Events list supplied by Dr. Charles Allen, of Allen Acres, C. Paxton, and Gary Salathe, Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative volunteer and Director. (Dates are potentially subject to change. Places can fill up quickly, so please check with the hosts in advance to make reservations)
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Let's Whoop It Up! Fundraiser For Cranes Preview Virtual Auction Items Now, Bidding Begins July 8
 
Starting July 1, you can preview more than 50 auctions items featured via online auction for the International Crane Foundation's Let’s Whoop It Up! virtual fundraiser July 15 at 7 p.m. Central Time. Make your auction wish list now, so you can begin bidding July 8 at 6 a.m. Central Time, when the auction site goes live.
 
Let’s Whoop It Up! is a benefit for the International Crane Foundation, celebrating our Co-Founder George Archibald’s 75th birthday. With our spectacular new Cranes of the World exhibits as a backdrop, the event hosts are President and CEO Rich Beilfuss and George.

 
July 7:  Prairie Side Chat, a virtual program led by Larry Weaner, 1 -2.30 pm; Prairie Lost and Found with participants, Charles Allen, Malcolm Vidrine, and Marc Pastorek. You can view the Professional Programs brochure and the Home Gardener, Student, & Educator brochure.

1.    Louisiana iris rescue, Des Allemands     SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021 AT 8 AM – 12:30 PM
A landowner of a property along Hwy 90 has bush-hogged the ditch/wet area each year during the dry season. Because of this, it has never been sprayed with a herbicide by the state highway department. It is the only stretch of highway not sprayed, so the area had become a mini-wetland bog full of native swamp plants, including the Louisiana iris. He has the property for sale and has stopped maintaining the wet area.  He believes it's only a question of time before the state will begin spraying the spot. He has encouraged us to get the irises out and relocated to a safer location.
 
More details can be found here:   https://fb.me/e/10vUmloe9

2.   Louisiana iris rescue, Barataria, La      WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2021 AT 8:30 AM– Noon
Cindy Baucum of Barataria, La. has offered us a donation of the I. giganticaerulea species of Louisiana irises growing on property she owns. Over the years her husband, Joe Baucum, now deceased, watched over and protected the irises in a ditch along the parish road that runs through their property.  He diligently put out a sign every year asking the parish road crews to not spray the ditch with a herbicide.  One of our volunteers went to the site a couple of weeks ago and reported back that he drove miles down the road without once seeing any irises in the roadside ditches, so this may be the last stand of irises left thanks to Joe's efforts to protect them.  The purpose of this volunteer event is to dig up all of the irises in the ditch on Cindy's property to use in our iris restoration project at the town of Jean Lafitte boardwalk. 
 
More details can be found here:  https://fb.me/e/UOptHYca

3.   Rescued iris planting at our iris holding area   THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2021 AT 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM
The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) will be holding a volunteer work event to plant rescued Louisiana irises into containers at our ninth ward iris holding area on Thursday, July 15th.
More details can be found here:  https://fb.me/e/TiaVxWeW

4.    Bayou Sauvage refuge iris seed collection   SATURDAY, JULY 17, 2021 AT 8:30 AM CDT – 12 PM CD
The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) will be hosting a Louisiana iris seed pod collection and opening event at the US Fish & Wildlife Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. The purpose of this volunteer event is to harvest iris seed pods and remove the seeds. The seeds will be broadcast out at a future date into the muck along the shoreline of the refuge swamp where there is now plenty of sunlight and not many competing plants because of a tallow tree extraction project we have been doing. This is being done to help nature speed up the natural process of expanding the existing irises into these new areas.
More details can be found here:   https://fb.me/e/47l7L1CeX

July 16-18.  GSMS SUMMER FORAY, OPELOUSAS, LOUISIANA. Hampton Inn, 1700 Commerce Blvd. Plaza, off IH49 exit 18, Creswell Rd, take east frontage road north adjacent to Walmart. The hotel sits off the road a few 100 yards. A registration form is appended below.  Please return to David Lewis by Thursday, July 1.  Questions call 409-423-3776.

July 17-25:  National Moth Week at Allen Acres.  Moth Madness including the Magical Moth Mile and a Bioblitz.  Details appended  below.

July 25  Certification Project on Snakes by David Hoover of Louisiana Master Naturalists Northeast at Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge's Environmental Conservation Education Center 17:00- 18:00.

Aug 20-22  Lily/Orchid Days.  Begin from Allen Acres. Check website for details to be added soon.

