Wiers Opening?

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Andy C

Agree, but how you going to get sediment or organic matter in them with all the leaves and dams. To get organic matter something has to die and then rebuild.

I am not pro or con wiers, but do believe man kind has over engineered flood plans, and leaves and dams.

Thats just it, you are not getting any new material into the system, we have screwed that all up with the levees. You can look at an aerial of the MS River and see sediment going straight out the channel into the Gulf. Some of that used to get distributed out. The heavy sediments on the bottom would build the land and the lighter silts on top and freshwater would replenish the marsh. All goes straight out to sea now

After the 1927? flood, the Corps put the levees went up and that was considered to be a good thing (they never wanted a flood like that to happen again). I have never heard that anyone was against this at the time, no one knew the ecological damage this would do, and it took many decades of cutting off the marshes before we started seeing the effects. Now we know (or at least I hope most of us know) that was a bad thing ecologically.

In the east you can point to the MS River levee as the 'culprit', around Big Lake you can point to the construction of the Ship Chanel. The MS River levee has probably saved thousands of lives from flooding but its also causing flooding to be worse so its Catch-22. And shipping in the Ship Channel is what makes the Lake Charles area, but it also allows saltwater in, which is good for trout but bad for brackish marsh, so which one is more important? Trout or marsh? The marsh is way more important to me as it is the basis of the food chain for not only fish but everything from birds, shrimp, crabs, etc.

["W"]

They use to catch Tarpon in Lake Charles !!!

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by "W"

They use to catch Tarpon in Lake Charles !!!

They used to catch BASS in Big Lake!!!!



There also used to be a healhty flock of whooping cranes here, and Canada geese would come down, and most of southwest La was prairie, and there was once a time in Louisiana where a fulvous or black-bellied whistling duck was a very rare occurence, and buffalo once roamed here, and a dime bag costed a dime whats your point?

["W"]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

They used to catch BASS in Big Lake!!!!



There also used to be a healhty flock of whooping cranes here, and Canada geese would come down, and most of southwest La was prairie, and there was once a time in Louisiana where a fulvous or black-bellied whistling duck was a very rare occurence, and buffalo once roamed here, and a dime bag costed a dime whats your point?

my point is saltwater has been in Lake Charles way before you and I were even born!! its part of life when you live on the gulf coast!

If God did not want saltwater to intrude lakes and bays he would of make the gulf freshwater

you can not have a marsh that is less than 5 miles from the gulf of Mexico and expect it to stay fresh..

CMON man

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by "W"

my point is saltwater has been in Lake Charles way before you and I were even born!! its part of life when you live on the gulf coast!

If God did not want saltwater to intrude lakes and bays he would of make the gulf freshwater

you can not have a marsh that is less than 5 miles from the gulf of Mexico and expect it to stay fresh..

CMON man

You are correct, saltwater would have come in naturally at times, but it was likely not the norm and that is exactly why the marshes are classified as brackish because the plants there evolved to take salinity spikes and dips and evolved to have floods come over them and hurricanes every so often and were adapted to frequent fire, but when you keep highly saline water on top of them for long periods of time, they can't tolerate that. There are different classifications of marsh. You can't magically make brackish marsh a salt marsh. Emergent plants can not move on their own, it can not control its environment where it is. Wherever it sprouts, it has to deal with whatever comes its way, and saltwater is not something that it would have had to deal with as much as it does now had the Ship Channel not been dug and give a direct route for saltwater.

[slickfish]

Originally Posted by "W"

If God did not want saltwater to intrude lakes and bays he would of make the gulf freshwater

W= uses so many worthless responses he has to involve the the man upstairs for support. Keep on keeping on smalls!

["W"]

Originally Posted by slickfish

W= uses so many worthless responses he has to involve the the man upstairs for support. Keep on keeping on smalls!

Lmao Post 1o2 about me

I have your club "w" start up kit in the mail!!

You will where your shirt proud!!

Keep on following

[Andy C]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

They used to catch BASS in Big Lake!!!!



There also used to be a healhty flock of whooping cranes here, and Canada geese would come down, and most of southwest La was prairie, and there was once a time in Louisiana where a fulvous or black-bellied whistling duck was a very rare occurence, and buffalo once roamed here, and a dime bag costed a dime whats your point?

Yep and man f that up to!!!! There still in tx.

It won't be long ya'll will be talking about duck hunting/fishing in tx with yalls POV.

Oh well stay down there till that happens in the next few year's!!!

[Andy C]

Again I agree. They didn't care what happened down river/stream. Back then. The marsh and offshore islands is what helps protect the south US.
They helped a few to put a bunch of people in danger?? And it was man made mess that the news never talks about!!!! My thought it leave it alown and let mother earth take care of the marsh. Cause it will rebuild one day long after we gone. Can't talk for the east side of the lake cause only been in that marsh twice, but the west side is just now coming back from the storm's and looking better every time I get in there.

It my not be the best hunting/fishing but that organic is building up and places where there was land grass is inch or so below the water. Trees growing again.(small but growing) it just takes time, and I would hate for something man did to interrupt the cycle.

