Thoughts from A Special Place

"There is always a way to find beauty in something you really care about." - John Taylor

John Taylor works for the CSED as Wetlands Specialist.  "Thoughts from A Special Place" will be made of his quotes and photographs about the Bayou. 

John has spent most of his life enjoying Bayou Bienvenue hunting, fishing, admiring, interacting, (teaching people) and taking photos of the bayou and the wildlife in and around the triangle

Please stay tuned to this blog to see some of his beautiful work!

The Trumpet Returns to the Lower 9: Art, Life, Nature and Recovery

The March/April 2013 Trumpet once again shines the spotlight on the Lower 9th Ward: with features on Art in the 9, Food Security, restoration of Bayou Bienvenue, the Lower 9th Ward Village and so much more! Be sure to read this great issue!

Will Alligators Return to the Central Wetlands?

They're already back...we've spotted them in Bayou Bienvenue! Informative piece via National Wildlife Federation:

From Wildlife Promise

New Orleans’ Central Wetlands were once a flourishing cypress swamp, home to a dizzying array of fish and wildlife, including alligators and hundreds of species of migrating birds. An easy drive from downtown, the Central Wetlands were also a haven for locals, who often hunted or fished for food in its waters.

Today the Central Wetlands are an open expanse of saltwater, punctuated only by the stumps of dead cypress trees. READ MORE >>

via blog.nwf.org

Restoring Bayou Bienvenue: Seven Years Later

Great piece in the Baton Rouge Advocate, "Options explored for land", and featuring our own John Taylor and Darryl Malek-Wiley!

By Amy Wold

It could be a science center, a historical marker, an environmental tourist stop, a coastal restoration guinea pig or all of those things, but those working on a project near Bayou Bienvenue just want to make sure the end result is a cypress swamp in a 400-acre area near the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.

As recently as the 1960s, this parcel of land was a cypress swamp where area residents went fishing and hunting, but has since turned into an open water, shallow lake. The only remnants of the forest that used to exist in this Bayou Bienvenue Wetland Triangle are the stumps that appear during low water.

The change came after the completion of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet navigation channel in the 1960s, which helped bring saltwater into the freshwater cypress swamp, causing the trees to start dying.

“About 1969 or 1970, the trees started dying and falling down,” said John Taylor, 65, a lifelong resident of the area.

As part of Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development’s work since Hurricane Katrina, many groups including the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, numerous universities and others have worked on rebuilding the cypress swamp. READ MORE >>

via theadvocate.com

Community Conversations on Coastal Restoration

Join the National Wildlife Federation on Tuesday June, 19th at the New Orleans Healing Center at 2372 St. Claude Avenue. Free food will be provided and it is sure to be a laid back atmosphere with lively conversation! Join us!

Stories from the Coast: Restoring the Lower 9th Ward, Creating a More Resilient Community (VIDEO)

By Amanda Moore

What would you do if, in one day, you lost everything?  I’m not just talking about your personal possessions; I’m talking about your entire community – your church, your grocery store, your school.  The folks you meet in the video below, Warrenetta Banks and John Taylor, have lived out this scenario every day since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and have chosen to respond with passion and dedication to recovery – advocating for smart, green urban planning on one side of the levee and a healthy wetland ecosystem on the other side of the levee.

Warrenetta and John are both lifelong residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.  In the years since catastrophic flooding, they’ve helped their community recover to be one of the “greenest” in the nation – solar panels, community gardens, LEED certified homes are typical encounters as you walk down the street.  That’s on one side of the levee.

Residents like Warrenetta and John understand all too well that the wetland ecosystem on the other side of the levee is critical to their future and safety.  Healthy wetlands serve as a buffer to storm surges and winds and help the levees do their job to protect communities.  National Wildlife Federation is one organization working closely with the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development  (where Warrenetta and John work) to plan and gain funding for restoration of the 400 acres cypress swamp bordering the community (featured in the video) as well as the entire 58,000 acres wetland ecosystem the swamp is connected to, which once buffered much of the Greater New Orleans area from storms and provided important wildlife habitat. READ MORE >>

via blog.nwf.org

Restoring the Bayou: One Day, One Plant at a Time

Students from the University of Wisconsin planting Spartina Grasses along the Bayou Bienvenue spoil bank in the Lower 9th Ward.

