Coastal restoration sought

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jul 10, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — A major research symposium aims to guide coastal restoration efforts in the Chenier Plain that stretches across southwest Louisiana.

The event, announced this month, will bring together research on an area that leaders in southwest Louisiana say has long been neglected in coastal restoration talks.

“We thought the Chenier Plain is a place where there are a lot of unknowns and uncertainties,” said Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana Science Director Natalie Snider, who is helping organize the symposium.

The Chenier Plain is distinct from the Mississippi River Delta region in southeast Louisiana — where land loss has been more dramatic — and requires a different restoration approach.

The plain stretches from Vermilion Bay into Texas and is characterized by a series of raised ridges amid miles of marsh that serve as prime habitat for waterfowl, wading birds and migrating songbirds.

The most pressing environmental threat to the area is salt water pushing into what have historically been freshwater marshes, Snider said.

“The most challenging aspect in the Chenier Plain is salinity control,” Snider said.

She also said the marshes in southwest Louisiana have yet to recover from Hurricane Rita.

“Even now, three years later, those areas are not recovering at the same rate as areas in Katrina,” Snider said.

The symposium, set for January in Lake Charles, comes as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a three-year feasibility study on the best methods for hurricane and coastal restoration in the area.

“There had been no comprehensive coastal restoration plan for south Louisiana before this,” said Rick Curtsinger, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, who pushed for the study.

Snider said the possibility of a large-scale restoration plan for the Chenier Plain makes the timing of the symposium ideal.

The money and attention are focused on an area where leaders have long complained of not receiving a big enough share of state and federal coastal restoration dollars.