St Martin Parish Cypress not to be logged

[Duck Butter]

Here is the most recent update, safe for now. Also, if anyone has or knows someone who has some coastal forest they are willing to sell fee title or place an easement on please send me a PM. Cypress/tupelo swamp or chenier land along the coast would be preferable, there is money available now

When you buy cypress mulch for your flowerbeds because the pine mulch floats - this is where it comes from and old-growth cypress swamp is not very easy to restore. You can see as you cross the river going into Moss Bluff that cypress doesn't regenerate very well after its cut

http://theadvocate.com/home/3340056-...eyes-alternate

LAFAYETTE — The St. Martin Parish School Board is negotiating an agreement with the state to spare 640 acres of cypress and hardwood forest land in the Atchafalaya Basin that had been tagged for timber harvest.
The School Board had initially planned to sell the timber on board-owned land for about $90,000 but is now working on an alternative agreement to receive a one-time payment from the state Department of Natural Resources to let the trees stand.
“It helps to maintain the ecosystem as it is,” said St. Martin Parish School Superintendent Richard Lavergne.
The agreement comes after the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper conservation group and others protested the logging of the cypress forest, arguing that state and federal environmental regulations prohibited the move.
Basinkeeper Director Dean Wilson said the conservation agreement with DNR will preserve a cypress forest near Butte La Rose that he estimated to be about 100 to 120 years old, an area that is just now recovering after extensive logging in the Basin in the late 1800s.
The details of the DNR agreement are still being worked out, but the School Board could likely receive a one-time payment of about $60,000 to preserve the property, about $90 to $100 an acre, said Robert Benoit, with DNR.
“We identified an opportunity to work with the St. Martin Parish School Board to craft an agreement that would protect and preserve this prime stand of cypress trees and bottomland hardwoods that are part of the habitat for Basin wildlife by prohibiting the cutting of trees on the School Board’s land,” DNR Secretary Scott Angelle said in a news release.
He said the agreement with the School Board “will mean that swamp and forest land will continue to support wildlife and provide opportunities for eco-tourism and environmental education in the Basin for generations to come.”
DNR Atchafalaya Basin Program Director Stephen Chustz said the School Board will keep mineral rights on the property and could still lease the area for hunting under the agreement, which is called a conservation servitude.
Chustz said the servitude is permanent.
“The trees can’t be cut,” he said.
This is DNR’s first conservation servitude in the Basin, though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has similar agreements on large tracts there, Chustz said.
Benoit said DNR decided to step in because it seemed unlikely the Corps could react quickly enough to save the trees.
“It’s certainly a good investment for us,” Chustz said.
The conservation agreement is still being reviewed by the state Attorney General and is expected to come before the School Board next month.
Lavergne said the School Board had already approved a contract with a timber company to sell the trees, but the company is not pushing the issue.
“They are willing to work with us to get out of it,” he said

[Gerald]

Back in 1995 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over the land that is north of the Henderson Swamp, now Indian Bayou WMA, there was a track of land there that was logged to remove ~ 30+ big Cypress trees.

This may have been done by the previous land owner and not the Corps.

From what I have read.... one of the major problems to "re-forest" Cypress trees, is that new seedlings get eaten by Nutria.

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Gerald

Back in 1995 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took over the land that is north of the Henderson Swamp, now Indian Bayou WMA, there was a track of land there that was logged to remove ~ 30+ big Cypress trees.

This may have been done by the previous land owner and not the Corps.

From what I have read.... one of the major problems to "re-forest" Cypress trees, is that new seedlings get eaten by Nutria.

I bet that would be a problem for sure, those things are everywhere! They grow easily on land and where the water gets off in a timely fashion but not in permanently flooded areas. I think most of the old cypress we see growing in swamps are from when the water once receded occasionally, now with the locks/dams/levees the water stays on em year round. In many lakes that are now impounded the cypress are slowly 'drowning' - it takes awhile though

[beccrossee]

Good news. Goes to show us all that our neighbors are concerned about the outdoors and are willing to fight for it. This is lacking in many areas.

Cypress is plentiful and regenerating in my area. I guess because the water can vary from 10 ft. to brick hard in the span of a year. It happened this year brick hard in November and under 10 feet in March. Drought helps cypress regenerate. The basin should have dried out last year. This would have produced billions of first year seedlings this year. Of them some would have (barring several years of well above average rainfall) made it to the canopy eventually. The basin is not much swamp as it is a reservoir. The Corp flooded to protect property and a hundred year drought will likely fail to recruit any cypress to the canopy.

I have some 3 year old cypress seedling available if any one needs them. They're not nursury plants. Wild and free and genetically diverse. They survived fire and 10 feet of water for a month. PM me if interested.

P.S.
Duck butter and his firm have done some very good work in the field of conservation.