Sat Sept 11: Edible Plant Workshop Allen Acres

Sunday Sept 12:  Plant ID workshop Allen Acres

Sept 14-16:  Basic Plant ID class Allen Acres

Sept 18:  Butterfly Festival, Haynesville

Sept 21-23: Basic Plant ID class Allen Acres

Sat Sept 25: Edible Plant Workshop Allen Acres

Sun Sept 26:  Plant ID workshop Allen Acres

Sept 28-30: Graminoid ID Class, Allen Acres

Oct 1-3  Butterfly Blast Allen Acres Details soon

Sat Oct 16:  Plant ID workshop Allen Acres

Oct 19-21: Basic Plant ID class Allen Acres

Sat Oct 23:  Edible Plant Workshop Allen Acres
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Oct 26-28: Basic Plant ID class Allen Acres
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Connect with Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative: https://www.licisaveirises.com/
 
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/licisaveirises/

In an email news update, Louisiana Wildlife Federation says the HCR 55 bill to establish a Conservation Stewardship Study Group in Louisiana was passed unanimously. They expect the study group to produce a report by February 1, 2022 with recommendations to establish a fund for conserving Louisiana’s priority habitats. They thanked the public for messages of support and are excited to see Louisiana Forever move forward. 

Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) will raise license fee prices for the first time since the mid 1980's to help pay for maintaining the outdoor and natural resources access that we all enjoy. The changes will be phased-in by 2024. In a video on their Facebook page Conservation Conversations - New License Fee Structure LDWF's Undersecretary Brian McClinton thanked the public for the support received for the bill that authorizes an update to the current license fee structure in order to counter shortfalls, improve user experience and provide the agency with a more stable source of revenue. They say this is crucial to the department’s ability to make citizens and visitors safe and keep hunting and fishing opportunities available.
Click here to see details of the new fee structure: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/.../rec-license-synopis.pdf

This article from the BBC looks at the 'forgotten climate change gas', Nitrous oxide, N2O, also known as laughing gas. Though it hasn't loomed large in the public consciousness or climate change policies apparently it is a potent greenhouse gas, 300 times as potent as the same quantity of CO2, and equally long-lived. The greatest anthropogenic source is chemical fertilizers used in agriculture, and the article looks at how the gas is emitted and how people are working to find alternative methods for productive farming. 

If we were to have a pack of Avian Top Trump game cards then the Whooping Crane, Grus americana would be an ace card worth holding: North America’s tallest bird and one of our rarest and most impressive endemic species. So why don’t we rate it alongside America’s other charismatic megafauna? Well, those in the know do, and unfortunately the majority of us don’t.
That’s a situation worth rectifying and here’s an interview with a Whooping Crane from the Louisiana nonmigratory population, assisted with simultaneous interpretation by our Louisiana Master Naturalist of the Southwest chapter, Irvin Louque. Irvin is well-placed for this task as he now works for the International Crane Foundation (https://www.savingcranes.org/ ) as ICF outreach coordinator.

LMNA Blogger (LB): Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Crane: Yes, sure. I’m our species ambassador, but first, do you mind if I stand over there?

LMNA Blogger (LB): Where?

Crane: About 1500 yards over there, in the middle of that rice field.

LB: Don’t you think that’s taking social distancing a bit far?
 
Crane: No, that’s our thing, do you see? We like shallow freshwater habitats. The right water level is crucially important for safe nesting and accessing our favorite foods such as crawfish, amphibians and the salinity level is important for providing  Blue Crabs. No offense, but we really like to keep our own company.

LB: Yes, I’ve noticed that despite being about 30% bigger than our larger herons, with dazzling white feathers, black trim, and a bright red cap it’s not easy for us to even see you, you even avoid the LWF and ICF guys that are working to help you. In fact, the only people you seem to hang out near are the crawfish farmers!

Crane: Nice people, the crawfish farmers. Yes, we’re amis, as we Cajuns say. Anyway, you can’t blame us for being thin on the ground, before the European settlers arrived there were about 10,000 more of us. We were rather easier to see then.

LB: We’d like there to be 10,000 more of you, but how do you see that happening when you refuse to be promiscuous?

Crane: We mate for life, true. We follow the Marines’ motto, Semper fidelis! If people stopped shooting us it would really help. Our females lay just two eggs in a clutch and parental care is very involved. We take family life seriously. Also, the same storms that pull your rooves off, mess up our nests and can drown our eggs. We lost 17 of our kin in one lightning strike, not here, but it could have been. When you’re the tallest thing in a marsh in a thunderstorm you miss the oak trees of the Chenieres, you know what I mean?

LB: Yes, got to replant those. Climate change is bad for us all. More storms and stronger ones are the trend now. Tell us a bit about your other problems?

Crane: There’s some risk from larger Alligators in the marshes of course and Bobcats, Coyotes and even Wolves on the drier land, larger snakes can take eggs and chicks.  I’d rather dwell on those two bigger issues a bit longer and drill down a bit, if you don’t mind? Freedom isn’t free. The law has not always been our friend. In conservation terms every one of us is as important as a Giant Panda, Mountain Gorilla, Blue Whale or Bengal Tiger, if not more so because of our fewer numbers. The Audubon Society gets it. We are slow breeders and subject to killer weather, and here we constitute ten percent of the wild global population. Louisiana once had a population down to just one bird, now thanks to lots of hard work there are 70 of us adults and five chicks.

