How come CCA does not get involved with erosion or marsh restoration projects like it's mission statement says?
CCA has never helped on erosion problem on Big Lake in there history as far as I know? Can a CCA sunshine pumper help us here get an answer? Or is it because they rather place a half million reef and call it good ( easy work load) |
Who's buddy owned the construction company???
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Well, the levee was constructed in 1983. Weirs went into operation 1989. 1988 was the closest date to those two to show any difference. If you look at 1956 to 1978 land loss (1978 was the only year in between '56 and '88 that was analyzed), the rate of loss was approximately 4639 acres per year. From 78 to 88, it was about 500 per year then.
I don't know where you're going to get a land loss analysis for the last 6 years. I haven't seen one. The sabine/calcasieu basin lost approximately 14,000 acres of land based on Barras's (2006) estimate of land loss after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. There is another Barras publication from 2009, but it analyzes landloss over the entire Chenier plain and not by watershed. |
In 1989 the weirs weren't opened and closed as they are now
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Our tax money pays for that marshb,land and weirs and yet we can not access it as we please
The local economy from the weirs takes a hit also My neighbor here at Heberts has two girls and is not a big fisherman be rather go behind the weirs and crab with family or fish for flounder. He spends around $300-500 a day when he is down here but when weirs are closed he never comes along with several other family's. If you want to manage them this way at least open on weekends and allow family's access and close Sunday night or close every night and open during daylight ( but that's is too much work and that is asking to much from our tax money) |
W u run a haynie!!! PVC pipe on the levee hit 60 and trim up ! U got this!! Ol swamper Troy ain't got nothing on u!
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Found out some goods... now it's all coming together.......wheeeeee this some good info and I will post his name when I find out his last name
Turns out the people who now contract the weirs are from Cameron and the head man who controls the weirs is a huge duck hunter in this marsh!!!! Now you know the rest of the story!! |
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"Go ahead, share your opinion! I won't cry" |
Smalls, no disrespect intended, is the marsh on the west side of west cove going to eventually erode up to hwy 27, or is it more of a saltwater marsh that can tolerate high salt content? Also, how much has west cove eroded since 1956 when the land loss data started being obtained?
These conversations used to consist of you and duck butter saying that the weirs aren't managed for "weigeon grass" but on this thread it turned into "it is a NWR and all NWR are managed for waterfowl." If different people can obtain contracts to manage the weirs, how can we be so sure that they really are being used for their purpose of stopping erosion, and not just for the good of duck hunters in that marsh? If the erosion issue is the number one priority for our estuary, and the answer to the west cove question is yes, then why aren't there weirs over there? I completely understand the good intent behind the weirs, I just feel that if we could rock the ship channel, maybe mother nature ought to be left alone to do her thing. |
I made one phone call to one person who has been working on info about weirs, he informed me the guy who controls weirs is a big duck hunter back there.... And once I get his contact info I will post it!!
Text and call that bastard till he changes his number |
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"Go ahead, share your opinion! I won't cry" |
Where is Clampy? Our resident grass expert!!!
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right now every one is crying because you don't have the fish you are suppose to, next you will be crying when the marsh is gone and big lake will butt up to the intercostal. if you need more testimonials look in Leeville Louisiana that use to be fresh water and have cypress trees every where. now there is saltwater to Cut off. but the weirs should be open. why not make a roll over for bay boats
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I'll send that to anyone that may want to read it. Used to you could find the whole report on lacoast.gov, but I have no clue what happened to it. I had even talked to the people that manage the website and the whole report was put on there. As for the widgeon grass/NWR conversation: that was not my meaning when I made that statement about the NWR. The National Wildlife Refuge was set up to manage waterfowl habitat. The weirs were not just set up to manage the NWR, but the Cameron-Creole watershed as a whole. I don't think the NWR even makes up half of the watershed. Honestly, to the question of the contracts, there really is no way to know if they are going to manage the weirs the way they were intended to be managed. If the channel could be rocked, it may be another level of salinity control. That question should be asked of the people that devised the original plan. Why wasn't that considered? Or if it was, what made it so that it was not the plan implemented? |
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Otherwise, I think the fishing this year is a little off all over the place due to the weather, even in north Louisiana. People are complaining about the fishing up there with white perch, with all kinds of interesting theories:spineyes: The winter time bite lasted way into March this year when you on normal years would be catching fish spawning. Just last weekend everyone fishing the banks were complaining about the lack of fish, we were able to find a bunch of fish still staged out waiting to spawn. 17 of the fish were females still full of eggs, and that is strange for late April on the lake we were fishing. And to add to the everything is late comment: wading birds like Great Egrets that you can set a clock by when they arrive and start making nests in February were a few weeks behind schedule as well. We normally have chicks ready to fly right now, but most are still sitting on eggs or they just hatched in the last 2 days. Last week there were roseate spoonbills just starting nests which is a month behind schedule. Many other casual observations as well |
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1. West cove is less connected to the ship channel. This means, on average, salinities in west cove are lower than on the east side. Less salt -> less land loss. 2. It may have a slightly higher average soil height when the channel was dug. Even 6" would make a big difference to how far beyond the bay salt penetrated into the marsh. 3. Possibly different soil types or different pH. I have not seen any studies, but I'd bet salinity tolerance depends a bit on soil pH. |
with the new bridge you can see the erosion month by month if you pass often enough from the bridge. I grew up in Grand Lake grad of 98 I hated the weirs just as much as W and now live in Raceland and fish grand isle often and cant beg for the weirs enough. but it is too late to fix this side of the state without lots of money.
