LICI Completes Winter 2022-2023 Iris Plantings at Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge

February 1, 2023 New Orleans, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) completed their last winter 2022 - 2023 Louisiana iris planting at the Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans when three volunteers planted 100 irises on January 30, 2023. Over 2,500 I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris were planted at the refuge by the group during a six-week period that started in late December.

The goal of LICI's multi-year iris restoration project at the refuge is to reestablish the fields of the I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris that grew there back in its history. This freshwater iris once grew in abundance at the refuge. The irises had been on the decline in the refuge, starting with Hurricane Betsy pushing salt water into the swamp. It was believed the last surviving irises were destroyed when Hurricane Katrina's saltwater storm surge broke through the levees in New Orleans and flooded the refuge for weeks.

Louisiana irises are shown blooming at the Bayou Sauvage refuge in LICI's iris restoration project in 2021. The iris plantings this year continued the multi-year project by LICI to reestablish the I. giganticaerula species of the Louisiana iris at the refuge.

The first iris planting of the season took place on December 19, 2022 when student volunteers from the University of South Dakota planted hundreds of Louisiana irises at the refuge. Common Ground Relief hosted the students as they did service activities in the New Orleans area.

University of South Dakota students are seen unloading Louisiana irises at the Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans on December 19, 2022. The group also planted 30 bald cypress trees.

The irises used during the December 19th planting at the refuge came from LICI's iris holding area in New Orleans. The irises were rescued from various sites earlier in the year and were then planted into containers at the iris holding area to strengthen up before they were used in plantings like this one.

LICI held a late-season iris rescue in early January for a project where the irises were to be planted that same day. (During the winter iris growing season, irises can be transplanted without first spending time at the group's iris holding area.) The volunteers dug up over 1,500 Louisiana irises from a site where LICI is trying to remove all of the irises with the encouragement of the landowner because the property is for sale and zoned for commercial development. However, just days before the iris rescue event, the location where the irises were to be planted broke the news to LICI that their site would not be ready for the planting. A decision was made to get the irises out anyway and use them in existing LICI iris restoration projects. "We thought we were about finished planting irises for the season when this need arose to find a home for these 1,500 irises quickly," LICI's Gary Salathe said. "We had a tree planting volunteer event scheduled one week later at the Bayou Sauvage refuge with a huge number of volunteers, so we broke off a group to plant about 1,000 of these irises."

Volunteers from Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL), organized the visit of forty 8th-grade and high school students from Houston for a tour of Jewish life and history in New Orleans, which included two half-days of service work. Common Ground Relief hosted the group for a LICI-organized iris rescue event on January 5th. In addition, a Boy Scout troop from Hammond, La came out to help as LICI volunteers. The event netted 1,500 irises in one morning's work.

Because of concerns that volunteer events scheduled for January 12th & 13th at the Bayou Sauvage refuge may be canceled due to poor weather, a small group of LICI volunteers planted over 500 irises at the refuge the day before the first event was to begin. However, the weather was good enough for the two day event to be held.

On January 12 & 13, 2023 student volunteers from Texas A & M University planted 900 bare-root seedlings, 135 one-gallon potted cypress trees, and 1,000 Louisiana irises. The event was co-hosted by Common Ground Relief and LICI. "It ended up working out well that we had the 1,500 irises available. Their impact will be seen in April when they bloom along with the irises already growing in the refuge near the boardwalk," Salathe says.

Some of the irises planted by the Texas A & M University students are shown near the display boardwalk at the Bayou Sauvage refuge.

LICI's volunteer Gayla Deblank (on far left) supervised a group of Texas A & M students as they planted Louisiana irises at the Bayou Sauvage refuge on January 12, 2023.

On January 30, 2023, volunteers with LICI's every Monday morning work group at the Bayou Sauvage refuge planted the last irises of the winter 2022 - 2023 planting season. These irises were some of the last ones ready to be planted this season at LICI's iris holding area.

