NORTHWEST TERRITORY: Louisiana's long-thriving Delta fading

By Buddy Gough

Posted: August 27, 2009 at 5:12 a.m.

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LITTLE ROCK — The recent visit to the Louisiana Delta south of New Orleans provided the opportunity to reconnect with the dark marshland waters that have been in my blood ever since I was a newborn brought home to the banks of Vermilion Bayou near Abbeville, La.

Along with the present pleasure of fishing the marshes and sampling its bounty of seafood, fond memories of the past were mixed with a sense of poignancy over the imperiled future of one of the greatest natural environments in North America.

Viewed up close, a marsh's monotony of coffee-colored waters bordering dense clumps of salt grass anchored in black mud holds little to captivate the eye of the casual observer.

However, from a distance measured by the horizon, the boundless expanse of green grass and brown water can take on sublime beauty that constantly changes with the paint strokes of sun, wind and clouds. Deserts and lofty mountains affect some people the same way.

But the distinguishing difference with a marsh is the richness of its habitat, which teems with more life per acre than any other ecosystem in the northern hemisphere.

It is a nursery for shrimp and crabs and many kinds of fish thriving beneath the surface. Of course, it smells like a nursery, but it's also the home of too many species of amphibians, reptiles, fur bearers and birds to mention, as well as the promised land that sustains the "miracle of migration" for millions of ducks, geese and numerous other migratory birds.

Nevertheless, there was a glaring incongruity to the views of the Delta seen two weeks ago while fishing with Matthew Carter of Rogers and a group of his friends from Northwest Arkansas.

At times, we could look to the south, west and north to behold a marsh stretching to the horizons, but then turn to the east to see the superstructure of a cruise ship gliding toward the Gulf of Mexico between the high levees bordering the Mississippi River.

For the marshes, the levees are the problem.

Although they tragically failed during Hurricane Katrina, they held up for decades as bulwarks against the floodwaters of the Mississippi River while aiding water-borne commerce.

All the while, the levees have been starving the marshes to death.

Scientists say that from the end of the Ice Age to the building of the levees, the Louisiana Delta was formed as the waters flowing down the Mississippi River approached the gulf and spread out into myriad bayous and throughout bordering marshlands.

The flows brought sediments that built up the marshes for vegetation and trees to take hold.

The flows also contributed to transition zones ranging from freshwater to brackish water to saltwater, with each zone vital to various species of fish and wildlife.

Since the building of the levees and widespread channelization of the marsh, the natural process has been stopped to a large extent, leading the marsh to erode and subside.

Carter said thousands of acres are disappearing each year, and encroaching saltwater is permanently altering what were once brackish and freshwater habitats.

A sad example seen a few miles from Carter's cabin was a line of old, large cypress trees standing dead and limbless along what was once a freshwater bayou.

"It has been frightening to watch it shrivel," he said of the marshlands he has been fishing for only a dozen years.

Outdoors, Pages 25 on 08/27/2009

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