Development of White Paper, How-To Manual, Outreach Workshops and Website for Mitigation Banking in Manchac Swamp

Dr. Robert Moreau, James Bartkus, Richard Campanella, Michael Greene, Randy Myers, Thais Perkins, Fred Stouder

The purpose of this proposed two-year project is to study the viability of wetland mitigation in the area generally know as the Manchac/Maurepas Swamp.  This project intends to develop:

 (1) A White Paper that is designed to provide mitigation information to local, state and federal agency representatives involved in mitigation in the area. The white paper will include information and maps on attributes such as: ownership of large tracts of lands (shown as private vs. public); suitability of sites for mitigation (based on LIDAR produced tree canopy data, fresh water inputs, elevation and salinity data, among others); and other geographic and demographic data.

(2) A How-To Manual that is designed to provide the information noted above to land owners, developers, and the general public at large.

(3) A workshop at the end of the process, and at a location near the study site, that will promote these and other materials to the various stakeholders addressed in the study (agency representatives, land owners, developers, non profit groups, the general public, etc.).

(4) A website that will serve as a clearinghouse of information for the above mentioned deliverables.

Results to Date

The project was started in February 2006 (a delayed start due to the storms of 2005), and pertinent information learned thus far has been helpful in fine-tuning the remainder of the study. Some key findings learned to date include:

• The study site was defined as the two-foot contour around the Manchac/Maurepas swamps, and consists of a terrestrial area of approximately 460.5 sq miles (294,735 acres);
• Growth rates along the north shore in St. Tammany parish are nearly five times that of the national average, and habitat developed there is mainly marsh, wetland forest, and scrubbrush wetland (making the Manchac/Maurepas Swamp a natural area for comparable mitigation);
• Growth rates in St. Tammany Parish are even greater since the storms of 2005 (rates of 40% growth);
• Public lands may be more difficult to put into mitigation than private lands for a variety of reasons.
• Impediments to mitigation in the study site include: appropriate land suitability; competing land owner choices (other programs besides mitigation); land owner ignorance about mitigation; complexity of mitigation guidelines; and access to appropriate sites.
• There are currently only three mitigation sites in the Manchac/Maurepas Swamp.