LSU CAMPUS MOUNDS (photo courtesy of Louisiana State University)
LSU will soon begin a $440,000 preservation project to restore the iconic Native American mounds located on campus. The man-made mounds are thousands of years old but are suffering from erosion. One mound has lost its cone-like shape, and grass is no longer growing in certain areas, leaving patches of dirt. LSU campus landscape architect Dennis Mitchell is heading up the project.
“Re-level the areas that are sunken and restore the grade; we’ve hired a consultant to help us determine how to do that,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell says the preservation work will address mound erosion, resodding the mounds with grass that will not die off as easily, and a new irrigation system will be installed.
“Adding the irrigation keeps us out of trouble too, because we’re not going to oversaturate the mounds; we’ll put the right amount of water on there. And we’re adding piping into the mounds; we’re actually doing it around the perimeter,” Mitchell explained.
And Mitchell says the irrigation will water the dirt and sediment from the bottom up. He says they are also taking down the chain link fence around the historic site, but they still don’t want anyone walking on the mounds.
“From the sidewalks and landscaping, take down the fence and put some other deterrent landscaping and maybe a smaller fence there just to communicate that this is a zone that is sacred,” Mitchell noted.
The National Park Service is paying for half of the project and work should begin in the next six months.
More information on the restoration can be found at www.lsu.edu.
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