Maknockanut Lake Plantation
 Cleco is taking a leading role in protecting Louisiana's environmental resources by restoring 3,600 acres of marginal farmland in central Louisiana (Catahoula Parish).
Cleco acquired the Maknockanut Lake Plantation in 2001. The company has since planted more than 400,000 hardwood seedlings and made a number of ecosystem improvements. These are part of Cleco's multi-year restoration plan to create watershed protection, enhance wildlife habitat and contribute to improved air quality.
When complete, Cleco will have planted up to 800,000 hardwood seedlings, built permanent and seasonal water impoundments, created wetlands management areas, and installed erosion control measures.
This restoration project has the endorsement and support of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Ducks Unlimited, Black Bear Conservation Committee, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North America Waterfowl Project, and the local Loose Alliance Bird Club that conducted part of its annual Christmas bird count on the property.
Cleco won first place in the Southeastern Electric Exchange Awards and Recognition Program in 2001 for its work at Maknockanut Lake Plantation.
Maknockanut Wetlands
In 2003, Cleco opened a 210-acre commercial wetlands mitigation bank on the Maknockanut Lake Plantation property.
Wetlands mitigation banking is the creation, restoration or increased protection of a functioning wetland in advance of - and to offset - expected impact to a wetland area within the same geographical region. Mitigation banking was created in response to increasingly strict regulatory approval to build on or change a wetland area during construction.
As part of the wetlands restoration process, Cleco planted 68,000 trees within the wetlands bank acreage. Species include six species of oaks, green ash, hackberry, sweek and bitter pecan, persimmon, reb mulberry, cypress, red maple and black gum.
Agencies and companies can buy "credits" from a bank based on the functional losses in a wetland area. Federal guidelines stress that credits may only be authorized when adverse impacts are unavoidable. Credits from the Maknockanut mitigation bank are sold for mitigation purposes in the lower Red River drainage area.
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