With the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina only a couple of months away, many are wondering if life will ever be the same in New Orleans again. Though changes can be seen on every corner of the city, Mother Nature may be one that takes the most time to recover.
The nations largest urban National Wildlife refuge, Bayou Sauvage says that this year it appears that over 20,000 of the estimated 30,000 ducks and birds that normally migrate to the swamp have gone elsewhere or disappeared entirely.
Bayou Sauvage was created back in 1986 and reaches across 25,000 acres of swampland just east of New Orleans. This week a report from the New Orleans Times Picayune says that not only did the storm hurt the duck population, but also wiped out 341 acres of forest that is home to owls and raptors. The marshes are often a common stop for songbirds making their way across the Gulf of Mexico from South America.
In order to bring to Sauvage back to its former glory and increase the wildlife of southern Louisiana, a major reforestation project is set to begin this summer. “This is where we go in with some heavy equipment to grind up the dead trees, both standing and the ones on the ground, as well as to grind up some of the weedy stuff that’s come up since the storm” says Supervisory Park Ranger Byron Fortier.
As a result of the damage delt by Hurricane Katrina and the repairs that are just now taking place, the wildlife refuge has taken major hit in the number of visitors it receives each year. Not only has the summer camp been canceled, but also in order for canoeing and fishing to begin again a two-mile stretch of the Bayou Sauvage waterway will have to be cleared of debris.
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