Devin, I will agree that dredging does build land right now, but the first storm that comes thru will knock that land out. You can post maps all day everyday of what southeast La looked like before and after diversions, and I can post maps of what SW La looks like where there has not been a freshwater diversion and you will see similar land loss taking place over there as well as ALL of SE Louisiana. There was a thread about this with some maps showing land loss in SW LA nowhere NEAR a freshwater diversion. All this land loss is due to saltwater intrusion and subsidence, and not one person will disagree with that.
In SE LA, the land is subsiding and we are losing a football field a DAY over there, nowhere near Caernarvon or Davis Pond. Leeville to Grand Isle looks different every time I go there and its from saltwater intrusion and subsidence, and I think we can agree on that. You can also see the effects of saltwater intrusion on Lake Pantchartain and Maurepas. All those cypress are dying a slow death due to saltwater, you can see it from the interstate, some are already dead and not one person will tell you that its something other than saltwater. I can show you on Maurepas WMA where cypress trees were planted 15 years ago and some are not even 6 feet tall because of lack of nutrients and saltwater intrusion. Its been well documented, there are CRMS stations right there.
There are dredging projects going on RIGHT now all over the state and yes they help out and you can actually see it with your own eyes that land is buidling. I was on Pelican Island just last week and there was dredging taking place. That place is a poster child for needing hyrdologic remediation ( i.e. freshwater)
The whole place (Empire to Buras) is open water which used to be land. MY GPS even showed me that where we were boating was ONCE land and not that long ago. I would bet that any charter captain in that area would tell you that there land is washing away right in front of their eyes.
BUT, you are putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound essentially. Without stopping the 'wound' you aren't doing anything. I know that the majority of people against diversions are against it only what has been done south of Caernarvon diversion and want to blame that diversion on their land loss but that land loss is comparable to land loss all over the coastal zone of our state. In other words EVERYONE is experiencing land loss, not just you guys below Caernarvon
I listened to 5 talks on this a few weeks ago from professionals (geologists, oceanographers, and plant ecologists) and the first two were providing evidence that maybe we shouldn't jump on diversions just yet, the next ones were presenting data that diversions are needed right now ASAP, and the final presentation was a plant ecologist who showed data (that was previously published by the first two presenters and that they conveniently left out of their presentation
).
The take home message here is that
1. Saltwater is BAD for everything except trout fishing
2. Trout should not be caught in Maurepas Lake but that is going to be the case here real soon and
3.Land is being lost all over the state not just below Caernarvon
4. There are WAY more dredging projects than diversion projects planned and WAY more money dedicated to dredging than diverting.
5. Dredgind does NOT address the two main issues here causing the loss of land which are subsidence and saltwater intrusion