Bay Raccourci Marsh Creation Project (TE-0156/0166), Terrebonne Parish, LA

• Client

  Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA)

• Division

  Environmental

• Scope

  Biological Oyster Assessment

• Completion

  2021

CPRA is managing a marsh creation and ridge restoration project (TE-0156) and a marsh creation increment (TE-0166) in Bay Raccourci. The primary goals of TE-0156 are to restore marsh habitat in the open water and degraded marsh areas via marsh creation and to restore the forested ridged habitat along Bayou Decade. TE-0166 will slow the movement of saline water north from Lake Mechant through Bay Raccourci into Bayou Decade.  The specific objectives of TE-0166 are creating 241 acres of emergent marsh, nourishing 49 acres of emergent marsh, and planting the Bay Raccourci shoreline with appropriate intermediate marsh species.

CPRA tasked Fenstermaker with performing a biological oyster assessment to determine the direct impact of these project features on private oyster leases within the project area. For this project, the Fenstermaker conducted a bottom type assessment on approximately 108 acres of privately owned oyster leases in Bay Raccourci. The Fenstermaker field crew collected 72 quantitative dive samples and 3 qualitative dredge samples across 9 different oyster leases.  In addition to a pdf report deliverable of anticipated impacts, Fenstermaker published all data to a private ESRI Dashboard. The dashboard allowed the CPRA project managers to zoom in/out on project features and impacts, turn on/off each layer, and provided greater functionality than a written report. This enabled the CPRA project managers to make more informed decisions since all data was available in a digital format.