NEW ORLEANS - A consortium of Louisiana organizations will plant more than 30,000 trees, 33,000 plugs of marsh grasses and 40 plots of aquatic vegetation to re-establish a bald cypress and water tupelo bottomland hardwood forest near New Orleans starting this year.
The Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective is receiving $715,256 over three years from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a commitment of $404,643 from the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority over four years for the work.
The collective partners are the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Common Ground Relief, the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development, the Meraux Foundation, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and Pontchartrain Conservancy.
The project is also supported by the St. Bernard Wetlands Foundation, a critical landowner, financial supporter and founder of the efforts to reforest the Central Wetlands. The organizations expect to mobilize more than 2,000 volunteers.
The Central Wetlands were once forest that served as wildlife habitat, recreational grounds and hurricane protection to numerous communities in St. Bernard and Orleans parishes.
With these investments, there "will be forest again one day,” said a CRCL spokesperson.
About 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands have turned into open water since the 1930s. The Central Wetlands Unit has been identified as a priority restoration project in Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan. (Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana 07/03/23) Organizations to Plant Tens of Thousands of Trees in Central Wetlands - Biz New Orleans
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