Flashlight to Streetlight
Lake Pontchartrain, Kenner Shore, La.
The lake was created 2,600 to 4,000 years ago as the evolving Mississippi River Delta formed its southern and eastern shorelines with alluvial deposits. Its Native American name was Okwata ("Wide Water"). In 1699, French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville renamed it Pontchartrain after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain.The current population in the region is over 1.5 million. There have been many problems with conservation management of the forests and wetlands. The United States Geological Survey is currently monitoring the environmental effects of shoreline erosion, loss of wetlands, pollution from urban areas and agriculture, saltwater intrusion from artificial waterways, dredging, basin subsidence and faulting, storms and sea-level rise, and freshwater diversion from the Mississippi and other rivers. With proper management of this lake and its wetlands, there is great potential to enhance the productivity of wetlands, and to maintain biological diversity to support an ecotourism industry that will diversify the economy.
Lake Pontchartrain, Kenner Shore, La.
The lake was created 2,600 to 4,000 years ago as the evolving Mississippi River Delta formed its southern and eastern shorelines with alluvial deposits. Its Native American name was Okwata ("Wide Water"). In 1699, French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville renamed it Pontchartrain after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain.The current population in the region is over 1.5 million. There have been many problems with conservation management of the forests and wetlands. The United States Geological Survey is currently monitoring the environmental effects of shoreline erosion, loss of wetlands, pollution from urban areas and agriculture, saltwater intrusion from artificial waterways, dredging, basin subsidence and faulting, storms and sea-level rise, and freshwater diversion from the Mississippi and other rivers. With proper management of this lake and its wetlands, there is great potential to enhance the productivity of wetlands, and to maintain biological diversity to support an ecotourism industry that will diversify the economy.