Deer Island to receive 400-acre expansion to make up for erosion

Deer Island has been shrinking for centuries. The island used to be doubled the size, but as water levels rise – more and more of it disappears. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hoping they can save it.

“It’s a 400-acre expansion on the southeast side of the island,” Elizabeth Godsey, USACE lead coastal engineer, explains their plan. “We’re restoring beaches, dunes, maritime forests, as well as marsh – long-term beneficial dredge material, as we call it. It will be a multi-phase project.”

Nearly 400 feet of the island is lost each year to erosion, and two-thirds of the island has been lost since 1850.

Barrier islands are not only vital to Mississippi’s ecosystem – but also its survival in storms.

“It’s eroding a buffing system to the mainland,” Godsey said. “It acts as a frontline defense towards that wave energy and even wind, as it has higher elevations of maritime forests that help with wind. But as we lose that habitat, that is getting lost and degraded so that’s one of the primary benefits that we’re looking at.”

The multi-phase project will take place between spring 2025 and fall 2028, at which point the Department of Marine Resources will maintain the extension for 50 years.

To slow the erosion, DMR will be expanding the Katrina key.

“What we plan on doing is building back to the west 2.5 miles and continuing Katrina Key by making it a much bigger reef, a much bigger area,” said Rick Burris, DMR’s chief scientific officer. “We also think it’s going to continue to provide benefits to the island. So, we’ll have 3.5 miles of shoreline protections and increased habitat.”

The project will cost an estimated $30 million. For more information about island conservation, you can visit https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Program-and-Project-Management/Civil-Projects/MsCIP/