La DNR - Office of the Secretary - Atchafalaya Basin Program

Splitting off from the Mississippi River near Simmesport, the Atchafalaya River, on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the flowing lifeline of the nation’s largest river swamp – the Atchafalaya Basin.

Home to some of Louisiana’s signature wildlife – alligators, roseate spoonbills, water moccasins and crawfish, to name a few – and spectacular views of the intersection of plant life, animal life, water and weather, the Atchafalaya Basin has long called to fishermen, photographers, hunters and those who simply enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of nature.

As the river’s flow has marked the generations, people have made different aspects of what is now the Atchafalaya Basin spillway part of their heritage, from the Native Americans who made their homes there to the loggers and fisherman who used the natural riches of the basin to make their livelihoods.

About the Atchafalaya Basin Program (ABP)

The state Department of Natural Resources oversees the management of the state master plan for the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System. The ABP operates under the authority of Act 3 of 1998 and Act 920 of 1999. DNR, the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the basin parishes work together in creating projects by executing cooperative endeavors or agreements that protect and enhance the basin. Several other state agencies, like the departments of Wildlife and Fisheries and Culture, Recreation and Tourism, also work to establish projects aimed at enhancing the basin.

Atchafalaya is a Native American word, named in the Choctaw tongue, “hacha” for river and “falaia” for long.

Buzz ‘Round the Basin

Constitutional Amendment 4 and New Process

The Louisiana Legislature and Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle worked together in 2008 to create a new process for developing projects to protect the Atchafalaya Basin and improve water quality and access, as well as a means to fund such projects.

The Atchafalaya Basin Program’s Research and Promotion Board has adopted rules on how it will choose projects to fund under law changes passed in the recent state legislative session. Those projects could draw on up to $100 million in new funding over the next decade if voters this fall approve Constitutional Amendment 4, which would in part re-direct 50 percent of the funds from oil and gas severance tax dollars from state-owned lands in the basin.

The revenue for the basin would come from the re-direction of existing tax dollars, not from a new tax.

The Atchafalaya Basin is the nation’s largest river swamp and represents the largest contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in the U.S. The Atchafalaya Basin Floodway system encompasses about 838,000 acres, with approximately 400,000 of that being publicly owned.

Whether the amendment passes or fails, the legislative changes to how the board manages basins projects will stand.

If the amendment fails, basin projects will not have a reliable or predictable source of funding.

If that amendment passes, the language mandates that 85 percent of the funding intended for basin programs would be allocated to water management and access projects in the basin, with the rest going to recreation projects in the area.

Angelle has said the new rules on approving and funding projects in the basin have been crafted to put management of water and other basin resources first.

The new law has created a Technical Advisory Group to be chaired by a representative of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and made up of representatives from the departments of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Fisheries, Environmental Quality, Agriculture and Forestry, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geologic Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and LSU School of Renewable Resources. The advisory group will review all water management project proposals.

The members of the group will also hold public meetings and public hearings to get comments and proposed projects for review, and will forward recommendations on to the Research and Promotion Board.

Water management project proposals must meet basic criteria of being within the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System, having the potential to directly address water quality and/or sedimentation problems in the floodway, addressing conservation, protection and/or restoration of the basin ecosystem, and enhancing the natural resources of the basin, including fisheries, wildlife and/or forest resources.

The board will then decide which projects to include in its annual plan, which will presented to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to determine whether it is consistent with the coastal master plan.

Angelle said that connection is important, because the overload of sediment that is a problem in the basin could be part of the solution to problems on the coast.

After the CPRA reviews the annual plan, it must then be approved by the state Legislature.

The first set of public meetings to hear project ideas is set for October 14 through October 16. The Oct. 14 meeting will be held in the city of Morgan City, the Oct. 15 meeting will be held in Plaquemine and the Oct. 16 meeting will be held in Henderson.

“Our goal is to build a program that is viewed as a top resources management program in the nation,” Angelle said. “The legislation adopted this past session, introduced at our request and with the assistance of state Rep. Karen St. Germain and state Sen. Rob Marionneaux and numerous co-authors, makes a seismic shift in the structure and processes of the basin program.”

Angelle noted that the legislation was passed with the strong support of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

“The new law brings transparency to the basin program and focuses on the resources of the basin. I will also actively support the constitutional amendment that helps fund the future work in the basin,” Jindal said.

Representatives of several groups with an interest in the basin area backed the new legislation when it went before the state Legislature, including Randy Lanctot with the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, Darrell Hunt and Harold Schoeffler with the Sierra Club, St. Martin Parish President Guy Cormier, Wil Courtney with the Louisiana Bass Federation, Mike Bienvenu with LCPA-West and Karen Gautreaux with the Nature Conservancy.