OVER IN THE WETLANDS
During Christmas break, my mother and I took my boys on a nature hike. The trail was “across the bayou,” just a few miles from home. (In South Louisiana, there are three directions: up the bayou, down the bayou, and across the bayou).
This part of the country has a beauty all its own.
The Louisana wetlands, made up of swamp, marsh, and bayous, are home to a variety of plants and animals. (To you Aussies, bayous are just like billabongs). The wetlands function as a natural water filtration system. Louisiana’s salt marsh barrier islands serve as a natural speed bump for hurricanes. According to LaCoast.gov, “approximately 40 percent of the coastal wetlands of the lower 48 states is located in Louisiana.
This fragile environment is disappearing at an alarming rate. Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh a year for several decades – that’s 80 percent of the nation’s annual coastal wetland loss. If the current rate of loss is not slowed, by the year 2040 an additional 800,000 acres of wetlands will disappear, and the Louisiana shoreline will advance inland as much as 33 miles in some areas.”
I wrote my picture book, OVER IN THE WETLANDS, last summer, focusing on the unique plants and animals that make up this place.
I hope, if WETLANDS ever sells, to contribute a portion of sales to local wetland restoration efforts.
Here’s to the restoration of Terrebonne Parish and its unique, fragile beauty.
Great Post! I love the Louisiana bayou..so much rich history as well. I have visited Terrebonne Parish, believe it or not, and agree that it is a beauty all its own. I also read a GREAT murder mystery with characters from the deep bayou and that setting added so much to the story, it was wonderful!
Wow! What beautiful pictures! Hope Wetlands sells!
Kristi, Where in Terrebonne?
Caroline–Your pictures are awesome! Your poem is lovely. How did you submit it? Manuscript and loose pictures with correlated numbers on them?
Those photos are gorgeous! What a lovely topic for a picture book. :-)
Caroline, what a beautiful place! I can’t believe how fast the area is losing marsh and shoreline. I love the south. I hate hearing the bad news of erosion.
What gorgeous pics! I can see how they would be inspiring!
Sharon, The pictures aren’t connected with the MS in any way. I just thought a bit of the picture book would fit nicely with the photos.
What a beautiful idea Caroline! I hope it sells!
Beautiful!!!!
“I want to go to there.” :) I’ve always been fascinated by the bayou… someday I shall have to make the trip.
Thanks for the gorgeous photos, especially the first one. I’m going to copy that and keep it on the side of my desktop for a few days.
Vonna, so happy you enjoyed them! I am still amazed at the amount of Spanish Moss in some of those trees, and this is just a few miles from home.
Beautiful pictures and post, Caroline!
Welcome to the 100+ Reading Challenge. This is going to be a fun reading year.
Happy New Year!!
Those pictures are gorgeous! Southern beauty is such a different thing than what we have in Montana – I love it! :)
As a Canadian – I’ve never seen anything like that! Absolutely beautiful!! One day, I’d love to see it in person :)
Great pictures, this makes me miss home.
Did you grow up in Terrebone Parish? My husband, Donnie, grew up in Houma and is your age–went to HL Bourgeouis. Would be a small world if y’all knew each other, lol.
Wow Caroline! That is beautiful. It would make a gorgeous picture book, with the right illustrator too. I hope you find a place for it.
Roni —
I’m not originally from here, but I am in Houma. :) Small world! Do you have a fun Cajun last name?
Great post and FASCINATING! I really really hope it sells!
You are getting some amazing winter weather down there this year. My prediction: it’ll be a season for the record books. You should take pictures of your ice and snow!
Seeing these pictures reminds me of my childhood in Coffee County, South Georgia.
Katie — thanks!
Cassandra — welcome!
I love all that moss.
I’m a northern gal, but we used to vacation on the coast a lot when I was a kid.
The county we live in now is all wetlands, too, and we are experiencing a lot of loss due to over-building. People don’t seem to realize why every new subdivision or industrial park needs to have huge retention ponds, or why every ditch is choked with grasses and cattails.
Then this past spring, we had the worst flooding in our county’s history, and everyone is surprised and angry that their finished basements keep flooding. Well…
My best friend is a transplant to Florida from Louisiana. She misses it so much. Your pics are absolutely beautiful. Your book sounds wonderful and one I would definitely want.
Nice (and useful for me!) photos. Maybe I can pester you for more as time goes on. I’m very sympathetic to wetland restoration and preservation of any kind and it’s nice to know that there is a tie-in with this manuscript. Nice to get to know you Caroline.