Backfill Dead-end Canals: Final Report February 1, 2006
Turner RE, Baustian JJ, Swenson EM, Lee JM. 2006. Backfill Dead-end Canals: Final Report February 1, 2006
The restoration of two canals in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Barataria Preserve Unit that were backfilled in early 2002 is examined in this paper. Both northern and southern canals had their spoil bank material returned to the canal, but the southern canal also had additional sediment pumped in from nearby Lake Salvador. The southern canal is significantly shallower than the northern canal, which received no sediment addition. The spoil bank of the northern canal (no sediment addition) had higher levels of organic matter and bulk density restoration compared to the southern canal. The vegetation on the former spoil areas of the canal with no sediment addition closely resembled that of the nearby reference marsh, but the former spoil areas of the canal with sediment added had species indicative of spoil banks or other elevated areas. After three years marsh was established on approximately 65% of the former spoil areas at both sites and 20-25% of the open water area of the original canal supported marsh vegetation to yield a total site restoration of between 37 and 42%. The results of backfilling both canals demonstrates the restoration potential three years following spoil bank removal, but the sites need to be monitored periodically over several decades to confirm whether the restoration trajectory reaches 100%.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Turner, R.; Baustian, Joseph; Swenson, Erik; Lee, James
- Date of Issue
- 2006-02-01
- Units
- JELA
- Keywords
- backfill, Barataria Preserve Unit, Canals, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, JELA, Lake Salvador, Spoil banks