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Time To Save The Atchafalaya. Time To Save The Atchafalaya Abstract The
Atchafalaya Basin is America's largest river swamp and functions ...
Submitted by muzikmann on December 4, 2005
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Time To Save The Atchafalaya
Abstract
The Atchafalaya Basin is America's largest river swamp and functions as a major distribution stream for the Mississippi and Red rivers. The Atchafalaya takes 30 percent of the combined flow of the Red River and the Mississippi and feeds it into a system of lakes and ever-smaller bayous that spread into swamp and marsh wetlands. The Atchafalaya is one of the most biologically productive and diverse areas anywhere in the world. Today the Basin is a mere shadow of what it once was. The Atchafalaya has suffered wave upon wave of degradation and continues to be destroyed every day from the development associated with population growth, agriculture, logging, pollution and manipulation of the river system. A mandate from Congress to the Corps of Engineers requires the return of the Atchafalaya to more natural conditions. Working with state and federal agencies, the Corps of Engineers is using restoring the water flow, sediment diversion, marsh creation, and shoreline protection measures as cornerstones in returning one of the worlds most biologically productive and diverse areas to it's rich heritage.
Time To Save The Atchafalaya
Rick Stanley
Introduction
The Atchafalaya Basin, America's largest river swamp, is a near million-acre maze of picturesque streams and quiet bayous in south-central Louisiana, just west of Baton Rouge. The name Atchafalaya means both "river" and "wetlands area." The name comes from the word "hacha falaia" which means "long-river" in the language of the native Choctaw tribe.
The Atchafalaya functions as a major distribution stream for the Mississippi and Red rivers and the Atchafalaya River's waters rise and fall with those of the Mississippi River. The Atchafalaya takes 30 percent of the combined flow of the Red River and the Mississippi and feeds it into a system of lakes and ever-smaller bayous that spread into...
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