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why cant it be compared do you have different water. same gulf water flow in the ship channel there and come in the pass over here.
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One day a hurricane is going to take it all, and the Gulf of Mexico will begin at Golden Meadow, maybe Houma. It's a sad sight and a sad thought. |
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On the Big Lake side of the world, the ship channel is similarto the straight line oil/gas canals in that it brings in saltwater, and there WAS actual mitigation for this (the saltwater barrier) and later the weirs. The saltwater barrier was installed over 50 years ago because they knew the ship channel would bring in salty water and that would make its way north into the farms and that would be detrimental to agriculture (nothing to do with CCA or wigeongrass). Saltwater getting into areas that can't tolerate excess salinity is bad, it kills and is difficult to get back, and marsh plantings are pretty expensive. Its best to take preventative measures and keep land intact rather than have to restore it back. :) Marshes are one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, and they also serve a very vital role in hurricane protection. That is one of the things that people often overlook is the saltwater barrier installed a LONG time ago. The people back then knew saltwater is not good but we never seem to talk about the saltwater barrier for some reason? Why don't we try and get that removed so we can catch trout up in Allen Parish? |
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I'm not sure about the pHs, but if I remember right, most of them are about the same. They are all marsh soils (then again, what isn't in Cameron). |
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Add to that the very high number of man made cuts through the marsh system on that side of the state. |
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Yeah I'll agree with you there. When we had projects over on that side of the lake, specifically over in Black Lake, that stuff was some heavy clays! On the east side of the lake you get a lot of mucky stuff, and in some areas its straight organic! Those are the areas that it doesn't get a whole lot of time out of the water, so the microbes and all those little things don't get the chance to break that stuff down. Actually, the more I look at the west cove area, the more differences I see. The rim of west cove has alot of clayey soils. There are still some of those bancker mucks mixed in, but that rim is a lot of clay. So that could have something to do with why the west side of the system handles salinities better. Now I don't remember everything from my soils class, but if I remember right, I think clay soils have a higher sodium exchange capacity or something like that. So those soils are likely able to handle saline conditions better than more organic soils, which is what the east side of the lake is made up of. Ironically enough, that 40% of the parish really doesn't include the area around West Cove. It is made up of soils that make up less than 25% of the entire land area. That quite honestly could be part of the reason the marsh around west cove has been able to sustain itself. Clay soils act differently than organic soils. |
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They are comparable in some ways, not in others. Sabine probably is the single estuary that is more comparable with Calcasieu, but they are different in many ways also.
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Noodle I am not saying they are 100% comparable what I am saying I use to live there and think just like all of you and I now live on the east and see that they help out the west a lot more than you think they do.
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If you want to see what we are losing, and what they are trying to protect with the weirs, open Google Earth and zoom into Cameron prairie refuge. At the top of the page on Google earth is a clock face, click it and it will bring up a slider. Use your mouse to slide the slider back and forth and you will see images over the course of time, you can see the marsh opening up, good productive nursery environment turning to open water. I fish back there a lot, it's my playground for years and I've been shocked at the changes I see year to year due to erosion. Sure I'd like to have access to get back there all the time, but not at the much greater cost of losing the marsh. I'm amazed at how short sighted "conservation minded" fishermen become when measures necessary to protect the resource over the long haul inconveniences them and their fishing for a bit.
