In the wetlands behind a pumping station near Lake Borgne in Meraux, Louisiana, hundreds of young saplings stand wrapped in white plastic cylinders as volunteers ferry them through the marsh by airboat. The goal is to plant more than 30,000 native trees, mainly bald cypress and water tupelo, across the Central Wetlands around New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, restoring a forest that once formed an important natural buffer between open water and nearby communities. According to reporting by The Associated Press, much of that forest had already been degraded by decades of logging and saltwater intrusion before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, while the storm caused further destruction by bringing a massive surge of saltwater into the wetlands. More than two decades later, a coalition of local environmental organisations is nearing the end of a four-year restoration effort designed to put thousands of native trees back into the landscape. As coastal erosion and rising storm risk continue to reshape Louisiana's landscape, this reforestation effort offers a genuinely hopeful model, showing how patient, community-driven restoration can begin rebuilding the natural defenses that decades of industrial development had steadily stripped away.
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