Pearl logjam project set to start

Government funding from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will soon be put into action for clearing a logjam – from refrigerators to a house boat - on the Mississippi side of the Pearl River south of Bogalusa, La. The logjam is keeping threatened fish from swimming upstream. Clearing the jam will reduce riverbank erosion that threatens to fill in deep-river habitat of threatened Gulf of Mexico sturgeon, according to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet. The logjam, about 40 miles north of New Orleans, marks the eastern boundary between Louisiana and Mississippi. It has trapped much sand, and complicates the job that “at best might be compared to a giant, dangerous game of pick-up-sticks - pulling out one log or piece of debris at a time without disturbing the rest,” said Glen Constant, head of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's southeast region office in Baton Rouge. “If a big chunk broke loose, it could threaten boats or camps downriver.” The cleanup is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 28 and continue throughout September. (Source: The Associated Press 08/25/18)