cameron parish is still closed, update on what's happening

[pitohui]

3-plus months after rita, the entire parish is still closed because of the utter destruction of entire towns:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/national/nationalspecial/27cameron.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

the suggestion has been made that the towns in lower cameron receive federal mitigation money and be moved, in toto, to new locations, 15 miles or so to the north

i actually think it a good idea if the residents be fairly and generously compensated for their property

until katrina followed by rita, this was the best birding habitat in the state, also a great place for gator watching, but i don't yet have any news of how the xmas bird count went this year, because the parish was closed, it was difficult to get proper permissions to go in and look for the birds

this is fantastic hunting, fishing territory elsewhere, hence some residents comments that state wants it as a refuge is not completely unjustified, my proposal would be for wildlife management area (such as south farm) rather than all of it going to sabine refuge, in this way the traditional hunting and fishing could continue

by the way, in case anyone is wondering, a parish is the same as county, it has many towns in it


hope this isn't a dupe, i did try to look but in my humble opinion it is less easy to search for dupes than the little guilt-inducing message you get when you try to post would have you believe

[Ilsa]

1. My SO and I used to go birding before kids.

And I live in coastal so tx, so I know how good the birding must be there in Cameron parish. I take it that it is located southwest LA since you mentioned Sabine? I used to love watching the roseate spoonbills through there.

I wish the wildlife conservatory would take a look at some of it and help the other residents.

[pitohui]

2. yes, it's on the texas border

it is the southwest corner of louisiana, oil and seafood country, this is the old creole nature trail/drive, which was being re-named part of the gulf coast birding trail

minutes after i posted, i got an email of the bird count, normally 50,000 to 120,000 birds are counted, there were abt 12,000 birds, normally 170-180 species, there were 116 species seen, count was held dec. 17

there were only 14 spoonbills on this count but i'm confident they'll be back


I wish the wildlife conservatory would take a look at some of it and help the other residents

if you are referring to the louisiana nature conservancy, they are extremely active in south louisiana but they do not have the funds to buy entire towns, esp. towns that have oil and mineral rights complications that could make them more potentially valuable than you could pay for with private funds, this will need to be funded under federal mitigation program, that said, there is good news from the conservancy on the other side of the state, they were able to buy the woods behind the grocery store on grand isle, called sureway woods, this is the first stop for many migrating birds such as warblers, hummingbirds, tanagers, and orioles in the spring migration, the closing on this property will be jan. 6, 2006, we even get spoonbills as far east as grand isle these days but of course not in such numbers as cameron

basically the funds for the grand isle purchase were raised by asking all the local birders to kick in something, which is okay for a plot of land that size, but we'll need public money if there is to be a serious effort to re-locate whole towns, i just wish some decisions would be made so people would know what plans to make