An oak-filled ridge at the end of the marshy Louisiana coast has long served as a refuge for birds during their migrations.
But property near the coastal forest, which is thick with trees, shrubs and ferns, could soon be paved over as a parking lot, leading to warnings from birders and environmentalists about the effects on wildlife. The location is one of three recently proposed park-and-ride lots meant to accommodate more than 2,000 vehicles for those working in the region’s booming liquefied natural gas industry.
Energy company Caturus’s $13 billion Commonwealth LNG export facility that’s under construction near Johnson Bayou is within walking distance of Peveto Woods Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary, which opponents say could disorient migratory birds with light and noise pollution.
The planned parking lots have led to tension between the company and a group of concerned birders, ecological researchers and environmental activists. Caturus had applied for three coastal use permits with the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy to build the lots along La. 82 in the Johnson Bayou area.
Dozens submitted comments opposing the plan to the state agency. The proposal is currently on pause, with the permit applications stalling in July when the state asked Caturus for more information about them, according to Patrick Courreges, spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy.
The company then asked to put the permits on hold as they attempted to work with local officials and look into other alternatives, Courreges said in an Aug. 25 email to The Advocate | The Times-Picayune.
Magnus “Sonny” McGee, who represents District 1 of the Cameron Parish Police Jury, also asked the state to suspend the review of the coastal use permit applications.
“The Coastal Use Permit process is intended to yield the greatest public benefit with the least amount of environmental damage,” McGee wrote in a July 29 email to a Department of Conservation and Energy official. “Given the scope of these interconnected projects and their potential impacts, I believe the public deserves the opportunity to comment on them collectively rather than through separate permit proceedings.”
Meanwhile, opponents have asked that the company consider alternative sites away from the habitat. They’ve also asked the Department of Conservation and Energy to consider the environmental impact of the proposed lots cumulatively instead of independently, and for a single public hearing to voice concerns.
If the state eventually approves the permits, the Cameron Parish Police Jury would also have to sign off for approval.
“We’re not anti-LNG,” said Mark Pethke, treasurer of the Louisiana Ornithological Society and Baton Rouge Audubon Society. “We’re anti- these locations, and particularly the Targa lot.”
The Targa lot would hold around 900 vehicles, about one-third of a mile from the Peveto Woods.
Caturus Energy did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
A vital stop for migratory birds crossing the Gulf
Up to 2 million birds flock to the chenier habitat in coastal Louisiana each spring on their migration trips from South America to Canada, many stopping along the 40 acres of Peveto Woods Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary in Cameron Parish.
French settlers used to invoke the word “chenier,” which means “oak grove,” to describe the beach ridges along the coast. After an onslaught of development and residential subdivisions decades ago started to shrink the habitats, a movement took hold by the 1980s to save what remained.
A small group of concerned birders purchased undeveloped lots and donated parcels to the Baton Rouge Audubon Society, which has since expanded the acreage, filled in sand pits and replanted live oak seedlings.
More recently, birders have documented 325 of the 493 bird species recorded in the state along the coastal refuge, according to Jane Patterson, president of the Baton Rouge Audubon Society, which owns the sanctuary.
The sanctuary and similar cheniers in the region not only act as a first stop for birds migrating north in the spring, but also as a last stop for birds migrating south in the fall before crossing the Gulf, Patterson said.
“Without a doubt, there are just fewer birds in the woods these days than there were 50 years ago,” Patterson said. “That decline is going to continue, and we may lose additional species entirely in our lifetime if we don’t figure out a way to achieve some balance.”
Of the three proposed lots, the Targa lot would be the closest to Peveto Woods. A second Johnson Bayou lot is proposed for one mile away from the sanctuary, with parking for 500 vehicles near the community library. A third Stream West lot would be about five miles away from the sanctuary in the opposite direction, and have parking for 665 vehicles near the community fire station.
Mary Tutwiler, a Louisiana birder who lives in Lafayette, worried that the parking lots will bulldoze the brush that birds rely on.
