Group donates marsh buggy to state agency

An environmental group working to restore wetlands locally and across the Louisiana coast has donated a $150,000 marsh buggy that will help a state agency get the job done.

The Restore the Earth Foundation announced its gift of a Marsh Master to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at its groundbreaking Thursday at the at Pointe-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management Area.

The Marsh Master, built by Coast Machinery of Baton Rouge, will support the 4,000-acre restoration at Pointe-aux-Chenes and will be used by the Wildlife and Fisheries Department for land management.

A partnership between the Ithaca, N.Y.-based group and the state agency has made several coastal restoration projects possible over the past six years, including work at Raccoon Island and Pointe-aux-Chenes in Terrebonne Parish, officials said.

Shane Granier, a biologist manager with the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department, said the Marsh Master will be used on a regular basis to clear away vegetation that may crowd out and eventually kill newly planted trees used to restore coastal wetlands.

“There will be a multitude of projects that we will be able to use this machine to take care of,” Grainier said. For instance, he said, “it can be used to maintain some of the swampier areas for deer hunters.”

The foundation plans to eventually restore and protect about 1 million acres of land along the Lower Mississippi River Basin, an area it calls “North America’s Amazon."

“This is a great public and private partnership for a great cause,” Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Charlie Melancon said in a news release.