NEW ORLEANS — Restoration efforts on three heavily eroded coastal Louisiana islands are rebuilding habitat for Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican, a needed boost as brown pelican colonies have been on the decline.
The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports that the coastal bird habitat has been reduced by coastal erosion, driven by subsidence, sea-level rise fueled by climate change, the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and numerous hurricanes.
Louisiana brown pelican colonies have been in deep decline in recent years, Todd Baker, a biologist overseeing barrier island restoration projects for the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told the newspaper.
“In 2002, we had 30 brown pelican colonies in Louisiana. By 2010, we were down to 22, and as we stand here today, there’s only nine left in Louisiana,” Baker told the CPRA board of directors on Wednesday. “And of those nine, three have been recently restored and three are under design (for restoration.)”
State and federal officials have used funds from the BP natural resource damage settlement and another oil spill settlement to fund the three completed island restoration projects.
Baker said pelicans and other nesting birds make the islands home during spring and summer months.
The islands tend to be free of natural predators like coyotes because of their isolation.
Rabbit Island off the southwest coast and North Breton and Queen Bess islands off the southeast coast are the sites of the restoration projects.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
