Marsh restoration project at Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge that will help protect New Orleans’ shoreline from erosion and flooding has been completed, reported officials.
According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, During Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, levees on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain suffered extensive damage from storm surge.
In an effort to improve the levee system, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to expand the footprint of the levees. In doing so, the USACE altered wetland habitat on the Refuge and because of this, they were required to mitigate for this loss of Refuge habitat, the officials said.
The marsh creation project used sediment pumped from Lake Pontchartrain, to create over 147 acres of low salinity brackish marsh in what had been open water ponds on the refuge.
Restoration of this wetland area will improve shoreline stability for residents of Orleans Parish, and support waterfowl and estuarine fish habitat for future generations.
Work on the Bayou Sauvage marsh restoration project started in August 2016.