After more than 7 decades of producing energy, the 7,100-acre Paradis Mitigation Area will restore and enhance forested wetland functions and values within the Lower Mississippi River Valley. This mitigation bank is located just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The primary partners are ChevronTexaco, the Mississippi River Trust, and the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
ChevronTexaco’s property will enhance and restore ecological functions and values that are locally, regionally, and nationally significant. This restoration will improve water storage and water quality by
- Naturally filtering sediments and human-related nutrient loading from upstream sources;
- Locally increasing flood storage and retention basins to decrease flooding;
- Increasing edge-to-area ratios for wildlife habitat, ecotones, and biological diversity;
- Increasing plant diversity on the property;
- Reducing forest fragmentation in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley;
- Increasing habitat for at least one inherently threatened species–the bald eagle; and
- Sequestering carbon.
The Paradis project decreases the probability of local flooding by providing significantly larger floodwater retention areas while regionally providing a contiguous wetland forest ecosystem.
The Paradis Field has produced 149.4 million barrels of oil, equating to more than 33% of Louisiana’s existing, proven oil reserves in 2004 and almost 2 years of present crude oil refining for Louisiana. The Paradis Field has produced 49.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas, equating to over 11 years of residential natural gas for Louisiana.
Planting bottomland hardwoods and cypress forested wetland vegetation upon the 7,100 acres will transpire over 17,400 acre-feet of water per year to decrease the local flooding problems.