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Site description (2009 baseline):
The IBA offers a number of habitats for wildlife, including salt and fresh marshes, freshwater baldcypress-tupelo swamps, brackish and freshwater environments, beaches, and a variety of forests. Barrier islands and barrier headlands also provide important habitat for many of the migrant birds. Significant man-made features include levees, canals, oil and gas wells, and the Gulf-Intracoastal Waterway. The marshes are dominated by widgeon grass, wiregrass, and spike rush, but also contain other aquatic plants including spartinas, cattail, bull tongue, and maiden cane. On the spoil banks within the marshes grow various grasses and plants, including goldenrod and annual marshelder. A common forest type has live oaks dominating ridges and hardwoods and pines in the hammocks. Other forests types include live oak-pine-magnolia, longleaf pine savannahs, and slash pine-pond cypress. Barrier islands are invaluable to neotropical migrants as stopover sites. Their beaches are sandy and frequented by shorebirds. One such island is Grand Isle, which offers an oak-hackberry forest for birds to rest in and refuel.
Though the majority of the IBA is privately owned, 90,000 acres are owned and managed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). The Wildlife Management Areas functioning under the department are Salvador, Timken, Wisner, Pointe-Aux-Chenes, and Lake Boeuf. Grand Isle State Park and Bayou Segnette State Park are owned by Louisiana State Parks. Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge, on the other hand, is federally managed. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is owned by the U.S. Department of the Interior and run by the National Park Service.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Barataria Terrebonne (USA). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/barataria-terrebonne-iba-usa on 23/12/2024.
