Nov. 20, 2019 – A mini-documentary produced by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) on crevasses at Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was awarded best scenery and placed first in the Places category at the Coastal Estuaries Research Foundation Conference film festival. The award was presented at the conference in Mobile, Alabama, earlier this month.
The film, produced by LDWF’s Gabe Giffin and titled Cresvasse, followed former LDWF employee and current LSU AgCenter Scientist John Andy Nyman as he toured Pass-a-Loutre WMA and pointed out projects that have created hundreds of acres of wetland habitat by simply using the river's sediments.
To see the film, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLavoXe0rI&t=2s.
Pass-a-Loutre WMA, located 10 miles south of Venice, is an area of the state with some of the highest rates of subsidence yet managers at the WMA have been able to create beneficial wetlands using the river.
Crevasses are small cuts in the riverbank purposely made to allow the sediment-rich river to flow through and into an open water area. Over a period of time, as the sediment accumulates in these sites, marsh habitat develops. With continued sediment accumulation, elevation builds and larger types of woody vegetation are able to populate the wetland habitat.
In the Pass-a-Loutre WMA area, three crevasses created in 1986 have produced more than a thousand acres of marsh. There have been other crevasses created in more recent years that are also accumulating land.
For more information about Pass-a-Loutre WMA, go to http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/wma/2786.