Louisiana island that provides crucial nesting ground for pelicans and other seabirds is being restored to nearly its former size after decades of coastal erosion and an offshore oil spill 10 years ago.
FILE - In this July 16, 2018, photo provided by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries a brown pelican flyies over Queen Bess Island in Louisiana. The island is being restored to nearly its former size after decades of coastal erosion and the devastating blow of an offshore oil spill 10 years ago. About 6,500 brown pelicans and 3,000 smaller seabirds cram their nests every summer onto Queen Bess Island, which shrank from 45 acres in 1956 to about 5 acres by 2010.
“The walk we just made wouldn't have been possible a few weeks ago,” the governor said after crossing an expanse of sand bearing tread marks from heavy equipment used to create and grade new land. He spoke at a podium set up before waist-high mangroves, which contractors left untouched for pelicans to nest on.
Edwards said the $18.7 million project to enlarge and maintain the island is part of $550 million that that has restored more than 4,200 acres of Louisiana's coast and islands. More than $800 million in additional work is expected across Louisiana this year, he said. Funds to restore Queen Bess Island and for future monitoring and upkeep flow from a $20 billion settlement that the federal government and the five Gulf Coast states reached with energy giant BP PLC for environmental damage from the 2010 spill.
Contractors for Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority enlarged the island by dredging up Mississippi River sand and pumping it inside the outlines of rock and other material from the 1990s restoration, which used silt. The sand, designers hope, will be more stable. The authority also built a line of rock breakwaters 75 to 95 feet from shore to slow erosion and provide calm water for young birds.
He said the crowding has made the island's woody plants look like apartment houses, with nest above nest above nest: perhaps a laughing gull on the ground, an egret or roseate spoonbill in middle branches and a brown pelican nest at the top.In an assist to the birds, The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission designated the island a wildlife refuge in November.
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