Mon Louis Island Community Meeting Thursday to Plan Large-Scale Restoration Project
MOBILE, Ala. – A community meeting of Mon Louis Island’s waterfront property owners will be held on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Rose of Lima Church, 2951 Durette Ave., Coden, AL, 36523 to provide input on a large-scale habitat restoration project along Mobile Bay’s western shoreline. The proposed project would create a series of natural breakwaters using constructed oyster reef material and establish intertidal marshes from Fowl River to Bayfront Park.
The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center, plans to undertake the restoration project with the goal of enhancing habitat for recreationally and commercially important fish. Installation of the artificial reefs and marshes would begin at the northern end of Mon Louis Island and continue south as funding becomes available.
“This restoration project provides an opportunity for us to create marsh and oyster habitat at a time when these kinds of habitat have an unprecedented value in our coast’s recovery from the oil spill,” said Roberta Swann, director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.
For more information about this meeting, contact Sara Shields by calling 251-431-6409 or emailing sshields@mobilebaynep.com.
