Louisiana's rare growing coast, anchored by black willows and bald cypress trees

It looks so natural. But the shape of the lower Mississippi River – the way it curves, winding like a snake – was carefully engineered. Its design provides water to industry between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and accommodates ship navigation leading out into the Gulf of Mexico through Plaquemines Parish.

Over the course of 7,000 years, as the Mississippi River built much of Louisiana, its shape shifted. The river meandered westward and then back to the east, delivering sediment that created six modern sub-deltas as the river continuously overtopped its landbanks, chasing the most direct route to the Gulf.

Around 1860, the mighty Mississippi began a slow careen back west, toward the Atchafalaya River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped in, building levees, dams and locks that basically froze the moving river in time.

Without that intervention, the Atchafalaya would have continued to draw off more and more water from the Mississippi, until it became the master stream. The Atchafalaya’s dominance would have economically diminished everything that relied on the Mississippi, including Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the industries between the two.

Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2023/11/22/louisianas-rare-growing-coast-anchored-by-black-willows-and-bald-cypress-trees/