Cat Island to gain 850 acres
Source: 2theadvocate.com, by JAMES MINTON
February 26, 2007
The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana recently signed a purchase agreement that will add approximately 850 acres to the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge in West Feliciana Parish.
The nonprofit organization’s state director, Keith Ouchley, said the property consists of several tracts of high-quality bottomland hardwood forest that border the refuge.
Ouchley said the Nature Conservancy expects to sign the final documents in the $1.75 million sale next month with representatives of a family trust from Illinois, then transfer the property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the same price this summer or later in the year.
“The property is significant in that the forest remains in very good condition on these tracts and that the cypress-tupelo forests in the northern section are some the finest examples of that forest type remaining in this region,” Ouchley said.
A forester hired by the Nature Conservancy estimated that the timber “probably hasn’t been touched in 40 to 50 years,” he said.
The Conservancy purchased nearly 10,000 acres of forestland at Cat Island in 2001 from Georgia-Pacific Corp. to form the core of the wildlife refuge, which is popular with hunters and outdoor enthusiasts in the greater Baton Rouge region and across southeast Louisiana.
The former Georgia-Pacific land contains the national champion baldcypress tree, the largest of its kind in the world.
Ouchley said the new acquisition “contains literally hundreds of giant cypress trees and will be a great resource for birdwatchers, hunters and those that appreciate Louisiana’s great natural heritage.”
Cat Island is a floodplain area between the Mississippi River and the Tunica Hills of West Feliciana Parish.
Ouchley said the property was flooded when he visited it by boat earlier this month; and he saw mallards, pintails and other migratory waterfowl in the stands of timber.
