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Restoring Coastal Habitats for People and Nature

 

Brown pelicans on Gulf Coast, Louisiana, United States, North America

Brown pelicans on Gulf Coast, Louisiana © Nancy Webb

The Nature Conservancy - Great Places Network

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You can make a difference by joining The Nature Conservancy's Great Places Network. We are a global community of friends and neighbors working together to ensure the diversity of life on Earth.

As a member of this FREE online community, you''ll get great benefits, including Great Places, our monthly e-newsletter. You'll also get conservation action tips, nature e-cards, desktop wallpaper and ways you can make a difference right now.

Mississippi Assessment Detail Team clears trees in order to do a damage assessment of Conservancy pr

A Conservancy team clears trees in order to assess damage of a Mississippi preserve
© Dave Borland/TNC

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged over 100 square miles of marshes across coastal Louisiana alone. Hurricane winds snapped off or uprooted almost 50 percent of bayhead forests at Louisiana’s Abita Creek Flatwoods and Lake Ramsay preserves and almost 70 percent of the trees at the Willie Farrell Brown Preserve in Mississippi.

But there are signs of hope.

In many areas that were inundated with saltwater, trees and other plants have resprouted and bloomed.

And there are numerous stories from area residents who say healthy forests and marshlands protected them from flooding and damaging winds.

On Louisiana’s Grand Isle barrier island, residents reported that the island’s live oak-hackberry forests slowed the force of the water from the storm surge and served as a barrier against the 187 mile per hour winds. In fact, the city has passed an ordinance setting tough restrictions on cutting trees down.

Along with protecting local residents, the forests of Grand Isle and the Gulf Coast provide critical habitat for millions of birds that make the 600-mile flight over the Gulf of Mexico, or take the even longer route around the Gulf.

Without healthy and intact forests and coastal habitats where these birds can stop, rest and refuel, entire populations of many species could disappear.

One of the most important bird stopover sites along the Gulf is the Laguna Madre of Texas and Mexico, an incredibly rich ecosystem of barrier islands, marshes and thorn-scrub forest. The Mexican portion of the Laguna was recently declared a 1.5-million-acre Natural Protected Area by the federal government, thanks to work by the Conservancy’s local partner, Pronatura Noreste.

The Conservancy is also working with the Grand Isle Port Authority and Nicholls State University to establish oyster reefs along the coast. Along with protection against erosion, oysters provide food and refuge for many animals as well as filter substantial quantities of water.

For more than 40 years, the Conservancy has been working at more than two dozen sites across the Gulf of Mexico to restore and sustainably manage forests, grasslands, marshes and coastal areas.