Rerouting the Mississippi River could build new land—and save a retreating coast

In a swamp at the edge of Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, plastic-capped GPS antennas sprout like oversize mushrooms from four small wooden platforms. The gear, which helps scientists monitor changes in the surrounding marsh, is easy to miss in this expanse of water and swampland the size of Delaware. But it represents something even bigger: the beginnings of a grand ecosystem engineering experiment that has been 50 years in the making and could ultimately cost some $50 billion.

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