| Fast Facts |
location
60 miles west of Baton Rouge
ecoregion
Mississippi River Alluvial Plain
project size
20,000 acres
preserves
Cypress Island
partners
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, St. Martin Parish, local landowners
natural events
Arrival of 10,000-30,000 pairs of water birds, spring; alligator mating and nesting, summer | |
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Life among the bayous and rivers of Acadiana country is intimately connected to floodwaters unleashed by the mighty Mississippi River. |
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Bald cypress.
© David Muench/Corbis |
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In southern Louisiana's Acadiana country, alligators travel quietly among bayous and swamps, eyes raised just above the water's surface. Beaver and nutria, an exotic animal originally from South America, splash and forage in rivers and streams. The wildlife is viewed best from a pirogue, or "cajun canoe," originally created by the Acadians -- explorers from Canada -- to navigate the dense forest's watery highways. These flat-bottomed boats are fashioned out of cypress logs from the swampy forests like those of Cypress Island.
Here on the Mississippi River floodplain's western edge, thousands of years of flooding have cultivated a wet forest of oak, bald cypress and tupelo. Shallow waterways, protruding tree roots, Spanish moss and thick vegetation evoke images of the distant Amazon. It is a unique habitat that attracts many warm-water fish, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, and serves as a migratory flyway for 60 percent all U.S. bird species. |
American alligator.
© Yva Momatiuk/John Eastcott/
Minden Pictures |
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With spring's earliest blooms appear thousands of pairs of wading birds that make Cypress Island one of the largest rookeries in North America. Little blue herons, snowy egrets, white ibis and roseate spoonbills spend the spring building nests and raising their young among cypress branches and button bush. Joining the chorus is the hammering of red-bellied woodpeckers and the |
| legendary hooting of the barred owl. Ruby-throated hummingbirds and red-winged blackbirds move in with the cooler weather, as summer residents migrate farther south. | |
Over a period of 200 years, Louisiana and nearby states have seen their floodplain forests shrink from 24 million unbroken acres to 4.9 million scattered acres, leading to a decline in many of the birds that visit to rest and raise their young. Floods are essential to the forest's survival, as they bear nutrients and trigger tree regeneration. But levee construction, dredging and channelization along the Mississippi have limited the amount of natural flooding these forests receive. In response, The Nature Conservancy established the Cypress Island Advisory Council to produce a blueprint that will guide land use in the vicinity, including flood-control projects and our own efforts to restore the area's extraordinary wetland forests.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Louisiana. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
bottomland hardwood forest, nesting birds like Swainson's and prothonotary warblers, wading birds like white ibis and roseate spoonbills, alligator
stresses
levees and flood-control structures, development, illegal hunting
strategies
restore ecosystems, engage community, acquire land, secure conservation easements, promote compatible development
results
acquired 9,600-acre Cypress Island Preserve, restored 100 acres; Cypress Island Education Program and Cypress Island Advisory Council established | | | | |
