Brown pelicans stage a comeback on spoil islands
Pelicans nesting. Pelicans flying. Pelicans swimming. Pelicans by the thousands.
The scene is the Baptiste Collette Bird Islands, landforms created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers near the mouth of the Mississippi River. On one 24-acre island, the brown pelican has chosen to stage a comeback this year from the ravages of Hurricane Georges in 1998.
"We estimate the number of breeding pairs of brown pelicans to be in the realm of 11,000 (on Plover Island)," said Sam Hamilton, Southeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I doubt there’s a greater concentration of pelicans anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico."
The six Bird Islands exist thanks to a Corps program to make beneficial use of dredged material. It helps the environment, by creating wetlands or wildlife habitat, as a byproduct of keeping the navigation channels open.
"This island is an excellent example of beneficial use of dredged material," said Hamilton, after visiting Plover Island. "Eggs were hatching while we were there and young pelicans were in the nest."
"In addition to beneficial use which derives from the maintenance of navigation channels, the Corps has a growing number of programs devoted entirely to environmental purposes," said Col. Thomas Julich, district engineer of the New Orleans District.
The New Orleans District, which includes the largest port complex in the nation, dredges more than any other Corps district because of navigation’s importance. The Corps' navigation dredging averages 83 million cubic yards a year in south Louisiana, a third of the Corps’ dredging nationwide.
The dredged material that built the six Bird Islands was pumped through a pipeline from Baptiste Collette Bayou, a 10-mile channel 85 river miles below New Orleans.
The waterway connects the Mississippi River eastward with Breton Sound and the Gulf of Mexico.
"Although brown pelicans routinely used the Baptiste Collette Bird Islands for resting habitat, prior to this year they were not known to nest on any of the Bird Islands," said Edward Creef, a Corps biologist in the New Orleans District.
In September 1998, Hurricane Georges obliterated the pelicans’ nearby home, Grand Gosier Island.
The Corps is planning to restore Grand Gosier Island with dredged material.
—U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
New Orleans District