Report: Each year, nutria eat less coast line

The latest state survey of wetlands damage by nutria, a voracious grass-eating rodent, shows that a federally funded program to kill the rodents and save wetlands is working. A report by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says nutria damaged an estimated 20,333 acres of wetlands between the spring of 2008 and this spring, or about 3,000 fewer acres than the previous annual survey. Edmond Mouton, a state biologist who runs the Coastwide Nutria Control Program, says the program has proven to work. Under the program, hunters, sharpshooters and trappers get $5 for each nutria tail they bring in.