BP oil spill cash rebuilds eroded Louisiana pelican island

QUEEN BESS ISLAND, La. (AP) — A Louisiana island that provides a crucial nesting ground for pelicans and other seabirds is being restored to nearly its former size after decades of coastal erosion and a devastating offshore oil spill 10 years ago.

Gov. John Bel Edwards visited the island Monday, unveiling a sign dedicating it as a wildlife refuge.

“The walk we just made wouldn't have been possible a few weeks ago,” the governor said after crossing an expanse of sand bearing tread marks from heavy equipment used to create and grade new land. He spoke at a podium set up before waist-high mangroves, which contractors left untouched for pelicans to nest on.

About 6,500 brown pelicans and 3,000 smaller seabirds cram their nests every summer onto Queen Bess Island, which shrank from 45 acres (18 hectares) in 1956 to about 15 acres (6 hectares) of marsh by 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon spill fouled its beaches with oily gunk.

Until the restoration, only about 5 acres (2 hectares) — most of it along the island's edges and the outlines left by short-lived restorations in the 1990s — was high enough for pelicans to nest, said Todd Baker, a biologist supervising restoration for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Once a mere strip of land, the island now covers 37 acres (15 hectares), with most of it for the increasingly cramped birds.

Edwards said the $18.7 million project to enlarge and maintain the island is part of $550 million that that has restored more than 4,200 acres (1,700 hectares) of Louisiana's coast and islands. More than $800 million in additional work is expected across Louisiana this year, he said.

https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/BP-oil-spill-cash-rebuilds-eroded-Louisiana-15026067.php