Community-Based Wetland Restoration Workshop in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans

Since 2007 a workshop class of University of Wisconsin-Madison students has participated in a community-based project in New Orleans to investigate the feasibility of restoring the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle (BBWT), which is adjacent to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. This 440-acre region is currently open water but was a cypress forest until the 1970s. Restoration would provide protection from storm surges, restored ecological services, and recreational use. The workshop introduced students to the multidisciplinary skills needed to work effectively with the complex and interconnected issues within a project involving many stakeholders. The stakeholders included the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED), Lower 9th Ward residents, non-profits (e.g., Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, National Wildlife Federation), government agencies (e.g., New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, Army Corps of Engineers), neighborhood groups (e.g., Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, The Village), and universities (Tulane, U. of New Orleans, LSU, U. Colorado-Denver, Southeastern Louisiana). The course ran initially as a Water Resources Management practicum in the first two summers and then as a broader multidisciplinary project with student expertise in hydrology, social science, law, planning, policy analysis, community development, GIS, public health, environmental education and ecological restoration. The project divided into three main components: wetland science, social science, and land tenure and planning. Principal activities in wetland science were to monitor water levels and water quality, inventory flora and fauna, and plant grasses on small “floating islands.” The principal social science activity was to conduct a neighborhood survey about knowledge of the wetland and interest in its restoration. The land tenure and planning activity was to investigate ownership and transfer of property within the wetland because it had been platted with large areas privately owned. A self-published workshop report was produced each of the first three years. Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle with downtown New Orleans in the background. Photo by Travis Scott, U. of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007.