Estuary Program Hoping to Help Birds Affected By Oil Spill

Officials from the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program are hoping to parlay generosity sparked by the recent Gulf oil spill into expanding habitat for birds affected by the disaster and ongoing land loss.

Shell Oil Co. is donating $25,000 to Barataria-Terrebonne
National Estuary Program to aid the group's work. In July, Delaware
businesses and the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, a sister
estuary program, held a festival that raised more than $60,000 for
the local program.

Kerry St. Pe', director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National
Estuary Program, said the organization plans to use the money to
rebuild habitat for birds affected by the oil spill.

That includes creating new forested habitat for the migratory
birds that pass through Louisiana en route to warmer southern
climates. Those birds begin their travels in August, resting on
barrier islands and wetlands and feeding in local waters. Many of
those traditional habitats were affected by oil, and scientists
worry about the impact the spill will have on the birds.

St. Pe' said some of the money will be used restore Grand Isle
forests. A plot of land on the island is mostly lawn, and the
program aims to plant trees and cover the ground with shell to make
it more appealing to birds.

Program officials also hope to launch a more-ambitious effort to
restore small barrier islands popular with nesting birds "because
they don't have predators like raccoons or coyotes on them," St.
Pe' said. "But a lot of these islands have gotten much, much
smaller."

The islands are often overlooked for restoration projects
because of their size.

Wine Island off Terrebonne Parish, for example, is a popular
nesting site that has eroded to as little as 5 acres by some
estimates. Though it hosts thousands of nesting birds in spring, it
was cut from a corps project restoration project. Scientists deem
it unsustainable.

St. Pe' said the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
is also considering projects that would restore some unnamed
barrier islands popular with nesting birds off Plaquemines Parish.
The islands are a few miles north of Grand Terre Island. They're
working with landowner Apache Corp. and the Plaquemines Parish
government to investigate the possibility of putting dredged
material on the islands.

"It will require a lot of money to restore those islands," St.
Pe' said. "But they're very important to birds."

To double the size of those islands from 7 acres to 14 acres
would cost roughly $2 million.

The estuary program could also partnering with the federal
Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act program,
which often takes on restoration projects.