How marsh projects near Port Fourchon protect land, wildlife and communities

PORT FOURCHON, La. (WVUE) – Chett Chaisson leads a boat tour highlighting a newly constructed section of marsh near Port Fourchon, the giant oil and gas port where he serves as executive director.

“Right behind this dirt bar right here is newly created land,” Chaisson said, pointing to a section of restored wetlands on the north side of the harbor.

“It’s part of the 1,200 acres of marsh that we’ve created since the year 2000,” Chaisson said.

Contractors on the $4 million project dredged material and delivered it in pipes to create an instant marsh.

“Every piece of sand or material that we can put on our coast in any of these places is better than it was the day before,” Chaisson said.

The effort also has a practical aspect, as a buffer against hurricanes.

“We’ve seen (South Lafourche Parish) change dramatically over the last few years,” said Simone Maloz, campaign manager for Restore the Mississippi River Delta, a group of environmental organizations that have joined forces to push for coastal restoration projects.

Maloz notes the impact of Hurricane Ida in 2021, which bulldozed its way up Louisiana Hwy. 1 through Lafourche, impairing lives, destroying property and devouring coastlines that may never recover.

“We’re in the heart of two of the most abundant estuaries here in coastal Louisiana, but really in North America,” Maloz said. “But it’s also the heart of land loss.”

Just down the road, Ducks Unlimited worked with Port Fourchon and other partners to install terraces, small man-made islands where swamps had been turned into open water.

“We can create habitat by building islands in open water that historically were marshes,” said Cassidy Lejeune, DU’s director of conservation programs. “We can stabilize the area and stop further losses and erosion from occurring.”

Lejeune said Ducks Unlimited installed 80,000 linear feet of terraces at a total cost of $4.7 million, which is modest by coastal restoration standards.

It comes up against much larger government projects to restore part of the Caminada promontory that runs between Fourchon and Grand Isle.

“It’s really kind of eating the elephant a little at a time,” Lejeune said. “What we do alone is not going to move the needle, but when we work together with other units and agencies and organizations, we can make a difference.”

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on major projects nearby, including beach restoration and marsh creation.

“You’re looking at north of half a billion dollars that’s been invested just if you look a mile this way or two miles that way,” Maloz said.

The newly restored land provides a critical stopover point for migratory birds, according to Erik Johnson, director of conservation science for Audubon Louisiana.

“Billions of birds rely on this coastal habitat to protect them from the really bad weather that they sometimes get.”

Johnson said even small amounts of land can be lifesaving for birds that have made a long and dangerous journey across the Gulf of Mexico.

“That’s how we protect our shelter,” Maloz said. “This is really the symbol of the many lines of defense. It starts at our shoreline, it starts at the barrier islands.”

As Port Fourchon grew in size in recent decades, dredging canals and building new boat slips, it was required by law to mitigate the damage.

“We have done beyond limitation as well because it is the right thing to do and it is what we need to do to maintain or heritage, our culture and our economic way of life,” said Chaisson.

The state’s Coastal Master Plan includes large-scale projects to create marshes on both sides of Bayou Lafourche.

“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” Maloz said. “We must continue to invest in coastal Louisiana.”

A project area covering a footprint of 29,000 hectares from Fourchon to Leeville would exceed $1 billion in cost.

While the project would significantly restore the marsh in an area with some of the most dramatic land loss, proponents concede it could probably only be built in phases.

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