The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said in its latest announcement that the Bayou Bonfouca Marsh Creation project began active dredging last week.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the northeastern shore of Lake Pontchartrain and the marshes between the shore and the City of Slidell, Louisiana with winds and storm surge.
Over the course of two days, thousands of acres of marsh were stripped away and breaches in the shoreline began to form.
Since then, the area has continued to decay as tidal action and wind driven fetch has increased the size of shoreline breaches and chewed away precious marsh habitat.
The Bayou Bonfouca Marsh Creation project aims to reverse this trend, by creating or nourishing nearly 1,000 acres of intermediate marsh, creating valuable habitat for flora and fauna of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge and providing a storm surge buffer between the City of Slidell and Lake Pontchartrain.