The Facilities

The offices for the Southeast Louisiana Refuges are headquartered on the same tract of land as the Big Branch Marsh refuge. The office administers Big Branch Marsh, Bayou Sauvage, Bogue Chitto, Atchafalaya, Delta and Breton Sound National Wildlife Refuges.

The visitor center and the administration complex are situated on 110 acres on Highway 434 near Highway 190 in Lacombe. The site has an interesting history in its own right. A dairy farm was situated there until the 1930s; the old blue dairy barn still stands on the premises.

The property was eventually purchased by former Governor Richard Leche; his residence is now the visitor center. The center features a hands-on exhibit for children featuring turtle shells, antlers and feathers. A juvenile alligator in an aquarium shares a sunny corner with some indigenous—and non-poisonous—snakes. No loose critters allowed!

Leche and his wife cultivated gardens on the property, importing azaleas and camellias from the Orient. Eventually, around 1950, the Leches opened a commercial garden attraction named Bayou Gardens. The remains of Bayou Gardens surround the visitor center and form a very pleasant and flowery walking path, the Bayou Gardens Trail. With walls of azaleas and camellias, as well as local plants, the trail has many stops that have information on the plants in the area, as well as the history of the property.

The trail ends at a recently constructed dock for launching canoes. A spacious lawn rolls uphill away from the dock to the back end of the visitor center, where a chimney swift tower constructed by Boy Scouts anchors a formal garden featuring wildflowers and other decorative native plants.

The Leches sold the property to the Redemptorist order of Catholic priests in the mid-1950s; when enrollment declined, the school closed in 1980. The Southeastern Louisiana Refuges administrative offices are located in a building constructed to be a seminary. The school building and cafeteria reflect a colonial Louisiana influence in their design. Local architect Samuel Wilson of the firm of Koch and Wilson designed the buildings in keeping with his historical interests. Other buildings, including some residences and a chapel, were also built by the Redemptorists. Part of the site now included in the Bayou Gardens trail was a cemetery for the order’s members.

Recreation

All of the refuges offer a variety of recreational activities. Bayou Sauvage in New Orleans is unique, in that it is the only refuge of 500 in the national refuge system to be entirely situated within the city limits of a major metropolitan area. Because of its proximity to populated areas, it has many of the same fire management issues facing Big Branch Marsh.

Complicating matters is the fact that more than half of Bayou Sauvage lies within a hurricane protection levee which, when built in the 1950s, impounded a large portion of saltwater marsh. The effect has been the conversion of saltwater marsh into a freshwater pond environment.

One benefit of the hurricane protection levee is that it provides the roadbed for Bayou Sauvage’s bike trail. The trail is approximately nine miles round-trip, but cyclists can always travel a shorter distance if they prefer. The trail gives great views of the open marsh and of the lake from the Pontchartrain protection levee.

Bayou Sauvage offers birders 340 species of waterfowl and other birds, with the peak population of waterfowl hitting 30,000 during fall, winter and early spring. Hunting is not allowed in Bayou Sauvage, as it lies entirely in the city limits of New Orleans, where it is illegal to discharge a firearm.

Fishing is allowed, although subject to different regulations than those imposed by the State of Louisiana. Refuge regulations can be obtained at locations around the refuge, as well as at the headquarters in Lacombe.

Canoeing and hiking are also offered, with free, guided interpretive tours given regularly. These programs require advance registration. Schedules and brochures of all activities are available by mail or can be picked up at the visitor center in Lacombe.

Big Branch Marsh also offers free hiking and canoeing interpretive tours by reservation. Hunting and fishing are allowed, subject to the refuge regulations published each year.

Hiking and biking are popular, with the Boy Scout Road trail extending from Bayou Pacquet Road through the marsh and woodlands to Bayou Lacombe. There is also a short boardwalk from the Boy Scout Road parking lot to the marsh, with interpretive plaques set out on both trails. Interpretive guides to use along with plaques are available at the trailhead and the visitor center.

Hundreds of bird species are in Big Branch, with the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker calling for exacting refuge management.

Education

Bayou Sauvage and Big Branch Marsh offer schoolchildren a variety of hands-on educational programs. Bayou Sauvage offers in-classroom programs where rangers or volunteers conduct a one-hour program called Bayou Sauvage in a Nutshell, discussing the refuge’s flora, fauna and history; a program entitled Endangered Species incorporates slides and items to illustrate how some species are exploited, causing their disappearance from the earth.

