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Recovery Tour: Be Sure to Visit the Bayou

We noticed from the tour map published in the Times Picayune that the tour makes it into the lower ninth ward by the levee breaches.

We want to make you aware of a significant recovery point just off the tour---- at the end of Caffin Av just past Florida Ave. It's the viewing platform built over the floodwall that looks out onto Bayou Bienvenue and the once cypress swamp destroyed by the MRGO but now subject of restoration efforts by the community with the help of several universities, agencies, non-profits, and the wetland restoration arm of the Corps of Engineers.  There is an information kiosk there with more details of interest.

You should check it out.  We think it would give people a real sense of the scope of protective wetlands recovery being worked on within eyeshot of the most vulnerable neighborhoods.  Thirty feet of storm surge came over that wall where we have begun to restore the cypress swamp now that salt water is diminishing.

This is a sign of hope as well as vulnerability.

We thought you would like to know about this.

Keep up the good work!

John Koeferl

Life After MR-GO: Restoring the Wetlands - Meeting Tonight!

The Army Corps of Engineers is hosting a MRGO Ecosystem Restoration public meeting tonight (Tuesday, April 20) the Upper 9th Ward at the Holy Angels Convent (1011 Gallier St., New Orleans) – with an open house at 6 p.m. and presentation at 6:30 p.m.  This will be the last public meeting on the MRGO Ecosystem Restoration before the draft study is released this summer. Because the coastal wetlands destroyed by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet are so vital to the resiliency of our communities, it is important to attend this meeting to help ensure that restoration happens.

The MRGO Must Go Coalition has created the attached fact sheet for your reference.  It includes the following talking points:

We must demand:

• A sustainable restoration plan that reflects the unprecedented damage brought by the MRGO
• An implementation timeline that reflects the urgency of the communities at risk each hurricane season
• Funding and authorization to complete project construction by 2014

The Cypress Graveyard – Restoring the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle

“The Cypress Graveyard” describes the degradation of the cypress swamp on the outskirts of the Lower 9th Ward, due to the impacts of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet navigation project, and current student-led efforts to restore the area. The blend of community voices, academic leaders, and student workers created a powerful short detailing what has happened, and a hopeful vision of what could be. Third Prize Winner of the 2nd Annual Protect Our Wetlands, Protect Ourselves Environmental Video Competition

via wetlandmaintenance.com

Lower 9th Ward Village Launches Bayou Art, Science & Community Project

The Lower 9^th Ward Village invites you to participate in its newest project to restore and celebrate the Bayou.
Meetings every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 6 p.m.

Many Lower 9^th Ward residents, volunteers and supporters have been to the beautiful bayou overlook at the north end of Caffin Avenue. Bayou Bienvenue has been attracting lots of attention, and there are many plans and proposals for improving and restoring it. It's up to us to make sure that this benefits our communities and contributes to sustainable recovery.

The Lower 9th Ward Village is starting a twice-monthly meeting to bring the whole New Orleans community together to make this important place even better. When everyone starts talking and working together with strong local leadership, we will make big things happen on the Bayou. We are starting out with a proposal to build an outdoor sculpture park, wetland restoration and memorial at the Caffin Avenue overlook. Here's a link to the project description.

We encourage everyone who's interested in the bayou to come be part of making it better. Meetings will be held every 1st and 3rd Thursday, 6 p.m. at the Village, 1001 Charbonnet.

Lower 9th Ward Bayou Bienvenue Workshop

Sunday Photo: "Floating Island & Feathery Friend"

 
"Floating Island and Feathery Friend" - egret on Bayou Bienvenue. By Darryl Malek-Wiley

Bayou Stories: November 5th @ MLK School

America's Wetland Conservation Corps and The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School present "Bayou Stories: What was it like to grow up in the Lower 9 before the storm walls went us?" Join us for refreshments and great stories about being a kid in the bayou when the bayou was right here.

Wednesday, 11/5 @ 7:00 p.m. in the library of MLK Charter School, 1617 Caffin Avenue

Call Emily at 954.600.7022 with questions. Download the full press release here.

Blessing the Bayou

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew returned to the Lower 9th Ward yesterday to survey recovery and restoration efforts and bless Bayou Bienvenue. This is his second visit since Hurricane Katrina – the first came in January 2006, when he traveled here in order to witness the storm’s devastation and to pray with people of New Orleans.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, based out of Istanbul, Turkey, is the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. He has been in New Orleans since Wednesday to convene the Eighth Religion, Science and Environment Symposium, a meeting of scientists, business leaders and public officials addressing environmental challenges facing coastal Louisiana and the Mississippi River.

Prior to his visit, the Patriarch conducted a memorial service at the St. Louis Cemetery #3 for the victims of Katrina. His tour of the Lower 9 commenced at 3:00 p.m. at Florida and Cafin Avenues and then proceeded to the bayou platform at Florida Avenue and N. Prieur Street.

Coming to Closure with MR-GO…Finally!

The Times-Picayune documents the final steps by the Army Corps of Engineers to close the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal yesterday with giant concrete pilings. See photos, diagrams and more at “Surge barrier spells death knell for MR-GO”:

“It will take eight Eiffel Towers worth of steel to build the massive structure that will permanently close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and better protect the Industrial Canal from storm surges. And much of that steel has been loaded into 1,271 foundation pilings that contractors finished driving Wednesday.”

See the full story here.

Will the White House Protect Bayou Bienvenue?

Maybe.

That’s the word from Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who visited the Bayou as part of President Obama’s visit to New Orleans yesterday. A panel focused on coastal restoration will soon choose its priorities for wetlands and barrier-island rebuilding.

As reported in today’s Times-Picayune:

“White House Council on Environmental Quality chairwoman Nancy Sutley promised Thursday to complete a review of Louisiana coastal restoration projects "within months" to determine which would become priorities for the Obama administration.

Speaking to reporters at a hastily arranged news conference on a platform overlooking a proposed wetlands-restoration project along Bayou Bienvenue in the Lower 9th Ward, Sutley sought to reassure state and local officials who were concerned that President Barack Obama's four-hour visit to New Orleans failed to take advantage of an opportunity to review coastal restoration and levee safety issues.”

Read the rest of “Environmental adviser to review coast projects”. And please consider attending or viewing Monday’s Gulf Coast Regional Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in New Orleans this Monday. See the post below for more information.

New Orleans' Fox 8 (WVUE) did a nice follow-up story of the visit to Bayou Bienvenue by CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley in "A cypress swamp to be reborn" with video below: