The $72-million North Breton Island restoration project, which started in 2020, will increase the size of the island by hundreds of acres and extend the life of critical nesting habitat for brown pelicans and least terns. The additional acreage will also benefit other birds that visit and forage on the island including the threatened red knot and piping plover.
Utilizing Deepwater Horizon NRDA funds leveraged with a 2005 Hess Corporation oil spill settlement, the Service intends to pump 5.9 million cubic yards of sand onto Breton’s beaches, dunes and marshes. Our contractor, Callan Marine, will dredge sediment from the Gulf floor three miles away. In all, this project will restore more than 400 acres of valuable barrier island habitat. Fifty acres of fill placed adjacent to existing mangroves will expand mangrove habitat and important nesting habitat for brown pelicans. The project is scheduled to start in fall 2020, after nesting season. We plan to complete the work before next year’s nesting season.
Before and after invertebrates sampling
In April 2018, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S Geologic Survey biologists took sand samples to study and determine the abundance and species composition of the worms, crustaceans and other benthic invertebrates presently found along the island’s shoreline. These small animals at the bottom of the food chain are an important source of food for shorebirds that visit the island in the winter; including the federally threatened piping plover, and red knot. After new sand is pumped in and the shoreline is reformed, biologists will take samples again in order to compare the post-construction benthic invertebrate population with the April 2018 baseline. With those hungry shorebirds and other species in mind, the biologists are aiming to have at least 70 percent of the pre-project biomass established within two years of the project’s completion.