Monitoring Stage Begins at NOAA and Partners’ Largest Wetland Restoration Project
The Upper Barataria Marsh Creation Project—one of NOAA and partners’ largest restoration projects to date—is now complete. The 1,200-acre project restores land lost from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and supports healthier fisheries in Louisiana.
Now that the work to build the marsh is complete, monitoring activities have begun. Monitoring is a critical step in restoration, as it ensures the project provides long-term benefits. Monitoring also helps with the development of adaptive management strategies—for this project as well as future restoration efforts. The lessons NOAA and its partners learn from the Upper Barataria will help build even better, more successful large-scale restoration projects.
For example, by monitoring shrimp, crab, and fish species and examining “fish-friendly” project design features, partners will be able to determine if the newly created marsh features are working as intended. Soil, plant communities, and water quality will be assessed to understand how the marsh changes over time. If monitoring results indicate that the project is not performing as expected, corrective actions will be implemented. These could include establishing marsh plant species, removing invasive species, or constructing additional tidal connections.
Monitoring partners include:
- NOAA
- The Water Institute
- Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
- U.S. Geological Survey
Restoring Habitat in the Upper Barataria Basin
The Barataria Basin has lost more than 276,000 acres of land since the 1930s. Wetlands in the basin were the most heavily impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which accelerated a severe land loss trend threatening Louisiana’s estuaries. The Upper Barataria Marsh Creation Project is a key component of NOAA’s larger effort to build more resilient coasts and communities in Louisiana. The project will help lessen the impact of future storms while supporting fish and wildlife.
This restoration project benefits wildlife, fisheries, and people by providing habitat, storm protection, recreational opportunities, and a strong economic base for many Gulf related industries. Coastal wetlands provide a range of ecological functions and services:
- Habitat: Increasing the quality and quantity of marsh increases the amount of available habitat. This provides food, shelter, and nursery grounds for many animals, including fish, shrimp, shellfish, sea turtles, birds, and mammals.
- Fisheries: Healthy marshes are highly productive habitats. They provide foraging, breeding, spawning, and cover habitat for a variety of fish and shellfish species.
- Wildlife: Marshes provide important habitats for the feeding, nesting, and roosting needs of birds. Marshes are also habitat for mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that rely on wetlands for part of their life cycle.
- Coastal Resilience: Marshes help mitigate storm risk and provide protection to nearby infrastructure and coastal communities, increasing coastal resilience.
- Economy: In addition to construction-related jobs, marshes support tourism and recreation, recreationally and commercially important fisheries, and shoreline integrity for storm protection.
Construction Details
The project contractor, Weeks Marine, Inc., began construction in late 2021. Construction activities included:
- Pumping sediment from the Mississippi River borrow dredging area to the marsh creation area
- Dredging using a hydraulic cutter suction dredge
- Transporting sediment through a pipeline connected to the dredge using high-powered pumps
- Filling containment structures, in the form of earthen dikes, with sediment
The construction process filled target areas with approximately 8.4 million cubic yards of sediment dredged from the Mississippi River and pumped through a pipeline over 13 miles. That’s almost enough sediment to fill two Superdome stadiums! The project also provided more than 140 construction-related jobs, further enhancing habitat restoration’s economic benefits in the region.
Explore the Project
How Restoration Happens
The Future of the Marsh
History and Importance of Louisiana’s Wetlands
Wetlands are a pivotal part of the natural system, providing tremendous benefits for coastal ecosystems and communities. They provide us with clean water, habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries, and countless opportunities for recreation, from hunting and fishing to hiking to observing wildlife. Additionally, wetlands provide Louisiana with its first line of defense during storms by reducing the detrimental effects of wind, waves, and flooding.
However, Louisiana has lost 1,800 square miles of land since 1932—and continues to lose approximately one football field of land every one to two hours. In the lifetime of a child born today, approximately 800,000 acres of Louisiana wetlands will be lost, moving the coastline inland by 33 miles in some areas. This will impact wildlife habitat and fisheries.
The Mississippi River delta naturally compacts and subsides over time, but historically the river would replenish the delta with new sediment. Levees meant to protect areas from flooding contained the river, but inadvertently cut off the supply of new sediment to surrounding marsh areas. As the land subsides and sea level rises, the open water of the Gulf of America moves closer and closer to the communities of southern Louisiana. This problem requires solutions on a grand scale.
Pumping sediment from the river to the marsh will replace some of the sediment starved from the estuary when it was separated from the river by levees. The newly created marsh areas will not only protect communities from storms and flooding but will also provide a home for many of the animals that are so important to the Louisiana economy. Species like white shrimp, blue crabs, and redfish need these protected habitats to survive.
Habitat Restoration After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform started the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. For 87 days after the explosion, the well blasted oil and natural gas continuously and uncontrollably into the northern Gulf. In all, an estimated 134 million gallons of oil was released, fouling the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.
After the spill, state and federal agencies undertook an intense scientific study of the impacts of the spill. They used this assessment to develop a science-based, comprehensive restoration plan for the Gulf. NOAA led development of the comprehensive restoration plan, along with the five Gulf States and three additional federal partners that comprise the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council, a joint federal and state body now overseeing restoration in the Gulf of America.
Since 2018, the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, a joint effort of the State of Louisiana and federal trustees, has prepared the Strategic Restoration Plan for the Barataria Basin and has undertaken one of the largest habitat restoration efforts: the Upper Barataria Marsh Creation project.
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Additional Information
More information on the Upper Barataria marsh creation project can be found at the Louisiana Restoration Area section of the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council website.
Information about other projects in Louisiana can be found through the interactive Gulf Spill Restoration project map.
