Green Options

The most technologically advanced, eco-friendly, solar powered playground, the first of its kind in North America, is being dedicated in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward today.

The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans suffered catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and many of the residents lost their homes.

They also lost something else.

Playgrounds.

This summer, a group of students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to travel to New Orleans to help restore an urban wetland in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood decimated by flooding after the post-Katrina levee failures.

The group of nine students expect to study Bayou Bienvenue, testing water, surveying vegetation and researching whether the area could be restored with a diversion dam that would help bring in fresh water and sediment. They also plan to talk with neighborhood residents about their concerns and will even host a crab boil to involve the community.