Office of Coastal Management

DNR BEGINS LITTLE VERMILION BAY PROJECT TO PROTECT AND CREATE VALUABLE MARSHLAND

LITTLE VERMILION BAY -- At a site visit today, officials with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced work has begun on the Little Vermilion Bay Sediment Trapping Project that encompasses an area of 964 acres of marsh and open water.

The project, located in Vermilion Parish in the northwest corner of Little Vermilion Bay, will dredge about 20,000 linear feet of distributive channels and will construct 32 acres of earthen terraces in an effort to stop coastal erosion due to wind and wave energy in the bay that presently prevents sediment from the Gulf Intracoasal Waterway (GIWW) from becoming vegetated marsh.

According to DNR project manager Clay Menard, the project will protect almost 70 marsh acres and will create about 400 acres of intermediate and brackish marsh at a cost of $1,054,000. "The project will include the planting of smooth cordgrasses at the base of the terraces and at the existing shoreline, as well as the channel dredging and terrace building," Menard said.

Funding was authorized by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), or Breaux Act, and is a joint effort of DNR and National Marine Fisheries Service. The cost share agreement is 90 percent federal and 10 percent state. The dredging portion of the project was awarded to Berry Brothers of Berwick at a cost of $205,000 and Louisiana Clearwater, Inc. of New Iberia was contracted for the planting portion at a cost of $55,000.

EDITORS: For more information, please contact DNR Office of Coastal Restoration and Management, Abbeville Office, Project Manager Clay Menard at (318) 893-2769.