Louisiana has lengthy relied on an unlimited levee system to rein within the Mississippi River and defend surrounding communities from flooding. However chopping off the pure circulation of the river with synthetic limitations has been slowly killing one of many nation’s largest forested wetlands.

The 176 sq. mile (456 sq. kilometers) Maurepas Swamp simply to the west of New Orleans holds Louisiana’s second largest contiguous forest, a beloved state wildlife refuge stuffed with water tupelo and bald cypress timber, their branches adorned by wisps of Spanish moss. A beloved recreation web site, the swamp additionally homes bald eagles, ospreys, black bears and alligators and serves as a waystation for tons of of various migratory birds.

Disadvantaged of vitamins from the stanched Mississippi River, the swamp’s iconic timber are dying in stagnant water. But they’re now set to obtain a life-saving increase.

State and federal authorities on Tuesday celebrated breaking floor on an bold conservation undertaking meant to replenish the ailing timber by diverting water from the Mississippi again into the swamp.

“That is about reconnecting a pure system, truly fixing it to what it was once,” mentioned Brad Miller, who has shepherded the undertaking for the state’s Coastal Safety and Restoration Authority since 2006.

Miller likened the $330 million river diversion to watering a backyard: “The swamp wants river water to be a very good swamp.”

The River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp will enable for a most of 2000 cubic toes per second (57 cubic meters per second) to circulation out of a gated opening to be constructed within the levee system and routed alongside a 5.5 miles (9 kilometers) diversion channel. The undertaking expects to revitalize round 45,000 acres (182 sq. kilometers) of swamp in an space the place lower than a 3rd of the forest is taken into account wholesome based on the U.S. Geological Survey.

Apart from injecting much-needed vitamins and oxygen into the swamp, river water will go away skinny layers of sediment deposits that mitigate the impact of subsidence — a pure phenomenon on Louisiana’s fragile coast exacerbated by fossil gasoline extraction — and local weather change-induced sea degree rise, mentioned Nick Stevens, a researcher at Southeastern Louisiana College’s wetlands ecology and restoration lab. More healthy forests bolster the swamp with decomposing matter from branches and leaves, he added.

“All of that’s fully hindered by not having the Mississippi River connected to it anymore,” Stevens mentioned. “You’ve acquired all this land sinking because of simply not getting vitamins.”

The swamp’s diminishing well being has had ripple results on biodiversity, says Erik Johnson, director of conservation science at Audubon Delta, a company centered on fowl ecology within the Mississippi River delta. Some migratory birds just like the yellow throated warbler, prothonotary warbler and the northern parula have had their populations plummet by almost 50% previously twenty years, Johnson mentioned.

These birds depend on caterpillars who’re depending on water tupelo and bald cypress foliage. When there’s much less wholesome leaves for the caterpillars to gorge on, there’s much less meals for the birds.

“That’s driving a extremely fast decline in these fowl populations that depend upon this one forest,” Johnson mentioned. “The entire system has shifted.”

Scientists say they count on to begin seeing a rise in cover cowl and new tree progress inside just a few years of the undertaking’s anticipated completion in 2028.

Not like the state’s controversial $3 billion river diversion undertaking meant to fight coastal land loss, the Maurepas undertaking has acquired widespread assist from elected officers and native communities.

The Maurepas undertaking is primarily funded by the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, a multi-state and federal program managing settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that devastated the Gulf Coast.

The Maurepas undertaking advantages from an modern partnership with the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, which is constructing an adjoining 18.5 miles (30 kilometers) levee system to guard a number of southeast Louisiana parishes. The Corps will depend 9,000 acres (36 sq. kilometers) of Maurepas Swamp restoration in the direction of offsetting environmental harm attributable to the brand new levee building, which means it will probably direct further federal funds in the direction of the diversion program.

“For each greenback the state can save right here, they’ve extra to speculate” in different coastal restoration initiatives, mentioned John Ettinger, director of coverage and environmental compliance with Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.

And conservationists say the Maurepas reintroduction undertaking highlights the significance of coastal safety and wetlands restoration going hand in hand in a hurricane-prone area.

“You’re going to have a more healthy ecosystem on the skin of that levee, which implies you’re going to have a greater buffer for storm surge and it’s going to permit the levees to be simpler,” mentioned Amanda Moore, Nationwide Wildlife Federation’s Gulf Program senior director. “That is how we must be considering at giant about what’s doable and the way we are able to how we are able to do simpler conservation by working with nature.”