Excerpt from Louisiana Conservationist, Vol. 7: April, 1955 Salt water intrusion of the coastal marshes is an other factor of considerable importance. Excessive salt water intrusion results in fresh and estuarine waters becoming more saline and marine with ac companying environmental changes - one type of vegetation will be replaced by another, while one population of animals may be replaced by another or suffer a marked decrease in numbers. Generally speaking, such changes in our marshes are deiri mental to our wildlife, especially waterfowl and fur bearers. Navigation channels and canals associated with the Gulf of Mexico have enhanced salt water intru sion in south Louisiana. Meanwhile, above this area diversion of waters from their natural drainage routes by flood control, drainage, irrigation, and land reclamation projects, has reduced the volume of incoming fresh waters over wide areas. Evidence indicates that the resulting stabilization of these waters has in turn resulted in many of these bodies of water becoming choked with water hyacinths and other noxious plants. In southwest Louisiana where the demands are high for sweet or fresh water for irrigation of the rice crops, salt water intrusion has become a problem of great proportions. Coastal shallow fresh marshes are becoming dry; apparently this may be attributed to drainage and the absence of incoming Water due to losses to irrigation and drought conditions. Considerable benefits may be attributed to the rice lands, however, as feeding grounds for the wintering waterfowl. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.