Oh and a little info, the opening and closing of the weirs isn't controlled by "A Guy" it's controlled by the Coastal protection and restoration authority. Prior to hurricane Rita they controlled the weirs and they were often closed for large chunks of the summer. After hurricane Rita, they turned over control of the weirs to the SWLA refuge complex and they virtually never closed them. I saw the fishing change back there, numbers of redfish went up but size went down and I started seeing the marsh melt away. A few years ago (maybe 3 I'm not certain) operation of the weirs was turned back over to the CPRA and they returned to the management strategy used prior to 2005. It's not any different then it was then, I remember being disappointed when I couldn't get back there in the middle of summer back then just as now. They have their salinity benchmarks and that's what the opening and closure is generally based on. At times, even if salinity is above target levels they will open them if water is very high to relieve flooding. Also, in severe drought they will at times open them because in some conditions the marsh completely drying out is worse than salt intrusion. |
Having a rock levee from old super cut to wash out would slow down tidal movement within the lake therefore less tidal flow action in marshes behind weirs which would mean less salt back there. Rock levee the channel seems to be a win win for all here. They did it most of ship channel anyways what is big deal to put another couple of miles. The channel increase tidal flow when installed. Why is it so difficult for those with power to understand this? Cut the snake off at head not the tail.
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Weirs were never closed at all before Rita but a hand full of times and once the levees were repaired they stayed open 2 more years
And yea the guy who heads the open and closure of the weirs is a big to do with the duck hunting in that marsh (this comes from very close source ) Try again |
Whats tthe name waltrip?
Redchaserron - where did you hear that CPRA had operational control, because I can assure you, that is not who assumed control after USFWS relinquished it. The operation of the weirs was bid out to private companies, under the instruction of the management plan. Maybe CPRA issues those instructions, but I have never heard such. |
Wil Drost.... W blames him for everything lol.
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I fully believe this to be true and pretty sure I've voiced this a couple times. Instead of CCA wasting all that rock on reefs, why not restore the fn levy!!!! Stupid azz people!!! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk |
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Here is the text of the press release from 2012 that was issued by the USFWS Effective January 1, 2012 the U S Fish and Wildlife Service relinquished daily operation of the water control structures on the east side of Calcasieu Lake to the Louisiana State Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Daily Operations and maintenance of the structures along the east side of Calcasieu Lake are now funded by the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) as part of the Cameron Creole Maintenance (CS-04a) project. Gate operations are now performed by a contractor directed by the Louisiana State Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority." And yes the weirs were often closed before Rita. I've been fishing that marsh for a very long time, not parking in the canal dunking shrimp by the weirs, but poling the flats and exploring the whole expanse of the place. And many times prior to Rita I felt the frustration of not being able to get back there onto the flats. After Rita they left the weirs open pretty much all the time until January of 2012. I do think that shoring up the ship channel would help tremendously. For a while there was talk about installing a large lock somewhere near the mouth of the ship channel to really restrict tidal flow but with an always open smaller boat lane for smaller craft. That probably got nixed when they thought about the price tag. |
Before Rita they keep the gates open just about everyday but had boat bay closed the flow was open and almost never closed at Lambet and grand just because the boat bay was closed did not mean the gates were closed.
Can tell u how many times I seen the gates pouring water out while boat bay was closed off to boats |
I am telling you that the fishing id off in lots of places even in North Louisiana, well away from any weirs. People who fish Larto Lake are complaining about the sacaulait disappearing this year. I have fished D'arbonne Lake 2 of the last 3 weekends and we are catching sacaulait full of eggs something that is unheard of in May at D'arbonne Lake.
The shrimp are likely way behind schedule this year also I would imagine? Stop trying to find ONE thing to blame fo lack of fishing success. |
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The grand bayou wier was closed yesterday (gate all the way down) but yet water was still rushing into the marsh through the boat bay. I have been reading the info on this thread but im really confused after what i saw yesterday. What's up with that?
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And Widgeongrass. Lmao!! |
I'm starting to get the idea that the gates are opened and closed by some guy under contract and when he gets the order he has left allredy and misses it as he goes fishing alot. Heck it might be w doing the fishing more than gate opps.
Who ever it is he leaves early early and they can't catch him to tell him to open the gates or close um. .???? Got any thoughts on this W. |
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