Since we’re on the subject of numbers, if it costs about $100,000 per head to conserve us in the wild and yet when we’re shot, and if the perpetrator is even caught, judges have to consider the ignorance of the perpetrator and hand out token fines, like $1, and suspended sentences, then it’s probably fair to say that as a people you aren’t fully on our side.

LB: Interesting! Normally ignorance is no defense in face of the law. That case was in Indiana, wasn’t it? Not here. Besides, a more recent case in Texas was punished very severely. There’s the precedent. A big fat fine and jail time.

Crane: Yep. They don’t play. Bear in mind that it’s not your regular hunters that shoot us anyway, they’re not stupid. If they can see us well enough to hit us, they can see that we are special, we have an unusual appearance. If they can’t see us that clearly, they don’t shoot.

LB: So, ignorance is the enemy.

Crane: Isn’t it always?  We need to spread the word.

LB: What do we need to know?

Crane: First please learn the basics about Whooping Cranes and our smaller companions, the Sandhill Cranes. Check out those two web pages from savingcranes.org, and also the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries' (LDWF) page on Louisiana's Whooping Cranes. Listen to our amazing calls. Search on the web for videos about us, check out our stature and presence!

LB: Right. I particularly like your Unison Calls, quite a haunting resonance. I wonder if some dinosaurs sounded similar. What then?

Crane: Please pass on what you’ve learned to your family and friends, share the word on social media, in letters to your paper etc. Give a Whoop and join our group, the ICF! 

LB: Alright, I’ll do that today. By the way, should we pronounce your name 'hooping' like the whooping cough or 'wooping' like a war whoop?

Crane:  They're used interchangeably; both seem perfectly acceptable to me.

LB: That's great. Is there anything else?

Crane: Keep on eating your rice and crawfish and please can you contact your representative and tell them that you want the Grus americana to remain a part of our vital national heritage? We are your cranes and no-one else’s! We’re as American as your Bald Eagles! Whoop whoop!

LB: Yes, I see that you are.  Thank you for your time today and good luck with everything.

​*Click here for some crane information videos

​Dr. Bette Kauffman's innovative use of iNaturalist.org for our Rendezvous 2021 Scavenger Hunt simultaneously shows that a) the iNaturalist platform is very well-suited to such purpose, b) that the Louisiana Master Naturalist Association is operating at the cutting edge of applied information technology, and c) that the southern areas contributed the most observations! Well done, Bette; and well done everybody who participated in what turned out to a be a dynamic and fun project that also has considerable Citizen Science value.

The target list was compiled by a committee consisting of Kauffman, Kimmie and Charles Paxton. As such these people couldn't take part because they had prior knowledge of the target flora and fauna, all were attainable except for the Chanterelle fungi (Genus Cantharellus) and the Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus).  This year has been cool and it seems they are not out yet, at least where we have been looking. The list included several invasive species.

In her closing speech, Dr. Kauffman gave a good overview of the activity, declared the Southern chapters to have carried the day, and thanked all the participants: the 31 observers and 160 Identifiers. She noted that there were 120 species identified out of a total of 641 observations with Anolis carolinensis, the most observed species with 25 recorded!

It was a hard-fought contest with a close finish! Karen Pinsonat of Greater Baton Rouge chapter attained a fabulous first place by observing and recording 29 of the 35 target items on the list, with 26 of them confirmed to 'Research Grade' status. This was especially good considering that she didn't play the Anhinga 'wild card'.

Tres Fisher of GNLO, came in a very close second with 27 target items including the wild card. He actually recorded the single greatest number of observations of any type, a formidable count of 73! This man's going to count in the Nature Cities Challenge! I'm sure that they all will!

Kristen Melton, also of GNLO, came a very close third with 26 items including the wild card and 20 of them were research grade.

Honorable mentions were made of Amber King of GBR with 25 observations, 21 being research grade! Also of Barbara Morris who also made a high 25, with 20 of them being research grade!

​Dr. Kauffman praised them highly and praised and thanked all of us who took part.
View the wrap-up video of the LMNA Scavenger Hunt here.
She has provided the powerpoint below as a pdf

A gallery of the LMNA contest images with horizontal orientation.

 © 2021 All images shown here have joint copyright, the original authors retain all rights and LMNA has licensed use.

