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Seismic Rescue

At a Glance Location Iberia Parish Flora Rip Van Winkle Gardens consists of approximately 15 acres of semi-tropical gardens that include irises, magnolias, camellias, azaleas, hibiscus, and…

At A Glance Location Evangeline Parish Environment Bottomland hardwood forests grow in low-lying areas that surround lakes and rivers. Hickories, oaks and plants provide food for wildlife in these forests that store water, filter pollutants and act as a…

Shell Game

On LA Highway 46 in Violet, headed south to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana headquarters, a student seated at the back of the bus poses a question: “Is restoration important?” It’s simple but not simplistic, a reminder that…

Raising Cane

Location Pointe Coupée Parish Parish seat New Roads From Easter until sugarcane harvest, the 19th-century bell in front of the Alma General Store in Lakeland rings twice each day. The first bell, at 7 a.m., signals the start…

A World Inside Out

At a Glance Location Acadia Parish Flora Grooved flax, small palafoxia, shining indigo-bush Fauna Sabine map turtle, southern crawfish frog, Teche painted crawfish Three masked men climb atop a barn and pound their fists against its rusted roof. Below,…

Knowledge of Place

At a Glance Location Union Parish Flora Pondberry, Ozark Chinquapin, American alumroot Fauna White-breasted nuthatch, summer tanager, prothonotary warbler The home Amy and Kelby Ouchley built in Rocky Branch, 14 miles north of West Monroe, contains no…

On The Hunt

Beneath the tall loblolly pines near the Ouiska Chitto Creek in Allen Parish, two dogs hunt to the tune of electronic birdsong. Their orange tracking collars chirp in intervals, first from one dog, then from another, until, briefly, the birdsong…

Preferred Natives

In March 2022, three months into her role as caretaker of Briarwood Nature Preserve in Saline, Bayli Quick turned off Louisiana Hwy 9 to find the tall pines along Caroline Dormon Road ablaze. Rather than turn back, Quick drove…

The Greatest Good

Did You Know? Facts and Figures • There are 154 national forests in the United States, and the U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres. • The Calcasieu Ranger District, which includes two non-adjacent “Units” — Vernon and Evangeline…

Atchafalaya Basin

Stepping from The Enterprise (“It boldly goes where no boat should go”), Bryan Piazza and Joseph Baustian enter the dry bed of a nameless bayou. It’s winter in the Atchafalaya Basin, a season of low water and expectation. In…

Strawberry Fields

AT A GLANCE Location Tangipahoa Parish Flora Birdbill spike grass, scarlet oak, little floating heart Fauna+Insects Southeastern blue sucker, Hodges’ clubtail,…

Shared Inheritances

At a Glance Location Bienville Parish Flora American pinesap, black-fruited spike sedge,…

Gator HUNT

Along the Antill Canal in Terrebonne Parish, 10 miles southeast of Gibson, we drift for 15 minutes before the first sighting. “There,” says Rod Bonvillain Jr., a construction foreman from Houma. He moves toward the bow, finger pointing to…

Cultural Preservation

Twenty miles south of Natchitoches, the future — and past — threatens to slide…

Natural State: Preserving and Protecting

On either side of the boat stretches the vast wetlands of south Louisiana. Farther south, several miles beyond this ruler-flat landscape, lie Vermilion and West Cote Blanche bays — and beyond,…