Group seeks to revitalize N.O. swamp

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 24, 2009 - Page: 3B-Acadiana Edition

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NEW ORLEANS — It was 50 years ago when John Taylor first started visiting, fishing, hunting and enjoying the Bayou Bienvenue area near his neighborhood.

This once cypress swamp near the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood was where he did, and still does, spend time.

“This is my special place,” Taylor, now 61, said.

Now, however, the cypress trees are only stumps and the water is saltier because of subsidence, erosion and saltwater intrusion.

“After (Hurricane) Betsy came through it started dying because of the saltwater intrusion,” Taylor said. “I watched every one of these trees die.”

On Tuesday, a group of volunteers and neighborhood residents took a step in trying to restore the wetland with the help from a Baton Rouge company — Floating Island Environmental Solutions.

The company assembles floating structures made from recycled plastic water bottles. These structures were initially designed to help improve water quality in bodies of water. However, the company has expanded to try to use them for coastal restoration.

The company has been operating in Baton Rouge since September, said Tigue Bonneval, sales representative. They’ve since worked throughout the country, with a focus on the Gulf Coast states. That includes work with the South Lafourche Levee District.

Coastal restoration is the reason they first entered the business, said Jason Martin, sales director.

The company was contacted by students from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who asked that it get involved in their multiyear work with the Lower 9th Ward community. In response, the company donated half of the cost of the floating islands to the effort and were on hand Tuesday for the placing of the mats.

Volunteers planted spartina, bullrush and smooth cord grass plants into the floating structures and anchored them in Bayou Bienvenue.

Each floating platform is 35 square feet and its design allows the plants to grow, establish roots and allow more plant life to accumulate, said J. Ashleigh Ross, project coordinator with the University of Wisconsin.

Previous visits from the Wisconsin students have involved neighborhood surveys and development of a wetland restoration plan. The floating marsh project was a chance to do something that people could see and visit, Ross said.