Chapter 2 Piney Hills and Coastal Marshes: The Geography of Louisiana

1. Chapter 2Piney Hills and Coastal Marshes: The Geography of Louisiana

2. Geopolitical Map of Louisiana

3. Chapter 2 Themes: • State Symbols (pp. 20-21) • Physical and Cultural Geography (pp. 22-24) • Time Zones (p. 25) • Natural Land Regions (pp. 26-29) • Rivers and Bayous (pp. 30-35) • Controlling Louisiana’s Rivers (pp. 36-38) • Lakes (p. 39) • Climate (pp. 40-41) • Hurricanes (pp. 42-44) • Population; Cultural Regions (pp. 44-46) • Chapter Review (p. 47)

4. State Symbols • Flag/Motto: “Union, Justice, and Confidence” • Bird: Brown Pelican • Flower: Magnolia • Tree: Bald Cypress • Dog: Catahoula Cur

5. Louisiana’s State Flag

6. State Bird:The Brown Pelican

7. State Flower: Magnolia

8. State Tree: The Bald Cypress

9. State Dog: Catahoula Cur (Leopard Dog)

10. I. Physical and Cultural Geography • Geography: the study of places, their locations, and their physical and human characteristics • Physical geography: the study of landforms, oceans, weather, and climate • Cultural geography: the study of how people have interacted with, changed, and adapted to different places on the earth Louisiana’s physical geography has shaped its cultural geography. GLEs: 2, 3, 7, 11

11. Bayou Segnette State Park

12. A. Geographic Location • Resembles a boot • Florida Parishes stretch from Baton Rouge to Hammond to Bogalusa • Of the 50 states, LA ranks 31st in size • 3,600 square miles of water (1/4 of the state is wet)

13. Louisiana’s Location in the United States

14. B. Boundaries Four natural boundaries: • Mississippi River to the east • Pearl River to the east • Gulf of Mexico to the south • Sabine River to the west Three artificial boundaries: • 33 north latitude: Separates Louisiana and Arkansas • 31 north latitude: Separates the Florida Parishes from Mississippi • 94 west longitude: Separates Louisiana from Texas

15. Louisiana’s Boundaries

16. Disputed Land

17. **Is it Louisiana . . . or Mississippi? (Read more on page 24)

18. **Time Zones (Read more on page 25) • Earth has 24 time zones. • United States has six. • Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern are the four time zones in the contiguous (connected) United States. GLEs: 1

19. U.S. Time Zones

20. II. Natural Land Regions • Determined by climate, soil, vegetation, and relief • Relief: the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points of area • Flat land = low relief • Hilly land = high relief • Three natural regions: • Coastal Marshes • Floodplains • Uplands GLEs: 5, 8, 9, 14

21. Louisiana’s Natural Regions

22. A. Coastal Marshes • Louisiana Gulf Coast is mostly coastal marshes. • Vegetation is grasses and other plants; trees are uncommon.

23. **New Orleans’ Cities of the Dead (Read more on page 27)

24. **Louisiana Prairies (Read more on page 28)

25. B. Floodplains • Low, flat valleys through which river flow • Swamps, sloughs, bayous, and lakes • Leafy deciduous trees (cypress, oak, hickory, pecan, magnolia, tupelo gum, and cottonwood) • Canebrakes • Rich, fertile land, which is good for agriculture

26. C. Uplands • Highest elevation in the state • Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state, is 535 feet above sea level. • Formed by magma pressure and tectonic forces, which pushed the land upward • Erosion washed away soft material, leaving rocky hills. • Piney Hills (largest upland area) • Coniferous, evergreen trees

27. **Kisatchie National Forest (Read more about it on page 29)

28. The Kisatchie Forest

29. Kisatchie Campground

30. III. Rivers and Bayous Our many waterways make our state: • Productive • Famous • Mysterious • Home to a unique ecosystem GLEs: 2, 9, 11

31. Louisiana’s Waterways

32. A. Mississippi River • Main artery of Louisiana • Largest river in the United States • Fourth largest river in the world

33. The Mississippi River

34. Mississippi River Drainage Basin

35. Dugdemona

36. B. Red River • Second longest river in Louisiana • High salt content because it flows over an underground salt dome • Only major river in Louisiana that has white water rapids • Rapides parish (French for rapids)

37. Locks and Dams on the Red River

38. C. Atchafalaya River and Basin • Longest distributary (branch of a river that flows away from the main stream) of the Mississippi River • Half of all the nation’s migratory birds migrate to the Atchafalaya. • Basin supplies the world with 23 million pounds of crawfish a year.

39. The Atchafalaya Basin

40. D. Ouachita River • Begins in the mountains of Arkansas and runs through northeast Louisiana • Regulated by a series of locks that allow commercial barge traffic to travel to Arkansas

41. Ouachita River

42. The Sabine, Pearl, and Calcasieu Rivers • The Sabine River forms the border between Texas and Louisiana. • The Pearl River forms the border between Mississippi and the toe of the Louisiana boot. • The Calcasieu River lies within the state and is often used for transportation.

43. F. Bayou Teche • Joins the Atchafalaya near the Gulf of Mexico • The Acadians (Cajuns) settled along its banks.

44. G. Bayou Lafourche • Exits the Mississippi River at Donaldsonville • Many French, Spanish, Africans, and Native Americans settled along its banks. • Highway 1, which runs the length of the bayou, is called the “Longest Street in America.”

45. **Natural and Scenic Rivers (Read more about it on page 33)

46. H. Gulf Intracoastal Waterway The 3,000-mile Gulf Intracoastal Waterway allows ships to travel from Texas to Florida without sailing into the Gulf.

47. Gulf Intracoastal Waterway

49. Holly Beach

50. I. The Gulf of Mexico • Fifth largest sea in the world • Covers almost 600,000 square miles • Warm waters affect Louisiana’s climate and economy.