastal wetlands, the places hit hardest by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are easy to spot - dark slashes marring a vast expanse of marshes and bayous.

Yet, after a recent flight over most of the affected sections, Paul Kemp, director of the National Audubon Society's Louisiana Coastal Initiative said the view appears to confirm what many scientists are concluding: The wetlands "have come through so far pretty unscathed."

Damage has been severe in some locations, especially in reedy swamps near the mouth of the Mississippi River. But it's spotty and confined mostly to outer fringes of islands topped with marsh grasses and mangrove bushes.