 
Dr. Kauffman, who also serves as President of the Northeast chapter, announced the final results of the LMNA Scavenger Hunt (View LMNA Scavenger Hunt on iNaturalist.org). This was possibly the first time ever that the iNaturalist Citizen Science platform has been used for a scavenger hunt and it proved highly suitable! It was a pretty good list overall with a very useful addition of a wild-card Anhinga, but the Chanterelles aren't out yet. The vast majority of the contributions were from the South with some from the Northwest. The overall winner was Karen Pinsonat from GBR with 29 observations from the target list, 22 of them were confirmed research grade before the deadline, so that was fantastic! 

Secondly, LMNA Communications Officer, Charles Paxton wrapped up the annual photo and video contests and announced the winners, showing off the fine photographs that won by popular vote. This year there were 34 entries altogether, 21 amateur and 12 professional, in five categories: 8 each in Artistic and Wildlife, 9 in Nature in close-up, 7 in Habitat, and 2 in Naturalist. Together with the exemplars this makes a total of 39 images that our chapters will be able to use to help promote our group and its activities, so thank you all who have contributed images and also by voting. The images will appear here in a gallery and will be accessible from an LMNA image archive.  There were also three video entries in two categories, 2 in Critters in action and 1 in Habitat. These excellent entries were the first ever for us because this is the first year for an LMNA video contest. The high interest in the Artistic category suggest that there is definitely scope for an Original Art contest too! 
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On behalf of the LMNA, Dr. Kauffman then congratulated the 2021 Caroline Dormon Outstanding Louisiana Master Naturalist of the Year, Bill Fontenot. Described by Dr. Thomas as "an all-round excellent Human being", Bill features in the above-linked video wearing his prize LMNA shirt. Dr. Thomas delivered his shirt and engraved trophy a few days before the award ceremony. In his forthright and moving award acceptance speech, Fontenot describes key points in his life and career along with his connection to Caroline Dormon, answers questions from the audience and comes across as a modest and down-to-Earth, but highly impactful Restoration Ecologist with a long and illustrious career as Conservation Biologist and environmental educator/mentor, determined to do his individual best to confront the very depressing state of eco-crisis that confronted him as a journalist. His wife encouraged him to channel his concern and anger at the loss of biodiversity into conservation action. This he has done very effectively, impacting thousands of lives for well over twenty years! Amongst other interesting statements he praises young environmental activist Greta Thurnberg for the courage of confronting truth to power, echoing his sentiment, she said in an interview recently that the best remedy for anger and despair is individual action. So true! It is individuals  like Bill, that influence positive changes that benefit us all.

Thank you, Bill. The LMNA is grateful for his interesting and inspiring speech and long years of great service. If you need to hire a consultant  restoration ecologist, look up the Nature Dude on Facebook!

Information about the Louisiana Certified Habitat program, his book and many valuable native plants are available at reasonable prices via the Acadiana Native Plant Project website https://greauxnative.org/

Thank you all. As a group we overcame many of the limitations imposed by this pandemic by using information technology to get together online. I thought the socials were especially fun and must praise Janie Braud for her good efforts in that regard!

 April 20th, 2021; Monroe, La. – The Caroline Dormon Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist Award 2021 will be presented to William R. “Bill” Fontenot at a Zoom assembly April 25th, 2021, at 2 p.m. The statewide Award is made annually by the Louisiana Master Naturalist Association. Fontenot was nominated for the award by the Acadiana Chapter of LMNA.
 
In 1986 Fontenot began his career with Lafayette Parish Consolidated Government, working first as Curator of Natural Sciences at the Lafayette Natural History Museum, then as manager of the Acadiana Park Nature Station. He has dedicated his career in biology to restoring ecological integrity to land, from the smallest urban gardens to the largest wildlife management areas. As a local columnist, for over two decades he helped educate the public about our natural heritage.
 
Since 1987 Fontenot has operated his own wildlife management, “wildscape” design, and ecological restoration consulting business, specializing in ecological assessment, biological inventory, land-use planning, and wildlife-friendly native plant-oriented landscape planning. His consulting work has taken him to hundreds of sites throughout the midwestern and eastern U.S., serving wildlife management and conservation agencies, landscape designers, community planners, ecotourism interests, and private landowners.
 
Fontenot earned an M.S. in freshwater fish ecology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 1980, then in the early 80s spent time in the PhD program in biogeography at the University of Alabama.
 
The Louisiana Master Naturalist Association founded the Outstanding Louisiana Naturalist Award as a tribute to the legacy of Caroline Dormon and to recognize people who personify her commitment to conserving and appreciating the rich biodiversity of Louisiana. Fontenot is the fourth recipient of the award.
 
The award will be presented by Bob Thomas, president of the Louisiana Master Naturalist Association. A link to the zoom assembly will be distributed to media a few days before the event.

See our Dormon Award dedicated webpage with profiles on current and past winners. 2020 — Kelby Ouchley, 2019 — Vernon Antoine Brou, Jr., 2018 — Dr. Charles Allen.
            
https://www.louisianamasternaturalist.org/the-dormon-award.html