"Floating islands" to be launched today near Lower 9 to help restore bayou

Students with the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a maker of buoyant marsh mats are teaming up to launch two "floating islands" in an experiment to help restore the badly eroded Bayou Bienvenue near New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward.

The floating islands will be launched Tuesday by the students and Floating Islands Inc., a Baton Rouge company.

The floating mats are 35 square feet in size and made from recycled plastic drinking bottles and marsh grasses. The mats will be anchored in the wetlands near the Lower 9th Ward.

The Wisconsin students are trying to restore 427 acres of Bayou Bienvenue.

from the Times Picayune