Quote:
Originally Posted by noodle creek
Can the eastern side of the state honestly be put in a fair comparison with our estuary? If you say that Sabine and Big Lake are nowhere near the same, then how on earth can the eastern side of the state be compared to Big Lake?
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Just pointing out what manmade interference can do. Over there the marshes are starved for sediment and freshwater from the MS River being leveed and saltwater intrusion from all the straightline oil/gas canals (you can see thousands of them on Google Earth) amongst other things. When the MS River flooded in 1927 the US Army Corps of Engineers brought on the levees so that it wouldn't ever happen again. In their mind they were protecting thousands of peoples' lives (they did if you think about it), but they didn't realize the damage to the marshes they were doing. (They did what they intended but didn't realize the consequences)
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?