Project Will Double The Size Of Island In US Wildlife Refuge

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Work has begun off Louisiana on a project to more than double the size of an island in the nation’s second-oldest wildlife refuge.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it will add 400 acres of new habitat for birds and animals on North Breton Island, which now covers about 290 acres.

The island anchors the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, which President Theodore Roosevelt created in 1904 on Breton Island and the barrier island chain called the Chandeleur Islands.

The islands have been damaged by a century of erosion, hurricanes, the BP oil spill in 2010 and a smaller spill in 2005.