Office of Coastal Management

THE LOUISIANA LAND AND EXPLORATION COMPANY DONATES THE ISLES DERNIERES CHAIN OF ISLANDS TO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA

H. Leighton Steward, Chairman of the Board of The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company, and Terry Ryder, Special Counsel for Governor Murphy J. Foster, announced that The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company is donating to the State of Louisiana the surface rights to its land holdings in the Isles Dernieres chain of barrier islands located off Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.

Jack C. Caldwell, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, stated that this donation, which was approved on June 23, 1997, by the Louisiana Senate and House Natural Resources Committees, will transfer the entirety of the following islands to the State: East, Trinity and Whiskey and that portion of Raccoon Island owned by LL&E. These islands comprise a total of some 1,600 acres. LL&E will retain the mineral rights under the islands. The company will also share equally with the State the subsurface mineral rights to certain lands that may emerge from waterbottoms between the present shoreline and LL&E's 1955 shoreline survey.

Isles Dernieres is critical to Louisiana because this barrier island chain provides a buffer from hurricanes and protects residents, wetlands, and fisheries resources. This unique habitat supports the greatest diversity of nesting water birds on the Louisiana coast, and perhaps in the nation. In June 1984, a new breeding colony of 49 brown pelicans, the State bird, was transplanted to Raccoon Island. The area is a major brown pelican nesting area with an estimated 3,000 nests on Racoon Island in the spring of 1997, and since 1992 has been under the management of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries with the establishment of the Terrebonne Barrier Islands Refuge.

Katherine Vaughan, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Coastal Restoration and Management, stated that this donation will permit three coastal restoration projects authorized under the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (Breaux Act) to be constructed. These joint projects with the Department of Natural Resources and its federal partner, the Environmental Protection Agency, total almost $23,000,000.00 and will provide for deposition of dredged material, creation of vegetated marsh, and will repair breaches in the islands. These projects are in addition to the Racoon Island Breakwater Demonstration project, a $2.8 million CWPPRA project which was begun with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in May of 1997.

Because the fee surface of the property has been donated to the State, additional projects on these islands to further enhance the protection to Louisiana's fragile coastal wetlands are contemplated and can be implemented without the necessity of acquiring additional landrights.

EDITORS: For more information please contact Katherine Vaughan at (504) 342-7308.