Only on News 15: Saving the Maurepas Swamp in St. John the Baptist Parish

The law of unintended consequences is creating an environmental disaster in southern Louisiana. As a result, one of America's great swamps is dying. There is now an urgent effort to save the swamp before it disappears. Maurepas Swamp is in one of America's biggest forested wetlands. "Someone might see this and say, ‘Golly, you're cutting down trees and killing them’ and that's true," said Brad Miller with Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. He is glad to see the trees finally gone. "You gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet," added Miller. Boat Captain Adam Songy took us deep into the swamp. The once towering tupelo trees have lost their tops. The iconic cypress have stopped regenerating. The 200-square-mile swamp is dying. The problem started 100 years ago, when the Mississippi River was hemmed in by levees. The swamp was cut off from spring floods. Without their mineral-rich sediments to build new land, the swamp ground is sinking, leaving nowhere for new trees to take root.