Posted on October 2, 2024
President Theodore Roosevelt designated the islands, which provide key habitat for waterfowl, sportfish, and sea turtles, as the second-ever National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S.
Louisiana’s extensive barrier islands are among the many features that distinguish the state from its Gulf of Mexico neighbors, as well as every other Atlantic Basin state.
Certainly, others have barrier islands and extensive beach shorelines. However, none of them have the unique and numerous mix of headlands and back-barrier marshes of the Bayou State, thanks to the shifting deltas and fertility of the Mississippi River.
While the brown river silt and thick, sometimes rotten-smelling mud isn’t the tourist attraction of white sand and high-rise hotels, the fish, crabs and, especially, native and migrating birds sure do love those “ugly” beaches and marshes.
Singling out one barrier island or even a chain of barrier islands as most important or most unique is difficult. They all serve multiple purposes as vital habitat for fish and birds (and fishermen and bird watchers) and all play a crucial role in knocking down storm surge and protecting more sensitive inland wetlands and communities from bearing the brunt of the strongest hurricane waves. The Chandeleur Islands, though, stand out.
Tens of thousands of redheads and other ducks utilize the Chandeleur Islands each winter.
A special place
The Chandeleurs are home to the northern Gulf of Mexico’s largest seagrass bed, encompassing more than 5,000 acres and providing food and shelter for innumerable fish, mammals, sea turtles, and birds.
It may come as a shock to most Louisiana waterfowlers that tens of thousands of diving ducks, particularly redheads, spend part of their winter on northern Chandeleur’s massive grass flats. An estimated 40,000-50,000 birds utilize the islands each winter and more than 30,000 sea birds make their nests on the islands annually.
The islands’ remote nature has left them unmolested, but also passed up for large-scale restoration projects.
Those flats also attract sea turtles, most notably endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles. Biologists believed for decades Kemp’s ridleys, while ranging Gulf-wide and along the Atlantic Coast, only nested in Mexico and South Texas. Not so, according to a host of recent findings by Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) that show dozens of nesting sites along the Chandeleur’s beaches.
Critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, like the one shown here in Florida, nest on and forage near the Chandeleurs.
Of course, Louisiana anglers and saltwater fishing enthusiasts world-wide know the Chandeleurs for their massive schools of redfish, extraordinary speckled trout production, enormous populations of sharks, and even as a stopping and feeding spot for migrating tarpon coming from Florida each summer to feast on pogies and mullet near the Mississippi’s mouth.
This remarkable bounty of fish and wildlife prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to designate the islands as the Breton National Wildlife Refuge in 1904, the second-ever National Wildlife Refuge established in the United States.
Access Is a Challenge
There’s no such thing as an easy trip to northern Chandeleur Island. It’s more than 30 miles across a lot of open water from any launching spot along the Mississippi coast. Add a dozen or more miles to that from popular Louisiana ports.
Its remote nature has left the islands mostly unmolested by people and keeps predators like foxes, racoons, and other egg eaters away from bird and turtle nests. But, because the islands are so far away from the mainland, it also meant they were often passed up for large-scale restoration projects.
The storm surge reduction benefits just didn’t score as highly as islands in the Barataria or Terrebonne basins, while the distance from shore meant additional expenses in moving material and manpower on site. Facing limited budgets, state coastal planners had to pick islands that had the most combined benefits for both people and animals.
Construction could begin in 2026 to restore more than 13 miles of the barrier island chain.
Ironically, it’s the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that changed the equation for the Chandeleurs. The impacts to sea turtles, birds, fish, and other wildlife across the northern Gulf means habitat restoration and enhancement is weighted as much or more than storm surge reduction and coastal community protection when it comes to spending oil spill fines.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill fouled many of Louisiana’s barrier island beaches.
The Time Is Now
Louisiana’s CPRA is trying to secure an approximate $280-plus million from various oil-spill penalty funds, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund as well as donations from nonprofit groups like Ducks Unlimited. Should the CPRA succeed, construction could begin in 2026 to restore more than 13 miles of beaches as well as sand dunes and pockets of back barrier marshes.
Here’s hoping CPRA succeeds. The Chandeleurs’ beaches and dunes are miniscule now compared to the estimated 11,000 acres there when Roosevelt established the refuge. Hurricanes, especially Georges in 1998 and, of course, Katrina in 2005 have ripped the islands apart, contributing to the loss of more than 90 percent of the landmass over the last 100 years.
Louisiana has lost far too much coastal habitat in the last century. That land loss has contributed to the slow erosion of a cultural identity intrinsic to the people of the Sportsman’s Paradise. Hopefully, restoring the Chandeleurs will play a big role in making sure that identity is passed on to the next generation of Louisiana sportsmen and women.
Every barrier island in Louisiana between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Atchafalaya River has been restored and enhanced in some way in the last 25 years. It’s time the northern stretches of the Chandeleurs get their turn.