LICI's volunteer Gayla Deblank is seen on January 30, 2023 planting the last iris of LICI's winter 2022 - 2023 iris planting season at the Bayou Sauvage refuge.

"We appreciate all of the help we received to make this winter's iris plantings at the Bayou Sauvage refuge a success. The results will be seen in April when the irises at this location bloom. It is going to be special, I predict," Salathe sums up.

LICI Invited to Hold Info Booth Open at Two Events

January 29, 2023 Madisonville, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) has accepted invitations from two groups to hold open an iris information booth at their events this spring. LICI will be participating in the Bayou Gardens Open House event put on by the US Fish & Wildlife Service on the grounds of their Lacombe, La. headquarters on February 25, 2023. On May 13, 2023, LICI will have an info booth at the Explore Nature event being held by the Purple Martin Conservation Initiative at the walking trail in North Park of the Denham Springs, La. Department of Parks and Recreation.

This "Save the Date" Facebook posting on the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Facebook page used a photo from LICI volunteer, Mike Glaspell. He took the photo of a hummingbird feeding on an iris flower at the Lockport, La., boardwalk, which is home to one of LICI's iris restoration projects.

The Bayou Gardens open house will celebrate the gardens found on the grounds around the home, which have huge, old camellia bushes that will be in bloom. There will also be free tours, nature activities, workshops, guest speakers, garden experts, park rangers, and volunteer guides that will allow guests to explore USF&WS' Bayou Lacombe headquarters historic gardens and trails.

The theme of the open house event will be gardening with wildflowers and other plants to help pollinators and wildlife. LICI's exhibit will explain how the wild native Louisiana irises in the swamps and the hybrid Louisiana iris cultivars in home gardens are important pollinator plants for bumblebees and hummingbirds. Their booth will also feature LICI's volunteer, Mike Glaspell's, photos of hummingbirds and bumblebees feeding on the irises at the Lockport, La. boardwalk. "He will be helping us hold the booth open, so he will be there in person to answer any questions about his photography or the Lockport boardwalk," says LICI's Gary Salathe.

The event will be held February 25th 9 AM until 3 PM at the Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge's Lacombe Center, at 61389 Highway 434 near Lacombe, La. in St. Tammany parish.

LICI has accepted an invitation to be an exhibitor at the Explore Nature event being organized by the Purple Martin Conservation Initiative in Denham Springs, La, on May 13th from 8:30 AM until noon. Their exhibit will focus on the work of LICI in restoring the state wildflower of Louisiana, the I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris, into the marshes and swamps of Louisiana where it was once found in abundance.

Multiple exhibitors have signed up for the event regarding wildlife, birds, native plants, and habitat restoration. "We're excited to be part of the event this year to get the word out about the need to preserve our native Louisiana irises and the habitat in which they grow," says LICI's Gary Salathe.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Winter 2022-2023 Tree Planting Project at the Bayou Sauvage Refuge is Completed

January 22, 2023 New Orleans, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) and Common Ground Relief have announced the completion of their winter 2022 - 2023 joint tree planting project at the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans, La.

The project began with four three-gallon sweetbay magnolia trees donated and planted by LICI on November 1, 2022 at the refuge. It ended with a small group of LICI's volunteers planting the last 80 bare-root tree seedlings on Monday, January 16, 2023. During the ten-week length of the project, volunteers from multiple groups planted a total of 650 one-gallon potted cypress trees, four three-gallon sweetbay magnolias, and a total of 1,000 live oak, American elm, hackberry, and honey locus tree seedlings. All of the trees were planted in the ridge forest or its adjacent marsh in the boardwalk area of the refuge.

LICI's volunteer, Galya Deblank, is seen planting the first tree of the project, a sweetbay Magnolia, on November 1, 2022. On Monday, January 16, 2023, she was part of a three-person group of LICI volunteers that planted the last 80 tree seedlings.

