Essay On Atchafalaya

The Atchafalaya “This nation has a large and powerful adversary. Our opponent could cause the United States to lose nearly all her seaborne commerce, to lose her standing as first among trading nations… We are fighting Mother Nature…It’s a battle we have to fight day by day, year by year, the health of our economy depends on victory (Mcphee, 1987).”The narrator of the film said this about the Atchafalaya navigational lock and the complex of associated structures built in an effort to stop the capture of the Mississippi river. The Atchafalaya is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States and contains about one acres of the United States lakes, swamps, etc. The name Atchafalaya comes from Choctaw for long river, from hachcha, river, and falaya, long. The Atchafalaya is filled with bayous, bald cypress swamps and marshes that give off into other rivers and swamps. It is located in southern Louisiana. It provides ways of trade for people down there. The Atchafalaya has been getting very popular that it could overtake the Mississippi river soon. The Atchafalaya would be the main channel if it wasn’t for the Old River Control Structures. The Atchafalaya receives the water of the Red as well as roughly 30% of the water of the lower Mississippi the other 70% continues in its main channel to the southeast. The volume the Atchafalaya receives from the Mississippi is controlled by the Old River Control Structure, a system of a low-sill structure, an auxiliary structure, an overbank structure, a navigation lock, and a power plant near Red River Landing, Louisiana, and in times of extreme flooding the Morganza
The ecosystems near the river depend on the relationship from the fresh water to the salt water. The Corps controls a big part of that