[Andy C]

Again I no environmentist, but that's the a holes that started this mess

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Andy C

Again I no environmentist, but that's the a holes that started this mess

At the time 'they' didn't know what they were doing was bad. All they knew is that they were keeping people out of danger (by building levees). Just like the oil/gas companies didn't know that their canals were going to create future problems. There are actual lawsuits out there right now to try and get money from oil companies for causing erosion when they dug canals way back when

Now we KNOW what saltwater does, and that erosion will follow, but 'fixing' it is the issue because all this is new, its never been done before. There are some tough decisions to be made. You can leave it alone and watch it all go away (but in the meanwhile enjoy the fishing/hunting while it lasts and future generations will look back and ask why nothing was done), or try and do something to mitigate the problem (let your kids and grandkids get to be able to enjoy it too). We have to have the ship channel and we are probably not going to see the MS River levee taken down in our lifetime. Sorry I am getting off topic

[Andy C]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

At the time 'they' didn't know what they were doing was bad. All they knew is that they were keeping people out of danger (by building levees). Just like the oil/gas companies didn't know that their canals were going to create future problems. There are actual lawsuits out there right now to try and get money from oil companies for causing erosion when they dug canals way back when

Now we KNOW what saltwater does, and that erosion will follow, but 'fixing' it is the issue because all this is new, its never been done before. There are some tough decisions to be made. You can leave it alone and watch it all go away (but in the meanwhile enjoy the fishing/hunting while it lasts and future generations will look back and ask why nothing was done), or try and do something to mitigate the problem (let your kids and grandkids get to be able to enjoy it too). We have to have the ship channel and we are probably not going to see the MS River levee taken down in our lifetime. Sorry I am getting off topic

I agree with that, but what makes us now that much smarter??? They where doing the best thing for there kids and grandkids !!!

???????

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Andy C

I agree with that, but what makes us now that much smarter??? They where doing the best thing for there kids and grandkids !!!

???????

Damn thats a tough one, you have a point there

BUT, I think the distinction is that they didn't know what they were doing would have long-term consequences like they do. They were successful in what they wanted to accomplish (no mo big floods) but the indirect consequences of their actions were not foreseen. In other words, looking back now knowing what we know now do you think we would build those levees along the MS River? People would surely have been flooded out again, but we would have a much healthier landscape. Good question

I think we are definitely smarter now than we were (maybe not in a common sense fashion) but technologically speaking we are.

Its funny how we shoot ourselves in the foot and never learn. The farmland in floodplains are much much more fertile than other places and its from the flooding that makes the soil fertile yet we lose one crop from flooding and we want to dam the river so that we won't lose another crop . The river was the 'fertilizer' for years, and now we dam up the river and spray fertilizer its almost comical anyways...


but the gist is that (I think) the wiers are doing much more good than harm. There isn't ever going to be a shortage of trout in Louisiana but marshland is going away a football per hour, pretty easy call in my book

[Andy C]

One last question?? If you blame it all on the channel. Why does the marsh west side closer to the channel. coming back after the storms?? Better? Doing

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Andy C

One last question?? If you blame it all on the channel. Why does the marsh west side closer to the channel. coming back after the storms?? Better? Doing

Doesn't appear that way from an aerial photo looks like its gone also. You may be seeing some coming back in places but its still a net loss each year overall. It can be (and probably is being done or has been done) look at an aerial and run stats on it from marsh loss/gain each year. Just make sure the aerials are taken during similar months. ERDAS software, may be available for a free download don't know

[Andy C]

Maybe they are?? Maybe they hurting??? We will not know for 20-50 year's. Save what little bit we got left, or let it rebuild?? I see both sides of it. But don't thank we any smarter then 30-40 year's ago. Cause seems like we still making the worse. And not letting it do it's own thing.


Are we being selfish for trying to keep it for our kids maybe grandkids, or should we save it for their kids and grandkids???

[Andy C]

And again that map and maps y'all show are not, what the marsh is doing !!! It took year's and year's to build them and it took2 storm's to f them up!!! Just saying give them a chance.

["W"]

Duck Butter


Blame Ship channel = cop out for weirs

[Andy C]

What makes us so much smarter then our dad's and grandparents and there parents , that made there and fed their kids from the marsh and lake!!!

When they did what they did it was the best minds around!! (Don't forget they put a man on the moon with less CPU.power then in your watch!!) .... and they had no ideal what was going to happen to the marsh. Why are we that much smarter????? To thank we can know what's going to happen??

We done got so smart we can't even put a dog in space!!

But we can control mother nature!!!!
???????????? Maybe but I don't believe that!!!!!

I am done, going to eat.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

[TNP]

For those of you that gave feedback from the original post that was useful and helpful, I thank you for that. This Forum I am sure started out to be just that, a place to communicate with others of the same interest and share experiences, information to help each other.

Problem is alot of you have a CyberEgo that is rediculous.
Check your EGO at the keyboard fella's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!