Lake Pontchartrain - Conservation and Restoration

Conservation and Restoration

Owing to past exploitation, the ecosystems of the lake are under stress. Marshes, for example, are turning to open water, and cypress swamps are being killed by salt water intrusion. There is also good news: Brown Pelicans and Bald Eagles, once scarce, are now a common sight along the shores. A team of experts assembled by The Nature Conservancy assessed the situation in 2004. They identified seven target habitat types that were in particular need of conservation management: Bottomland hardwood forest, Cypress swamp, Relict ridge woodland, Fresh/ intermediate marsh, Brackish/salt Marsh, Lake open water and Littoral submersed aquatic vegetation. The bottomland hardwood forest, and cypress swamp, are suffering from lack of fresh water input and sediment deposition owing to the levees upstream from the lake. In addition, bottomland hardwoods are being invaded by exotic species such as Chinese tallow while freshwater marshes are being invaded by exotic species such as Elephant's-ear. The team also idenfied four key animal species that could indicate the degree to which the system declines or improves. These were Rangia clam (representing lake bottom habitat), Gulf sturgeon and Paddlefish (resperenting fish communities) and the Alligator snapping turtle (one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world, but in decline owing to over- harvesting). The future of the lake depends, in part, on restoring annual spring floods to the wetlands of the lake basin, and controlling urban sprawl on the North shore. Selected species, like the Paddlefish and Alligator snapping turtle, would benefit from reduced harvesting. The lake could change considerably without such conservation planning. A few examples of future change might include: more cypress swamps could convert to anthropogenic marsh or open water, Chinese tallow could displace native forests, and, with a warming climate, mangrove trees could replace brackish marsh. Hence the ecosystems of the lake now, and in the future, depend very much upon some basic decisions about human activities in the vicinity of the lake, and, even more so, human activity upstream along the Mississippi River.