re: Wildlife and Fisheries and Ducks Unlimited have destroyed Rollover Bayou

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Fresh water does not cause erosion. Salt killing vegetation is a bigger culprit.

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That only applies if the salt water is intruding into an area with freshwater vegetation. However, if you are forcing unnatural amounts of fresh water into a brackish marsh, populated by saltwater marsh grasses, you will kill the saltwater marsh grass. Folks get so myopic based upon the common problem of production channels allowing salt water to bypass the coastal zone and the problems that causes. It is an equally serious problem to force fresh water into the brackish marsh. either way the problem is artificially changing the natural composition of the water, which kills what is there. Once you kill the natural vegetation, erosion can occur.

Perhaps you recall a variant of this occurring during the oil spill. When the oil and dispersant was drifting toward the oyster beds they opened up the flood control structures to send large amounts of fresh water into the oyster beds to push the oil away. The current of fresh water succeeded in keeping the oil out of most of the beds but the fresh water killed the oysters anyway. (The oysters were doomed but the choice was made to kill them clean so they could come back.)

Forcing excess levels of fresh water to accumulate in the salt water marsh promotes ducks for hunters but it kills the marsh.

Why is this difficult to understand?