BATON ROUGE, LA--June 1, 2013; Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) is underway planting restorative vegetation along key Louisiana barrier islands. The West Belle Pass Restoration Project in Lafourche Parish is a joint effort funded through the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act by the State of Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Agency and the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.
The $35 million project is a multi-phase barrier headland restoration that includes supply and planting of 62,000 native, salt-hardened coastal grasses including sea oats, bitter panicum and smooth cordgrass. The goals of this project are to reestablish the eroded West Belle Pass headland via dune and marsh creation and to prevent increased erosion along the adjacent bay shoreline. The West Belle Pass headland provides crucial protection for America's oil and gas industry as Port Fourchon lies directly behind the protective barrier islands.
Resource Environmental Solutions, Louisiana's leading provider of ecological offset solutions, operates the nursery at Pointe Aux Chenes, Louisiana where commercial volumes of native plants, trees and coastal grasses are propagated and cultivated for large scale restoration efforts.
"The RES team has successfully grown, supplied and planted restorative species along the Gulf Coast, including several complex barrier island and headland projects. Large quantity restorative plantings are vital to ensuring the success of dune, beach and marsh creation projects. The results of our efforts directly help to maintain Louisiana's fragile coastline and also ensure continued economic activity in an area often battered by hurricanes and storm surge," said Elliott Bouillion, RES chief executive officer.