Posted on August 21, 2018
Audubon Louisiana’s Director of Bird Conservation Erik I. Johnson, Ph.D. stopped by the Passe Partout set to discuss their successful efforts with the Restore the Mississippi River Delta organization.
Here are some of the talking points he touched upon:
Audubon Louisiana is the state office of the National Audubon Society, which works to advance conservation strategies that benefit birds and the habitat they need to survive.
Birds that nest on sandy beaches, such as Grande Isle and Holly Beach, are among the fastest declining birds in North America. Along Louisiana’s shorelines these birds are impacted by human disturbance, while their habitat is also rapidly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of our land loss crisis.
Their staff, with the help of volunteers, stewards over 1,100 acres of coastal habitat on Grand Isle, Elmer’s Island and in Cameron Parish.
A vital part of the stewardship program involves education and outreach to people who use, and live near, beach habitats.
Audubon Louisiana just finished its most successful year of coastal stewardship ever: After seven years of protecting nesting birds near Grand Isle, 2018 was the first year in which we did not document a single nest or chick injured by a beachgoer.
These efforts, coupled with the large-scale coastal restoration projects in the state’s Coastal Master Plan, are essential to helping birds thrive:
Look no further than the Caminada Headland renourishment project, one of the largest barrier island restorations completed in Louisiana to date, which led to a 100 percent increase in nesting birds on Elmer’s Island since 2016.
The state also recently completed the Caillou Lake Headland Restoration project in Terrebonne that used enough sand to fill the Superdome THREE times to build more than 1,000 acres and restore the island. This will provide critical wave and storm surge protection, but also benefit birds like Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers.
Where birds thrive, people prosper – nowhere is that more evident than along Louisiana’s coast: These restoration projects, such as barrier island restoration and marsh creation, also benefit people by providing a crucial buffer from storm surge and sea level rise.
Source: KLFY
