Wetland Loss, Dredged Canals, Legacy and Restoration with Gene Turner Register

Date and Time:
Wed, Nov 12, 2025; 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM (Central)

Add to Calendar Wetland Loss, Dredged Canals, Legacy and Restoration with Gene Turner

LSU Professor Gene Turner will describe a cost efficient & very effective way to restore our marshes and coast based on a number of successful projects that call for "backfilling canals." These are the canals that oil companies dug in previous decades to place their pipelines. Sadly, some of these canals have created large stretches of open water. However, where that has not happened, the backfilling approach can restore the marsh in that area.

9146 Bluebonnet Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70810, USA

Webinar URL:

30.36528500,-91.10523300 Nancy Grush nancygrush@gmail.com MM/DD/yyyy amOUuwqNAzpGSXwtHmnd12740

Organized By: Baton Rouge Group

Location: 9146 Bluebonnet Blvd, Baton Rouge, LA 70810, USA

Map | Directions

Event Organizers:
Nancy Grush
nancygrush@gmail.com

Professor Turner will discuss how dredged canals create factors indirectly causing wetland loss. These factors include longer intervals of wetland soil waterlogging and drying, sulfide toxicity, less organic matter and sediment accumulation, and greater shoreline erosion. There is a robust close-response relationship between coastal land loss and canal density in the Mississippi river delta over 5 decades.
Professor Turner will also share data showing how "back-filling" these dredged canals has had remarkable success and at significantly less cost than the more expensive and destructive diversions. "Restoration of canals and spoil banks can be implemented at a relatively low cost (less than 1/10th the cost per acre of alternatives) and quickly if this paradigm of the causes of coastal wetland losses is adopted," says Professor Turner.

Signup Instructions: In person for Baton Rouge, will be streamed for the rest of the state!

Cancellation Policy: Activity is held rain or shine, but may be altered due to inclement weather

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