Nice recap of “Bayou Bienvenue Days”, the mini-conference at the bayou last weekend, in The Advocate (Baton Rouge):
“Bayou Bienvenue used to be a part of life in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans as a place where people could fish, crab or just enjoy the outdoors.
On Monday, a group of residents, nonprofit organizations, university professors and others talked about how to make that a reality again.
Monday was the last day of a multiple-day conference that ended with discussion of how to connect the neighborhood’s rebuilding efforts with restoring the nearby marsh.
Bayou Bienvenue used to be a cypress forest, but a number of factors have come together during the past few decades to turn the area into a primarily shallow open water body.
‘I spent my childhood back there,’ said Ward “Mack” McClendon, executive director of the Lower Ninth Ward Village community center. ‘I know what it was and what it has the potential to be.
However, speakers Monday said the restoration of the area back into a cypress marsh needs to be more than just a coastal restoration project.”
Read all of “Group discusses revitalizing popular bayou site in N.O.”.
