This project will utilize borrow material from Lake Borgne to create and nourish marsh along Lena Lagoon and to utilize materials dredged from Bayou La Loutre to restore the ridge along the southern bank of Bayou La Loutre. This project will create and nourish up to 421 acres of marsh and restore approximately 28,855 ft. of ridge along Bayou La Loutre.
This project will create and nourish marsh on the south side of Bayou Dularge utilizing borrow material from Lake Mechant and restore the ridge along the southern bank of Bayou Dularge. This project will create between 400 to 500 acres of marsh, nourish up to 30 acres of existing wetlands, and restore between 17,200 - 19,860 ft. of ridge along Bayou Dularge.
This project will conduct engineering and design for the creation and restoration of the marsh habitat that separates Lake Pontchartrain from Lake Borgne and the Gulf of America. The project design will include up to 1,563 acres of wetlands created using hydraulically dredged sediment from a borrow area in Lake St. Catherine and will include up to 21,597 ft. of shoreline protection features.
The activity will determine historic trends of wetland area and habitat type change from 1985 through present using satellite imagery for the Louisiana coastal zone. The activity will also quantify relationships of vegetation community type and physical characteristics within each habitat type. Ultimately this information will be used to inform project planning and support evaluation of restoration outcomes within the Louisiana Restoration Area.
Elevation and habitat characteristics are linked to a barrier island’s resistance and resilience to change. Here, resistance refers to the island’s short-term response to storms, whereas resilience is the long-term ability of the barrier island to adapt to sea-level rise and other stressors. The objective of this project is to characterize the resistance/resilience of Louisiana barrier islands based on a literature review and an assessment of available data.
The objective of this Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) Activity Implementation Plan (MAIP) is to develop and implement a practical, tangible, and easily accessible, interactive lessons learned database from Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group (LA TIG) restoration projects and document rationale for operation and maintenance decisions to inform future planning and objective setting. This database will capture LA TIG restoration lessons learned, where they can be accessed by project planners, implementers, and contractors.
Barrier Island System Management (BISM) program enables barrier island projects to be integrated components of a long-term, system-wide restoration strategy that actively incorporates Adaptive Management (AM). The BISM program also facilitates implementation of components of a holistic Louisiana Sediment Management Plan (LASMP) that supports increased restoration project longevity leading to a more sustainable barrier island system. In addition, adoption of Adaptive Management (AM) principles minimizes costs, maximizes benefits, while achieving barrier island restoration targets.
The project will meet high-level oyster Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely (SMART) objectives by providing output that will enable the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) to evaluate locations for oyster cultch plants and brood stock reefs. Generally, the model will enable managers to assess the impacts of enhanced or restored reef location on recruitment to other existing or proposed reefs; larval survival; growth of oysters on existing and proposed reefs; and reef connectivity.
This project will develop a detailed plan to determine bottlenose dolphin abundance, distribution, and stock structure as well as habitat use in Louisiana, with an emphasis on foraging and prey. It will also develop a plan for quantifying and better characterizing freshwater exposure and effects on bottlenose dolphins in coastal Louisiana. It will also produce a report that synthesizes existing information to characterize direct human caused threats (e.g., fishery bycatch, illegal feeding, gunshots, entrapment, marine debris, etc.), environmental contaminants, and disease.
This targeted data collection and analysis project will include two years of field work in Chandeleur Sound and Lake Borgne, Louisiana and one year of data analysis, focused primarily on loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley, and green sea turtles. The goal of this Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) activity is to provide updated information on sea turtle habitat use and abundance in eastern LA waters through satellite tagging, salinity, and health assessments to inform restoration planning and restoration evaluation in the LA Restoration Area.