CRCL volunteers and partners restore dune habitat in Cameron Parish

More than 10,000 stems planted in Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge along rapidly eroding shoreline

October 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and more than four dozen volunteers recently completed a project to restore dune habitat in Cameron Parish, planting 10,000 stems of the grass bitter panicum in Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. The project was undertaken in partnership with Cheniere Energy, Restore America’s Estuaries and the wildlife refuge. Staff from LDWF and Cheniere were among those planting the grasses. The planting supports a shoreline stabilization project completed by NOAA, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).

The project will stabilize 2 acres of dune habitat, with the grasses anchoring the sand and encouraging dune formation. The volunteers worked over two days in early October.

“Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge is a natural gem for southwest Louisiana, and CRCL and its partners are proud to help protect it for future generations,” said Gardner Goodall, CRCL’s Native Plants Program manager. “We are grateful to the partners who helped make this possible, and we couldn’t do it without our volunteers. We encourage residents, students, businesses and other entities to join us at a future volunteer event.”

“We live and work in coastal Louisiana and are proud of our ongoing, impactful partnership with CRCL. The partnership combines resources and expertise, which leads to sustainable strategies and solutions that have proven to be effective for coastal Louisiana,” said Stephen Dugat, VP, plant manager at Cheniere Energy, Inc.

Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, which was founded in 1920, is known for its biological diversity, providing habitat for shrimp, crabs, red and black drum, speckled trout and largemouth bass. More than 250 bird species use the refuge as a winter nesting grounds. But the 71,000-acre refuge is experiencing some of the fastest rates of coastal erosion in the state, with more than 50 feet per year vanishing into open water. The refuge has had more than 15,000 acres of dunes disappear since it was founded.

The restored dunes will protect inland marsh and other areas from storm surge during hurricanes and tropical storms. They will also protect Highway 82, an evacuation route for coastal communities.

Since its founding in 1988, CRCL has been a prominent advocate for science-based policy to restore and protect the state’s coast, where about 2,000 square miles of wetlands have vanished in less than a century. The organization has planted more than 1 million trees and plants across Louisiana’s coast through its Native Plants Program. CRCL also hosts the biennial State of the Coast conference, the premiere gathering on coastal restoration in the state, holds talks as part of its CRCLectures series and honors coastal leaders through its annual Coastal Stewardship Awards.

To learn more about the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, visit the organization’s website.  

### 

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to unite people in action to achieve a thriving, sustainable Louisiana coast for all.