NFWF Applied Scholar's Program Blog: Trip to See Caernarvon! (Week seven at NFWF)

Most of this week has been taken up by making comments on full Texas proposals. I’m also learning more about how NFWF interacts with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to acquire land through conservation easements. NFWF provides matching funds to NRCS funds under a Gulf agreement, which expands conservation throughout the five Gulf states. The lands that are acquired are then managed and monitored by the agencies in charge to ensure the protection of these environments.

Can you spot the alligator?

The highlight of my week has definitely been a trip that I took on Wednesday to see the Caernarvon Diversion in Big Mar Pond. This diversion was originally built as a freshwater project to regulate the salinity of an abandoned agricultural field. Construction began in 1988 and was finished in 1991. The diversion was designed to allow the flow of up to 8,000 cubic feet per second of freshwater from the Mississippi River to Big Mar to enhance the wildlife communities. The response that the diversion has elicited since it was built was one that no one expected. Even though it was solely a freshwater diversion, there was still enough sediment flowing through to actively build more wetlands. Over time the building of freshwater swamp and marsh has been so successful that the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation has been able to plant cypress trees to help keep the sediments intact and provide another line of defense against large storms. It is almost impossible to navigate certain parts of Big Mar in a motorboat because it has seen such a large addition of land. We had to board an airboat in order to get the full tour! The first stop was to see the actual diversion structure, which is currently closed off from the river. For whatever reason, this is also the area where all of the large alligators hang around. After about five minutes of shutting off the boat, alligators popped up everywhere. Most of them were around or above ten feet, and seemed very comfortable with us being there and would swim right up to the boat. Our tour guide, Theryn, told us that this is one of the spots that LDWF releases alligators and their population is doing very well. Then we went out to see all of the wetlands that were created since the diversion was opened. It created a new bayou that they named “Bayou Bonjour,” a play on the book Bayou Farewell written by Mike Tidwell (sidenote: this is a seriously awesome book about Louisiana's wetlands that you all should read.) After passing through Bayou Bonjour, we got to see the success of the cypress trees that were planted five years ago, and we also got to see the younger trees that were planted this year. The small trees are wrapped with Nutria Exclusion Devices to prevent predation. As they grow, the “NED’s” will eventually pop off by themselves. It was cool to see the environmental gradient go from SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation) to different types of marsh grasses to a full blown swamp filled with cypress and tupelo trees. More growth is expected to occur, which will only increase the biodiversity and species richness of this area. I was personally able to see all of this diversity among the plants and wildlife, especially the birds. We saw lots of different wading birds, herons, egrets, rails, and waterfowl. One of the women on our boat worked for the Audubon Society, so she was really helpful in identifying all the different birds we saw. I had so much fun, and it was awesome to be able to see a very successful diversion that has been in place for over 20 years. Here's a bunch of pictures from my experience!