Refuge visits by schoolchildren last three hours, with a covered area provided for lunch. Children in grades 4-7 go through a three-part program, Habitat is Where It’s At, learning habitat diversity during a staff-led walk. Students also dip nets into the marsh and identify a variety of wetland species. They are then led on a tour of the refuge to view the effects of humans on the environment.

Students in grades 8-12 enjoy a program entitled Water We Have Here? The program features a canoe trip where students perform a series of scientific measurements and tests on wetland water.

In the Friendly Flames program, children learn about the need for controlled burning and the manner in which it is to be carried out.

The Refugeology program teaches students what it takes to manage a refuge—from biology to fire control. A canoeing program for grades 8-12, similar to that held at Bayou Sauvage, is also held on Cane Bayou in Big Branch Marsh.

The Importance of Fire

Supervisory Park Ranger Byron Fortier explains that one of the main purposes of the refuges is to restore and maintain the natural habitat of a given area so that historically native species are preserved, not just for their own sake, but for the enjoyment of everyone. Part of restoring the environment to its historically proper condition involves re-creating the effects of wildfire on the landscape.

“The red-cockaded woodpecker is the most important species in Big Branch Marsh,” Fortier says. “It’s designated as an endangered species, and we have several nest sites in Big Branch. The species requires open ground forest area, with trees spaced relatively far apart and little ground cover.” This species is unique in that it does not nest in the hollows of dead trees, but builds nesting cavities in healthy, growing trees.

This environment was historically created and maintained by occasional wildfires in long-leaf pine forests. This species of trees tolerates the occasional fires that keep the undergrowth cleared. Fortier continues, “Other native pines, such as loblolly and slash pine were planted in concentration for timber purposes. They don’t tolerate fire as well, and part of the restoration process involves replacing them where possible with the long-leaf pine.”

Research indicates that wildfires occurred every three to five years in the Big Branch Marsh area. The challenge is to reproduce these conditions in a process called controlled burning. Several factors, caused mostly by the refuge being in close proximity to populated areas, make controlled burning a challenge both in Big Branch and Bayou Sauvage.

Controlled burning is managed by dividing the refuge into several tracts contained within fire boundaries—either natural boundaries, such as streams or clearings, or man-made boundaries, such as roads or firebreaks.

The biggest factor in deciding when and where to begin a controlled burn is the weather. The ground must be relatively dry and there must be proper atmospheric humidity. The wildcard factor is the wind. Too much may cause the fire to burn out of control, and too little wind, or wind blowing in the wrong direction, may cause smoke to blow into populated areas.

Wildfires do occur in the refuge, caused mainly by lightning or occasionally by careless humans, but the goal in that case is to extinguish the fire as soon as possible. Uncontrolled fires are unsafe and unwanted.

Need Help!

Southeastern Louisiana Refuges is in dire need of regular volunteers to aid in the environmental education programs. Retired teachers or teachers who would like to get out of the classroom would make perfect volunteers, although anyone with the eagerness and ability to pass on knowledge to children is welcome.

The refuge system provides college students and recent graduates with an excellent opportunity. The refuges hire student interns, usually for a three-to-four month stint. Big Branch Marsh interns are provided free housing at the Lacombe facility and receive a small stipend for living expenses. Interns help in all aspects of refuge management, from environmental education to wetland restoration and biological fieldwork, such as monitoring red-cockaded woodpecker nesting sites.

Precious Resources

These refuges are precious resources maintained for our benefit and our children’s. Preserving the past gives one insight on planning for the future. As a practical matter, Big Branch Marsh and Bayou Sauvage allow real-time study of the coastal erosion process and give scientists a working laboratory to find solutions to this problem, our state’s most critical issue.

On April 8, 2004, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton toured both Big Branch and Bayou Sauvage. Impressed with what she saw, the secretary acknowledged the importance of preserving coastal wetlands and affirmed the Department of the Interior’s interest in doing what it could to be part of the restoration effort.

The refuges offer many programs held year-round on an almost daily basis. Educators should contact the Southeast Louisiana Refuges Environmental Education office, 61389 Hwy. 434, Lacombe LA 70455, or call 882-2022 or toll free, (866) 554-6319. Information on all refuge activities is available at the Big Branch Marsh visitor center in Lacombe, or by calling 882-2000. Information is available on the web at http://southeastlouisiana.fws.gov.