Plans to Build an Airport in a Louisiana Bird Refuge Canceled After Outcry
Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge hosts almost 200 species of birds annually. That seems like a bad place for airplanes.
The plan to build a commercial airport oncritically important bird habitat along the Louisiana coast hit some unexpectedturbulence in late September afterNola.com about the deal.
According to the report, in mid-August, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries had “quietly approved” an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Grand Isle Independent Levee District (GIILD) to build theairport. According to Erik Johnson, director of bird conservation at, the agreement between the the two allowed GIILD to explore the potential for an airport, butplans were far from finalized. Still, the agreement had shockedconservationists and scientists throughout Louisiana.Johnson,whose Coastal StewardshipProgram includes Elmer'sIsland WildlifeRefuge, told Nola.com that the move “came out of nowhere.”
“Birds and airports just don’t mix,” Johnson said. "The idea is pretty bizarre."
Indeed. With planes sharing the same air space asmillions of birds,the potential for dangerous and deadly collisions would be great. Fortunately, that possibilityisalready no longer an issue. After the DZ.dzstory shed more light on the plans, apublic comment period—anduproar—ensued. This past Thursdaythe Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheriesofficiallythat it would rescind the agreement.
Images of the airport's proposed designshowed that two half-mile-long airstrips would have extended across Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge, a 1,145-acre tract of critical habitat for migratory birds. The narrow strip of natural beach, dunes, and wetlandsis a stopover for more than 5 million migratory birds that cross the Gulf of Mexico each spring and continue north through the Mississippi River Basin.
Of the 170 bird species that Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries identifies as reliant on the island, 40 of them are of conservation concern in Louisiana, including the Mottled Duck, Wilson’s Plover, Least Tern, and Seaside Sparrow. Some of APP Louisiana’s work on the refugeincludes installing protective fencing for beach-nesting birds.
This is not the first time the island has been thetarget ofdevelopment projects. In the 1990s, there was talk of building a casino, a convention center, and even a theme park. But in 2008, Wildlife and Fisheries acquired much of the island and established the Elmer’s Island WildlifeRefuge.The airport, which proponents said would increase tourism to the refuge and surrounding areas, was set to be build over top anold airstrip that outdates the refuge.
Once APP Louisiana discovered the plans to build a newairport,the groupimmediatelylet the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries know it did not approve of the agreement while taking tosocial media to help raise public awareness. According to Cynthia Duet, deputy director at APP Louisiana, plenty of othergroups and individuals were also disturbed by the news.
“When we learned about airport plans, so close to the beachwhere we work to protect sensitive beach nesting bird areas each summer, a couple of us met with leadership at the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to discuss our concerns,” Duet said in an email. “After further consideration and review, the state made a wise decision to rescind the agreement to lease the property.”
The decision isn't only good for birds and other wildlife.Construction and infrastructurecan hasten landscape degradation.As a healthybarrier island, Elmer's serves as an important naturalbuffer between people living along the coast andrising sea levels and increasingly stronger storm storms caused byAPP change—both of which arelikely to only get worse in the coming decades. And inthat regard, building a new commercialairport on a coastal islandmight be a bad idea for a lot of reasons these days.