I love the fact that I take a walk and watch blue herrings wading in the water, or at night being able to hear the toads calling in the swamps, and sometimes if I’m lucky I can see one or two alligators sunning themselves.

At Loyola I got my degree in journalism, but my minor was environmental studies. I remember going on a frog walk in Dr. Bob Thomas’ class at night. Besides being eaten alive by bugs, we saw lizards, spiders, frogs and all kinds of local wildlife in the swamp.

Our environment is so important and vital for our survival, but because we aren’t in it every day we don’t seem to pay it much attention.

I’m not here to harp on you about how you should drive a smart car or collect rain water in those huge drums. I don’t want to come off as one of those “environmental hippies” who shout at people to be more “green” and tell them what they are doing is killing animals millions of miles away in a place they can’t pronounce.

I could do all of that, but I won’t. I’m going to talk about the environment right in our back yards — an environment that is slowly but surely disappearing before our very eyes. Living in South Louisiana means you can’t go far without hitting swamps, marshes, bayous and other waterways.

Louisiana contains approximately 40 percent of the nation’s wetlands. The down side is we lose a football field-sized area of land every hour. I read by 2040 we will have lost more than one million acres of coastal wetlands, an area as large the state of Rhode Island.

The main reason we should care about the loss of wetlands is because we can’t survive without them. Wetlands and barrier islands provide protection from hurricanes and strong winds.

Every 2.7 miles of wetlands absorbs one foot of storm surge. We should care because our water systems are major transport highways. There are 500 million tons of water cargo that pass through Louisiana’s ports and channels.

Another reason we should care about wetland loss is because of the large portion of our population that lives near water. Between 60 to 70 percent of our population lives within 50 miles of the coast.

There are many factors that are contributing to the loss of our wetlands. We have destroyed our wetlands for years by doing thing such as dredging canals. In addition to destroying marshes for the path of the canal, plant life is destroyed and the marsh is unable to regenerate.

Nature also plays a role. Hurricanes crash into our wetlands, pulling up plants and contributing to erosion. Rising sea levels caused by the melting of the glaciers also changes the landscape of our wetlands.

But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Federal and state governments have proposed legislations to help solve the problem. Some say they aren’t working fast enough, but that is an argument for another day. River diversions and pumps are being used to increase sediment load and salinity in ailing marshes. People are also replanting native plants to help with erosion.

Our wetlands aren’t just a breeding place for mosquitoes. They are living aquatic ecosystems that are teaming with life. Without them, the place we call home would not and could not exist. Maybe by reading this people we learn to appreciate what we have and try to save it, before it’s too late.

Raquel Derganz Baker is the news reporter for L’OBSERVATEUR. Email her at raquel.derbaker@lobservateur.com.