Cheniers, Natural Levees and Spoil Banks
The Value of High Ground in a Coastal Landscape

While each hurricane season can expose the fragility of the coastal environment, the forces of weather may also reveal the landscape’s natural capacity to buffer the effects of storms. Forested ridges — cheniers and natural levees — are the “bones of the coast,” serving to lessen the destructive power of wind and water while providing habitat for a variety of species.

No more than 10 feet in elevation and running approximately parallel to the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, cheniers are remnants of old beach ridges. They take their name from the French word for the oaks found growing on them. Along the banks of streams and bayous, sediment deposited by floodwaters forms ridges described as natural levees. Even the modest heights of cheniers and natural levees are capable of sustaining upland shrubs and trees, providing a habitat distinctly different from the adjoining marshes and swamps and presenting opportunities for certain plant and animal species and human settlers alike to colonize and flourish.

CWPPRA

Louisiana is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Approximately 40 percent of the coastal wetlands of the lower 48 states is located in Louisiana.

This fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh a year for several decades - that's 80 percent of the nation's annual coastal wetland loss. If the current rate of loss is not slowed, by the year 2040 an additional 800,000 acres of wetlands will disappear, and the Louisiana shoreline will advance inland as much as 33 miles in some areas.

This prompted Congress to pass the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) in 1990. It funds wetland enhancement projects nationwide, designating approximately $60 million annually for work in Louisiana.

Project List

The CWPPRA Task Force annually develops a list of high-priority projects to be constructed. To date, seventeen such priority lists have been formulated. The projects funded by CWPPRA all focus on marsh creation, restoration, protection or enhancement.

PPL Reports

Site

The Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force Web site contains information and links relating to coastal restoration projects in coastal Louisiana.