The past two days at Bayou Bienvenue have featured a flurry of activity with Common Ground Relief, the CSED, the Sierra Club and volunteers from the University of Wisconsin who have been removing invasive species of plants, and planting native ones, on the spoil bank in Bayou Bienvenue.  Along with removing the invasives, the volunteers removed trash and planted 250 Bald Tupelo Cypress saplings, and transplanted some Spartina. 

While this work is slow, it is important for the ecological health of the bayou. Also, it makes for a fun outing and experiment!

Bayou Bienvenue Slated for Cypress Restoration in State Master Plan

After 6 years of working towards the restoration of Bayou Bienvenue we learned this week of a major victory along this bumpy road to restoration. The State, in the 11th hour, changed the Master Plan to reflect the neighborhood's wish that this area be restored to a Cypress Tupelo forest, rather than what was planned: a mere freshwater diversion. While it is not official yet until the proposed change is adopted by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), our sources believe that the CPRA will adopt the proposed changes by the Governor's commission next week!

The neighborhood has worked very hard to have Bayou Bienvenue restored, and if the master plan had not relfected this desire it would have made achieving such a goal difficult due to the fact that restoration must be done in line with the plan. Having the state reverse course at the 11th hour by making this change is a victory for all of us who made public comments and attended various meetings. Our people submitted over 200 comments in support of the Triangle with government officials, non-profits, universities and residents all working together to say to the State, that this project makes sense. RESTORE BAYOU BIENVENUE NOW!

This time, they heard us, but let's not get complacent because there is still much work to be done to make our dream a reality. Click here to read more about the CSED's work related to Bayou Bienvenue.

We still don't have the money, but we should celebrate this victory and feel proud to know that what we have worked so hard for is moving forward. Congratulations!

 

Recognizing a Great Partnership Between Lower 9th Ward CSED and Sierra Club

Tracy Nelson, Executive Director of CSED and Robin Mann, Sierra Club President on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform (Caffin & Florida)

What a thrill it was for CSED to be recognized by an organization as well known and well respected as the Sierra Club. And it was an honor and delight to not only meet Michael Brune and Robin Mann but the board members of both the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation as well. The highlight for me was receiving the award out on the Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform where so many events, press conferences and influential people have gathered. This platform, built from the desire of the community to be reconnected to the water, shows how great collaborations can bring a project to fruition in situations where very little progress was originally anticipated. In partnership with the Sierra Club, the University of Wisconsin biology students, University of Colorado at Denver design students, Common Ground volunteers, CSED staff, residents and local carpenters, this platform has become a symbol of the ‘can-do attitude’ of one small community. Used daily by residents and visitors alike, the platform is a vital link for our community to the wetlands that border our neighborhood.

If you have not been to this special site within the Lower 9th Ward, it is located at the end of Caffin and Florida Avenue. If you come early in the morning you may, by chance, run into local resident John (Swamp Red) Taylor. John not only maintains the site for CSED but he is an endless wealth of knowledge about the wetlands and how it used to be when he was a coming up.

Left: John Taylor with young gator at site
Right: Bayou Bienvenue Triangle Platform

Sierra Club's National Director to Honor CSED's Bayou Work

Tomorrow, Friday February 24th, at 1:30pm at the Bayou Bienvenue Platform (located at Caffin and Florida ave.), National Executive Director of The Sierra Club Michael Brune and Sierra Club Board Chair Robin Mann will honor the CSED for their efforts to create a sustainable recovery for the Lower 9th Ward and CSED's understanding that one can't rebuild the community sustainably without restoring the natural environment too.

Please join us!