UW-Madison Students to Restore Bayou in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward
This summer, a group of students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to travel to New Orleans to help restore an urban wetland in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood decimated by flooding after the post-Katrina levee failures.
The group of nine students expect to study Bayou Bienvenue, testing water, surveying vegetation and researching whether the area could be restored with a diversion dam that would help bring in fresh water and sediment. They also plan to talk with neighborhood residents about their concerns and will even host a crab boil to involve the community.
This won’t be the first trip UW-Madison students have made to the Crescent City. The first group visited in 2006 — a year after Hurricane Katrina struck — seeking to apply the lessons of their environmental justice class to a real-life environmental and human catastrophe. Since then, students with various interests — from urban planning to water resource management — have traveled to New Orleans up to four times a year to work on restoration efforts.
“One of the most amazing aspects of this project is the long term relationship we are building with the community in the Lower Ninth Ward,” said Ashleigh Ross, a UW-Madison student planning to make this latest trip. “We want to work directly with the residents. If we do the wetland restoration, we want to make sure it benefits them.”
The students plan to remain in New Orleans from June 8 through August 8. Great work, y’all … stay cool and safe, and thanks for your efforts to revive a unique yet endangered community, natural and human.
Awesome! Go Badgers! As a New Orleans Badger, I think I speak for all of us when I say: “When you say ‘Wisconsin,’ you’ve said it all.”