Restoring Coastlines in South Louisiana

Last week, Finaddicts had the opportunity to participate in a coastal restoration project in South Louisiana. 

South Louisiana’s coastline is disappearing at one of the fastest rates in the world. For decades, the marshes have been weakened at an alarming rate due to sinking land, saltwater intrusion, storms, and sediment loss. One way of fighting back against this is by building “terraces,” which are long, low ridges shaped to slow down waves and help new marsh areas form. Once these terraces are built, they need living roots to help anchor them, hold them in place, and reestablish the ecosystem. That is what I had the opportunity to help with last week. We went out on these terraces and planted Black Mangroves and Smooth Cordgrass. These plants not only trap the sediment but also create complex habitats for fish, birds, etc. 

This project was funded and constructed by Ducks Unlimited, benefiting wetlands near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with support from Restore or Retreat. Now completed, this restoration project resulted in over 87,000 linear feet of marsh terraces and over 4,000 linear feet of living shoreline, improving fish and wildlife habitat and protection of surrounding wetlands and critical infrastructure around Port Fourchon.

Although this is happening at a much more alarming rate in Louisiana, our home state of North Carolina grapples with similar issues. The same kinds of solutions are also working here, restoring tidal flow, removing invasive species, planting native grasses, and building living shorelines with natural materials. Volunteers have planted tens of thousands of seedlings. North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF) and NOAA have built more than 6,200 feet of shoreline across 20 sites in NC.

Being out there, you see how meaningful this work is. Healing a coastline, a community, or an area really does start with small, intentional actions and people who are willing to show up.

Those “dirt speedbumps” we worked on will soon be living marsh. They’ll buffer the impact of storms and hurricanes, shelter wildlife, and slowly rebuild entire coastal ecosystems that are being lost. Being even a small part of that gave me a new appreciation not only for that coastline, but especially for the NC coastline I was born and raised in.