Protecting and Restoring a Jewel of the Delta
Program Unit - Ecosystems Services
Country - United States
Funding - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Bayou Bartholomew is best-known for its distinction as the longest bayou in the world. From its headwaters near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, it winds its sinuous way for nearly 360 miles across the Delta to join the Ouachita River in north-central Louisiana. Found within its dark waters, and in the woodland along its banks, is a tremendous diversity of life, from alligators to owls, from otters to catfish.
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The beauty of the tall bald-cypresses on the bayou is apparent to everyone. Scientists, though, understand just how special this stream truly is.
"We've found 117 species of fish in the bayou," biologist Dr. Bill Layher says. "If you add the 31 kinds of freshwater mussels that occur, it's the most diverse stream on the North American continent from an aquatic faunal standpoint."
Despite its beauty and diversity, though, Bayou Bartholomew has problems. Draining a watershed of nearly a million acres, most of it land cleared for agriculture and urban development, the stream suffers from high sediment levels, elevated water temperature (from loss of tree cover), erosion, pollution, and littering. State agencies in Arkansas and Louisiana have listed the bayou as having impaired water quality, adversely affecting both wildlife and recreation.
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Winrock's Ecosystems Services unit has been working with the nonprofit Bayou Bartholomew Alliance (headed by Layher) and other agencies to protect and restore the bayou's natural and recreational values. With help from Winrock and other groups, the BBA has planted nearly 1.5 million trees, removed tons of litter, cleared logjams that increase erosion, obtained conservation easements to protect steamside vegetation, designed improved agricultural dams, and conducted monitoring for aquatic life over a period of more than 12 years.
Bill Layher believes that the work that the BBA and Winrock have done along the bayou is already paying off.
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"We've been looking at fish communities in the bayou at thirteen sites from above Pine Bluff down to the Louisiana border," he says. "We're seeing an increase in the number of species that we find, looking back at data from 1992, so diversity is improving. We're also seeing species that weren't recorded previously. Some fish, like the river redhorse, we haven't seen in the stream for decades. We're encouraged by that."
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One part of the current Winrock-coordinated Bayou Bartholomew project involves the relatively new field of carbon measurement and storage as it relates to climate change. More and more scientists and governments around the world are concerned about the continuing increase in average global temperature, which could affect crop production and other aspects of the planet's livability. The increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (the "greenhouse effect") is seen as the primary factor in this phenomenon.
As John Kadyszewski of Winrock's Ecosystems unit says, "Plants are one of the primary ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If we can increase the amount of CO2 uptake from trees and plants, we can reduce atmospheric concentrations. And to the extent that it can be done in a way that's measurable and verifiable, the potential is there for carbon credits to be available to investors and companies that need to mitigate their emissions."
Power companies, for instance, which emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide, will pay for projects to protect forests, or to replant trees in areas that have been cleared. "Winrock's contribution is to look at ways to measure the carbon value produced by rural land managers," Kadyszewski says. "That hasn't been able to be measured before." Winrock is currently helping restore cropland along Bayou Bartholomew back to bottomland hardwoods, and facilitating the establishment of environmental credits for private landowners who wish to participate in the program.
Being paid for leaving trees on their lands, or planting new ones, could be a valuable incentive for landowners to help protect the environment in the Bartholomew watershed and, consequently, the water in the bayou. Such actions, of course, would increase the habitat available for all sorts of wildlife, from deer and ducks to turtles and butterflies.
Even with its problems, Bayou Bartholomew remains a place of beauty and vibrant life, with nearly limitless possibilities for recreation and education. Through the dedication of the Bayou Bartholomew Alliance staff, in cooperation with local landowners, Winrock, and other concerned individuals and groups, perhaps this natural jewel of the Delta will always be a welcoming place for wildlife, and for the people who visit to enjoy it.
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