CAMERON-CREOLE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT 

 PRELIMINARY REPORT 



Billy DeLany 



Sabine National Wildlife Refuge 



MRH Box 107 



Hackberry, LA 70645 



ABSTRACT 



The Cameron-Creole Watershed, Cameron Parish, LA, includes 45,749 ha of salt to fresh marsh 

 ecosystem and is a major component of the Calcasieu Lake Estuary. This preliminary report is 

 concerned with the initial management of marshlands adjacent to the eastern shore of Calcasieu 

 Lake. The most abundant plant species is wiregrass (Spartina patens). Wiregrass appears to be 

 unadaptive to increasing water salinity, and wiregrass marshes have been deteriorating before salt 

 tolerant oystergrass {Spartina alterniflora) has been able to establish. Wiregrass communities near 

 the center of the Grand Bayou marsh are becoming open lakes. Historical fresh and intermediate 

 marshes at the perimeter have become deteriorating brackish marsh systems and open lakes. 

 Initial management will be concerned with water control, soil stabilization and plant community 

 establishment. Plant habitat management is the cornerstone of current management practices. 

 Management after the initial two years will be expanded to include organism diversity and 

 productivity. 



INTRODUCTION 



The Cameron-Creole Watershed Management project began in 1961. Agencies now involved 

 are Cameron Parish Gravity Drainage Districts 3 and 4, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisiana 

 Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, 

 Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Soil Conservation Service, National Marine 

 Fisheries, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plan developed by these agencies includes a 

 recently completed 30.6-km protection levee along the eastern shore of Calcasieu Lake and 

 contruction of five weirs which began in March 1988. 



This management plan was initiated because of apparent land loss in the Cameron-Creole marsh 

 system. Reasons for land loss are saltwater intrusion, subsidence, sea level rise, lack of 

 sedimentation, plant community die-off, and physical water action on exposed soil banks. Artificial 

 changes in topography such as the Intracoastal Waterway (1914), Louisiana Highway 27 (1919), 

 Calcasieu Ship Channel (1941), trapper's ditches (late 1940's), and oil and gas activities (1940's) 

 have hastened marsh deterioration. 



The most prevalent species inhabiting the East Cove marsh are wiregrass, saltgrass (Distichlis 

 spicata), black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus), and oystergrass. Areas of higher elevation and 

 areas influenced by salty waters are becoming saltgrass flats. Low elevation wiregrass marshes that 

 are subject to varying degrees of water energy are being invaded by either black needlerush or 

 oystergrass, or have become open water. Plant communities along natural levees and cheniers 

 contain remnant stands of leafy threesquare (saltmarsh bulrush) (Scirpus robustus), Olney 

 threesquare (Scirpus olneyi), and California bulrush (Scirpus califomicus). One fresh to 



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