To save swamp, Louisiana will restore Mississippi River's natural flow

GARYVILLE, Louisiana: Louisiana's State and federal authorities celebrated breaking ground on an ambitious conservation project intended to replenish the 176-square-mile Maurepas Swamp to the west of New Orleans by diverting water from the Mississippi River back into the swamp.

Cutting off the natural flow of the river with man-made barriers had been slowly killing one of the nation's largest forested wetlands.