Posted on October 14, 2024
NEW ORLEANS — After a busy hurricane season causing a lot of destruction, Ducks Unlimited is raising money and awareness for the need to protect the coast.
“Louisiana loses a football field, piece size, piece of property every 100 minutes,” said Zac Brown, the Louisiana regional director of Ducks Unlimited. “So 25 to 35 square miles of marsh a year is lost, and so there’s a lot of work to be done here.”
Brown says these recent storms prove just how important it is to protect the coast.
“Three miles of wetlands, you reduce the storm surge by a foot,” said Brown. “So when you’re talking about, you know, storm mitigation, flood mitigation, things like that, that’s critical for Louisiana and critical for places like New Orleans.”
It’s an effort that Ducks Unlimited has been focusing on for decades.
“So a lot of people don’t know,” said Brown. “They see our logo, they think they’re we’re clothing brand or we’re a hunting group. We are a conservation group — that is our business. What we do day in and day out is to figure out ways of protecting the coast.”
Currently, the organization has more than 16 active wetlands restoration projects in progress in Louisiana. One of them is the Port Fourchon terracing project, where there’s a 650-acre piece of property that organization is enhancing through building terracing.
“Terracing projects do a great job of taking a big open body of water that used to be marsh and you build those projects in there,” said Brown. “They build these linear terraces, and what it does is it slows that wave action down and it allows that sunlight to penetrate the water column, and you start seeing your quality of vegetation come back. When you have that, then you start seeing, you know, waterfowl and other species coming in and utilizing those habitat.”
Some other projects include the following below with how far the projects are:
- Cameron Prairie NWR Irrigation Line — submitted permit drawings.
- Rockefeller Refuge Unit 3 Pump — pump and supplemental materials delivered. LDWF plans to install in October after hurricane season
- Rockefeller Refuge – Mermentau Basin Flood Mitigation — one of four structures under construction
- Continental Marsh Lake Hackberry Shoreline — 85% design. Construction in FY2025
- Marsh Island Refuge Phase II (big impoundment structure) — 90% design. Working on CEA with LDWF. Construction in FY2025
- Marsh Island Refuge Big Impoundment Breach Repair — survey completed. Working on CEA with LDWF. Construction in FY2025
- Harry Bourg Terraces Phase I — construction 85% complete.
- Delacroix 40 Arpent Phase II — construction in FY2025. Waiting on NAWCA award that is 19 months delayed
- Lacassine NWR Unit B — contracting with low bidder. Construction in FY2025
- White Lake WCA Shoreline Protection Permitting — permit drawings submitted
- Apache HWY 1 Terraces — scheduling survey and geotechnical investigation. Survey complete. Construction in FY2025
- Meraux/Forty Arpent Terraces Phase II — zero percent surveyed. Surveying will occur in September. Construction in FY2025
- Bradish Johnson Terraces / Grand Bayou (CoP) — construction 35% complete
- Port Fourchon Terraces and Living Shoreline (CoP) — construction 75% complete on original bid. Living shoreline modules deployed. Construction zero percent complete on change order
- Carencro Bayou Ridge Restoration (CoP) — solicit bids in September. Construction in FY2025
- Bayou L’Ours Phase V / N. Bayou L’Ours Ridge Terraces (CoP) — survey complete. Waiting on NAWCA award that is delayed. Construction in FY2025
To continue its efforts, local volunteers like Jeff Ruffing, whose father played a big role in the organization, are putting together events to raise money for the projects to rebuild the coast.
For Ruffing, he says he has seen firsthand why the work they do is so important.
“To see the effects that the hurricanes have on our coastline and the threats to people that live here and their safety and just the environment in general,” said Ruffing. “The coastal wetlands are so important, and us restoring them is critical to our future here in southeast Louisiana.”
That’s why this coming week, they’re putting on a Ducks Unlimited Banquet for anyone to enjoy.
“Folks from all walks of life want to participate and attend our events, and it’s just for anybody that cares about restoring wildlife habitat or coastal wetlands here in Louisiana,” said Ruffing.
What: 2024 New Orleans General Membership Fundraising Banquet for Ducks Unlimited
When: Oct. 16, 2024
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Mardi Gras World
To benefit: Coastal wetland restoration and wildlife habitat improvement projects in Louisiana
Who: Open to the public
Cost: $125
For more information about the fundraiser and others, you can go to its website here.
