Quote:
Originally Posted by capt coonassty
Historically(before people started messing with things) the Atchafalaya has allays been a distributary of the Miss. river. I may be wrong but I wold imagine that a huge swing in salinity from reducing the flow at the peak growing time like when the river is at its highest would have negative impacts on the plant community. This could lead to higher erosion rates due to stress on the plants that are holding the land together.
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That's pretty much spot on. When you combine that with all the other impacts, like hurricanes and herbivory by nutria and even geese, you would have something even worse than what we currently see on Marsh Island. I wholeheartedly believe that a majority of the effort in the Vermilion Bay area should be put into Marsh Island. If that island goes the way of the barrier islands in southeast Louisiana, its going to be bad for central Louisiana. I think this is why CPRA originally planned to build levees around the larger communities in Vermilion Parish. They must not believe Marsh Island can be saved, or that anything they do will not be enough.