Please help to oppose Mississippi River Bridge Option E-11-IV, which would cut through the middle of the woods in Plaquemine Point, including old-growth cypress-tupelo forest. This website includes information Plaquemine Point residents and landowners have provided to the DOTD and FHWA in official public comment over the last 4 years.
The DOTD began the NEPA Environmental Assessment (EA) in September 2025 and will be soliciting views until further notice. The last meeting was in the Louisiana State Capitol Senate Committee Room E or F, located on the ground floor of the capitol. The recording for the last meeting can be found here.
Plaquemine Point Faces Imminent Threat
The area known as Plaquemine Point is located inside a river bend on the east side of the Mississippi River in Sunshine, Louisiana and is a significant cultural landscape. Plaquemine Point is an oblong site approximately ten miles long and one mile wide located in Iberville Parish. Along the river road, which makes a 180 degree turn on the far end, there are woods behind all the houses, making the woods behind our homes one continuous habitat for wildlife, protected in a sort of refuge in this bottomland hardwood and cypress forest ecosystem.
One of three final bridge alternatives is Option E-11-IV, which has a 4-lane divided approach highway that cuts through Plaquemine Point, bisecting the community and bisecting the woods in the center of the point. The land that will be purchased through expropriation / eminent domain will be 600-ft wide along the path of the approach highway.
We are expressing the desire to save the Plaquemine Point woods ecosystem — trees, plants, and animals — from destruction. Animals on this land already have a limited amount of woods in which to live and roam. The animals cannot just move to another patch of woods somewhere else after the bridge is built, because they are isolated, cut-off on three sides by the river and on one side by industry.
Our Plaquemine Point "back-yard" forest in Sunshine is of cultural significance. We are the descendants of the Acadian exiles placed here by the Spanish Government in 1767 as well as those who sought out this peaceful place for their families to have a country life close to nature. The people in this community have been hunting on the backs of their properties for centuries. Several families have not taken timber during the last hundred years to keep the woods a secure habitat for wildlife.
Plaquemine point has been recognized for its cultural importance by the following organizations:
- Listed as Endangered by the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (LTHP)
- Certified as Plaquemine Point Cultural Landscape and listed as Threatened and At-risk by the The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF)
In the middle of Plaquemine Point lies the 60-acre A.E. LeBlanc Natural Area and Old-Growth Cypress Forest. It has been recognized by the following five organizations due to its rarity and unique features:
- Natural Area by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Wildlife Diversity Program
- Cypress Legacy Forest by the Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy (LPCL)
- Old-Growth Forest by the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN) (see also: A Threatened Louisiana Icon )
- Regenerating Cypress Forest by Louisiana State University Environmental Sciences Department Regenerating Cypress Forest Research Project
- Forest Flora and Biota Research Grant Recipient from the Louisiana Native Plant Society (LNPS)
The contiguous Bordelon (Cox) and Ellison tracts neighboring the LeBlanc Forest also have Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy Trees (Alive in 1803) that are in the pathway of bridge Option E-11-IV. If this land is bull-dozed for the bridge, these trees cannot be replaced. The land will not be re-forested. It will either be underneath a raised highway or cleared as highway right-of-way.
Bridge option E-11-IV will destroy 150 acres of precious forested land owned by approximately 20 landowners in Plaquemine Point. Of the 32 bridge options studied by Louisiana DOTD, many viable alternatives that would not cut down forest could have been chosen for the final three options, and should be reconsidered.
The Louisiana State Tree is the Bald Cypress, and the trees in this Natural Area were here before Louisiana became a state. The conservation of Louisiana’s forested areas, such as this old-growth cypress forest is critical. Natural lands and forested wetlands are part of the state’s cultural heritage, especially cypress forests. Preservation of old-growth forested lands, especially when done voluntarily by landowners, is one way to achieve a balance between development and smart land management in Louisiana.
Protection of Plaquemine Point Old-Growth Cypress Forest This might take a moment to download.