<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/cypress-trees-stabilize-louisiana-wetlands/>
"Bald cypress trees have loomed over Louisiana’s landscape for thousands of
years, their feathery leaves offering shade from on high. In a state that
contains 40 percent of the wetlands in the Lower 48, the cypress has always
been a natural companion for residents. It thrives in soggy bottoms that would
smother most trees, lives for hundreds of years under the right circumstances,
and brings comfort to Louisianans “like warm bread at home,” as Blaise Pezold,
an ecosystem restorationist, puts it. As the state tree, the cypress is “as
legendary [in Louisiana] as the chestnut tree in Appalachia,” Pezold says.
Now, it’s also helping to bring back the wetlands. Across southern Louisiana,
the bald cypress is at the center of efforts to reverse the crisis of coastal
land loss that has cost Louisiana 2,000 square miles of coastal land over the
last century. Over the next 50 years, that figure could swell to 5,000 square
miles without intervention.
That’s where Pezold and others like him come in. A partnership of local
environmental organizations is nearing the end of a four-year state- and
federally-funded initiative to plant 30,000 trees in Louisiana’s Central
Wetlands, an area where the crisis is acutely felt. Spanning Orleans and St.
Bernard parishes, the Central Wetlands were depleted by logging and the opening
of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a 1960s-era canal that allowed saltwater
into the freshwater ecosystem. During Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, the canal
carried a deadly storm surge into St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward.
As a result, it was permanently closed in 2009. The wetlands’ salinity soon
fell back toward historic levels, setting the stage for restoration.
Since 2019, the Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective — a partnership that
includes the Meraux Foundation, where Pezold leads the coastal and
environmental program; the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL);
Common Ground Relief; CSED of the Lower 9th Ward; and Pontchartrain Conservancy
— has seized the opportunity to put cypress trees back where they belong and
help reverse the region’s rapid land loss."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
