CPRA has helped to build up 55,000 acres of coastal wetlands. Within the nation’s larger ecological system, wetlands help to process pollution and excess nutrients and store water in a way that can prevent flooding. Photo by Mizani Ball / The Lens

This week on Behind The Lens, as the Clean Water Act turns 51, environmental advocates scramble to understand a new judicial interpretation that leaves more than half of the country’s 118 million acres of wetlands unprotected, including the swamps of Acadiana and key waterfowl habitat.

Louisiana’s inland, non-tidal wetlands are most at risk to lose protections from weakened Clean Water Act.

Our guests this week are Lens reporter Delaney Dryfoos and managing editor Katy Reckdahl. 

Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music by Podington Bear soundofpicture.com. 

You can also listen to Behind The Lens on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other services.

Carolyne Heldman has been in media for 35 years, most recently as Executive Director at an NPR member station in Colorado where she was responsible for new multi-platform content initiatives, strategic...