“It’s one of the very few places along the coast that offers the birds these things, and we’ve kept it from being turned into beachfront homes,” she said. “After the hurricanes, a lot of these oaks were wiped out, which makes it even more important to preserve this spot.”
Some opponents have suggested relocating the park-and-ride lots farther north or to areas that are already developed and well-lit at night. If the lots move forward in the proposed locations, opponents have warned that the type of lighting could affect birds, saying downward-facing, motion-sensing lights would be better than those that continuously light up the sky.
‘All sorts of cascading problems’
Bright lights, loud noises and disruptions to their habitats can be stressors for migratory birds, according to Erik Johnson, an associate professor in LSU’s School of Renewable Natural Resources.
Johnson, who has provided research for opponents of the project, also warned that daytime noise from increased traffic can increase stress hormones, which impacts birds’ ability to communicate with one another. That can lead to reduced feeding at a critical time — either right before or right after crossing the Gulf, Johnson said.
The coastal chenier habitat has long been important to migratory birds, but it’s especially vital during inclement weather when Peveto Woods and the surrounding areas serve as an emergency stop, he said.
“There’s all sorts of cascading problems when you add any kind of noise and lighting to a place that is really critical for billions of birds,” said Johnson, who holds a doctorate in wildlife and fisheries management. “And it’s not just Peveto Woods. It’s that whole region that’s super important for birds and is one of the great wildernesses in some ways.”
‘What’s happening in lower Cameron could change’
The three recent park-and-ride lot proposals are the latest in a series of projects along Cameron Parish’s rural coastline related to the LNG industry.
The region experienced a sharp population decline over the last two decades after devastation from Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Laura in 2020. But the recent uptick in LNG activity has inundated the two-lane coastal highways with gravel-filled dump trucks and buses packed with workers.
Mark Daigle, who represents District 5 of the Cameron Parish Police Jury, said there are few residents left in his community. Still, he feels the effects of the workers who’ve come for the LNG boom.
“Unfortunately, I literally stay at my house until 9 or 10 o’clock at night because I can’t even pull out my own driveway because of traffic,” he said. “But as a juror and a resident, I kind of got to wear two caps. As a resident, it’s aggravating, but it’s progress. Nobody likes to hear it.”
Longtime Cameron Parish residents and conservation activists both say they’re not against the recent LNG boom, which local leaders say is vital to keeping federal funding from disappearing as the permanent population dwindles. But some residents and conservationists say they want the companies to be respectful of the people and wildlife that were around before the industry.
And even with environmental regulations in place, LNG facilities in Cameron Parish have been dinged over environmental problems.
The three LNG export facilities in Cameron Parish have had a pattern of air pollution concerns, according to a 2025 report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit research organization that advocates for stricter environmental standards.
The report, which was sourced from federal and state data, documented over the last decade 34 federal Clean Air Act emission events at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal, which resulted in 4,211 tons of air pollution. The report also documented 19 emission events at Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal, resulting in 93 tons of air pollution, and 89 emission events at Cameron LNG’s export terminal in Hackberry, resulting in 475 tons of air pollution.
“Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass facility has and continues to be in compliance with federal and state environmental regulations,” Venture Global spokesperson Jess Szymanski wrote in an email to The Advocate.
She disputed records about past deviations during the facility’s commissioning phase, saying they do not constitute violations and occur across the industry during a project’s commissioning.
“Calcasieu Pass has been in full compliance with its annual air permit emission limits,” Szymanski added.
Cheniere Energy and Cameron LNG did not respond to requests for comment.
James Hiatt, a Lake Charles environmental advocate and director of the community-based environmental organization For a Better Bayou, told the Cameron Parish Police Jury during a recent meeting that the proposed park-and-ride lots will impact residents, and similar future projects will affect the area.
“We’re going to see this again and again,” Hiatt said. “The police jury has the authority and ability to express the will of the people who live here — and maybe the state reps and senators too — but if y’all had a unified voice, that matters, and what’s happening in lower Cameron could change.”
Email Megan Wyatt at mwyatt@theadvocate.com.
