The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) is accepting feedback on the Draft Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Plan, a 3-year outlook of projected revenues and expenditures, project activities, and implementation schedules.
The $1.68 billion annual plan marks the largest investment in Louisiana’s coast in a single year to date. The funds will be applied to the design, engineering, and construction of 121 projects, and ongoing operation, maintenance, and monitoring of an additional 190 completed projects across coastal Louisiana.
FY 2025 Annual Plan By the Numbers:
- An overwhelming majority (nearly 90%) of funds are dedicated to the construction, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of coastal projects.
- 83 of the 121 total active projects will be in the construction phase, accounting for $1.3 billion for construction alone – benefiting over 160,000 acres and building 122 miles of levees.
- Breakdown of the 121 projects by region include: 16 in Southwest La, 39 in South Central La, and 66 in Southeast La.
- 17 dredging projects will build nearly 12,000 acres of new land.
MRGO Ecosystem Restoration
As part of the MRGO Must Go Coalition, LWF is pleased to see progress on restoration of the MRGO ecosystem. The positive impacts of the MRGO closure, including a restored and balanced hydrology for the entire Pontchartrain Basin, have provided a tremendous foundation upon which large-scale coastal restoration – building marshes, planting vegetation, restoring shorelines, reintroducing freshwater – can and should advance with urgency.
CPRA has continued to make progress in this area. In 2023, the Biloxi Marsh Living Shoreline was completed. This project includes 11 miles of living shoreline southeast of the Biloxi Wildlife Management Area. The structures will protect marshes against wave erosion and provide oysters ideal substrate on which to settle and grow. Check out drone footage of the completed project.
Projects included in the FY25 Annual Plan that will fund additional MRGO restoration include:
- Lake Borgne Marsh Creation – Expected to be completed this year, this project is the largest marsh creation project ever constructed by CPRA. The project will create and nourish approximately 2,770 acres of new land. You can view CPRA’s footage of the project from December 2023 here.
- Bayou La Loutre Ridge Restoration and Marsh Creation – This project provides a component of storm protection for the immediate surrounding communities in St. Bernard and for nearby levees that make up the HSDRRS system. It creates important diversity in plants and wildlife, supporting a Live Oak-Hackberry maritime forest habitat that is critical for a variety of wildlife, including hundreds of thousands of migratory birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico.
- Chandeleur Island Restoration – Currently in the engineering and design phase, this long-awaited restoration effort will restore 13 miles of the barrier island, benefiting birds, marine submerged aquatic vegetation, sea turtles, and other species. Dredged sediment will restore the islands and enhance select marine nesting and wintering habitats.
- Central Wetlands Hydrologic Restoration – This project, in engineering and design, is a major step in the restoration of the 30,000 acres wetland unit that was devastated by the MRGO. In addition to the hydrologic restoration, nearly 8 acres of currently open water will transition back to wetlands.
- East Orleans Landbridge Restoration – Over 1.5 million people who live around Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas will have increased protection from storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain. Improved habitat will also benefit hundreds of species of fish and wildlife, including sturgeon and migratory birds. The project will also help maintain or enhance recreational fishery, such as speckled trout and redfish.
- River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp – Finally, a project that LWF has championed for years will be constructed. This project will benefit 45,000 acres of habitat by reconnecting it with the river, preventing continued wetland degradation and the conversion of swamps to marshes. The project will also serve as mitigation for the Army Corps of Engineers’ West Shore Lake Pontchartrain Levee Project – a first of its kind partnership of a federal protection project and a state restoration project!
Check out CPRA’s video highlighting the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project.
Major Progress on Large-Scale Diversions
- Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion – After years of study, planning, and engineering and design, this keystone project of the Coastal Master Plan finally broke ground in 2023. The project will address the primary cause of land loss by harnessing the natural flow of sediment and power of the Mississippi River. Sediment-rich water from the river will be diverted into the Barataria Basin, restoring the natural land-building processes that originally built our coast.
- Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion – Over on the east bank of the Mississippi River, this project will build and maintain approximately 16,000 acres of new land in the Breton Sound Basin during its first 50 years of operation and has the potential to restore nearly 67,500 acres of marsh in what is considered one of Louisiana’s most important and productive estuary habitats for fish, bird, and marine species.
- Learn more about the Mid-Basin Diversion Program at midbasin.coastal.la.gov.
Southwest Louisiana Marsh Creation
- Long Point Bayou Marsh Creation –Adjacent to the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, Long Point Bayou is mostly open water now. Construction of this project began in 2023 and included the creation of nearly 400 acres of marsh and tidal habitat. The areas is home to marsh birds, including pelicans, gulls, the endangered black rail, and other waterfowl as well as fish species including red drum and the threatened saltmarsh topminnow. (Learn more in CPRA’s project highlight video.)
- No Name Bayou Marsh Creation – What was once thriving marshes now sits a shallow body of open water. This project also began construction in 2023 and will create and restore 466 acres of marsh.
Atchafalaya Basin Restoration
As an appendix to the FY25 Annual Plan, CPRA has developed an Annual Plan dedicated to projects that enhance the Atchafalaya Basin. The Atchafalaya Basin 2025 Annual Plan includes nine projects dedicated to improving public access, water quality, and water management.
The Atchafalaya Basin Annual Plan can be viewed in Appendix D of the FY25 Annual Plan.
And Much More!
There are many important projects across coastal Louisiana. The FY25 Annual Plan includes 121 active projects and many more with ongoing operations and maintenance activities.
The Draft FY 2025 Annual can be reviewed at ap25.coastal.la.gov.
For details of projects, you can search the Coastal Master Plan Project Fact Sheets (projects are categorized by region).
You can also check out an interactive map of projects in the FY25 Annual Plan.
While the public hearings have passed, you can view the presentation from CPRA’s December board meeting on the Draft FY25 Annual Plan. Watch that recording here (presentation runs from 1:23:40-1:38:20).
Submit Feedback
The deadline for public comments is February 18, 2024.
You can submit feedback in the following ways:
- Send an email to coastal@la.gov
- Send comments in writing to: CPRA, 150 Terrace Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70802
- Complete Action Alert
For a quick and easy way to send a message to CPRA about the Annual Plan, you can take action at the link below. There, you can edit the comments to add any additional thoughts on the plan or any particular projects of interest to you.
