Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin

A Threatened National Treasure

Coastal estuarine and freshwater wetland systems along the Gulf of Mexico are vital staging habitat for migratory birds that fly over the Gulf semi-annually. These marshes and bottomland hardwood forested wetlands provide essential food resources that the migrants store for their long flight. They are also critically important breeding bird habitat. Coastal wetlands are being destroyed every day from the development associated with population growth, agriculture, logging, pollution and manipulation of river systems, usually by the Corps of Engineers.

Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, at 595,000 acres, is the nation’s largest swamp wilderness, containing nationally significant expanses of bottomland hardwoods, swamplands, bayous and back-water lakes. Fish and wildlife values are staggering, with some reporting a fecundity three-and-one-half times that of the Everglades. One-half of the migratory species in the North American flyway use the area each year. It is an Everglades-scale natural resource that deserves the same national attention to its preservation. Yet it is largely unprotected through state or national park or refuge status –the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge is a mere 15,000 acres.

The Atchafalaya River is one of five major distributaries of the Mississippi River, which discharges 30 percent of its flow into the Atchafalaya. Ecologically, the basin has four sections. To the north are woodlands and farmlands. The middle section contains North America’s largest river basin swamp, a natural paradise of exotic plants and animals. The swamp attracts hunters, fishing, and boating enthusiasts, and nature photographers. Farther south is marshland. Finally, where the Atchafalaya River empties into Atchafalaya Bay, a new delta is being formed. The entire region supports half of America’s migratory waterfowl and yields 23 million pounds of crawfish annually. It contains one of the largest fish crops in the US.

It is home to 200 species of birds, including egrets, ibises, and anhingas. Endangered species include peregrine falcon, Bachman’s warbler, and Louisiana Black Bear. Many species of neotropical songbirds use Louisiana wetlands for resting and feeding habitat during migration.

Most of the Atchafalaya Basin is privately held. By the late 1920’s, landowners had logged out the old cypress trees and soon after began to lease mineral rights to oil and gas companies. Much of the northwest part of the Basin has already been turned into soy bean and corn fields. But farther south, vast stretches of the swamp remain, and except for some public land just south of US highway 190, the south Basin is where the battles over water levels, land use, and resource management have occurred

Beginning in the late 1920’s, the Corps turned the Atchafalaya River into a floodway between levees that diverts water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In 1985, Congress approved a compromise flood control plan hammered out by the Corps, state agencies, landowners, timber interests, fishers, and conservation groups. This plan authorizes the Corps to purchase 50,000 acres and obtain easements on another 338,000 acres to restrict damaging aspects of logging and prevent expansion of soybeans and corn fields into the swamp.

Without protected status, the Atchafalaya faces these threats:

• Logging of the cypress that remains and the bottomland hardwoods continues.
• Lack of public access through private holdings restricts public use and support for conservation.
• Dredging has changed natural hydraulics, accelerated siltation, and created oxygen-deprived dead zones where not aquatic life can survive.
• Increased siltation has created dry land from wetland, and development pressures south of I-10 are increasing.
• At least one lake in the Basin is polluted with mercury, and a fish advisory has been issued.
• Levees have cut off freshwater flows, harming fishing and creating salt water intrusion.

In response to these concerns, a master plan for the Achafalaya Basin is currently under development by Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Corps of Engineers. The master plan includes the major land acquisition by the Corps, as well as environmental easements addressing logging issues. Public hearings were held in August. (The plan will be revised and submitted to the 1999 legislature for appropriations up to $85 million over 15 years. The Louisiana Audubon Council has been deeply involved in Atchafalaya issues, with many other local partners, and the Wetlands Campaign will support their efforts to ensure this vital resource is permanently protected.

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