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Reflections: Mississippi River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp

2025-03-26

Reflections on Restoration Progress
RESTORE Council- 2025

Mississippi River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp Project

The RESTORE Council supports innovative approaches to promoting ecosystem restoration and community resilience. For example, the state of Louisiana, through the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), has received approximately $204 million in RESTORE Act funds for the Mississippi River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project. This large-scale project will enhance the ecosystem health of approximately 45,000 acres of bald cypress and water tupelo forest in coastal Louisiana by reintroducing Mississippi River water into the Maurepas Swamp, improving coastal forest habitat and water quality.
 

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Aerial view of Maurepas Swamp

The Maurepas Swamp Project will revitalize over 45,000 acres of one of Louisiana’s 
largest and last remaining coastal freshwater swamps. Credit: Louisiana CPRA

The project, in conjunction with a nearby hurricane protection levee, will help improve community resilience and protect infrastructure from storm flooding. In Louisiana, the practice of enhancing community resilience by combining ecosystem restoration projects with flood protection levees is referred to as a “multiple lines of defense” strategy. Watch a video about the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project.

 

The RESTORE Council is commemorating 15 years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill  incident with a month-long reflection on its progress to date implementing meaningful ecosystem and economic restoration across the Gulf Coast. Modify your eBlast subscription.

 

Keala J. Hughes
Director of External Affairs & Tribal Relations
(504) 717-7235
keala.hughes@restorethegulf.gov