The first large-scale volunteer event for the tree planting project was held on November 16 and 17, 2022 when trainees from Louisiana Green Corps planted 500 one-gallon pots of bald cypress trees.

Louisiana Green Corps trainees are shown loading up the first batch of 500 one-gallon cypress trees that they planted on November 16th and 17th at the Bayou Sauvage refuge.

The November potted cypress tree planting was funded through a grant by Kosmos Energy to the non-profit Tierra Foundation. The grant was for the Louisiana Green Corps job training program and included funds for supplies, trees, and organizational expenses for this tree planting project. The Tierra Foundation partnered with Common Ground Relief to use the proceeds from the grant to purchase thousands of bare-root cypress tree seedlings, potting soil, tree pots, and nutria guards late last spring for numerous tree-planting projects in southeast Louisiana that were to take place this winter.

The leadership group for the Bayou Sauvage Urban Wildlife Refuge tree planting project with Louisiana Green Corps gathered on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at the refuge to do a walk-through of the project, which started the next day. Photo: (Left to right) Gary Salathe - Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative, Olivia Reynolds - Kosmos Energy, Sarah Mack - Tierra Foundation, Charlotte Clarke - Common Ground Relief, and Josh Benitez - Common Ground Relief.

LICI holds a tree planting permit with the refuge for their two-year partnership with Common Ground Relief to plant trees there. LICI's volunteers scouted out locations for the tree planting, killed off some of the Chinese tallow trees within the planting site in the weeks before, and cut a trail from the boardwalk a few days before the event to make the planting sites easily accessible and safe for the group planting trees. Some of their volunteers also helped with the tree planting during the event.

A Louisiana Green Corps job training program member is seen planting a bald cypress tree on November 16th. Its the first time she had ever been involved in any type of

forest restoration.

A group of volunteers from the University of South Dakota planted an additional 33 one-gallon potted bald cypress trees as part of a Louisiana iris planting event held by LICI at the refuge. Common Ground Relief hosted the student volunteers as they did service activities in the New Orleans area and included the Monday, December 19th iris and tree planting event on their list of activities.

Volunteers with the University of South Dakota are shown working at the Bayou Sauvage refuge on December 19, 2022.

The Ella West Freeman Foundation issued a grant this past spring for the purchase of 1,000 bare-root tree seedlings and to cover the cost of supplies and a small amount of overhead for a Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative/Common Ground Relief joint tree planting project for the winter 2022 - 2023 tree planting season in the Bayou Sauvage refuge. The grant was used to purchase live oak, American elm, hackberry, and honey locus bare-root tree seedlings, along with nutria guards and bamboo support sticks for each seedling. The tree species selected came from observations made on-site at the refuge of the type of trees currently growing there and from a University of New Orleans study completed before Hurricane Katrina of the trees found on the refuge.

Bare-root tree seedlings and supplies are shown that were purchased with funding supplied by the Ella West Freeman Foundation.

On Thursday and Friday, January 12 & 13, 2023, forty Texas A & M University volunteers planted 900 bare-root seedlings, 135 one-gallon potted cypress trees, and 1,000 Louisiana irises. The event was organized by Common Ground Relief. The large group was divided into smaller work crews supervised by volunteers from the university, Common Ground Relief, and LICI.

Part of the bare-root tree seedling planting crew from Texas A & M are shown during the LICI & Common Ground Relief volunteer event held at the Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans on Friday, January 13, 2023.

This is the second year of LICI's and Common Ground Relief's partnership to restore the Bayou Sauvage refuge ridge forest. LICI's president and board of directors member, Gary Salathe, said, "This is a great example of how numerous volunteers with diverse backgrounds and their various organizations can come together to do great things. Our project with Common Ground Relief has taken a huge leap forward in accomplishing our goal of restoring this critical ridge forest only because of the help we received from everyone involved. 'Thank you!' goes out to them."

All Texas A & M volunteers are shown after the LICI & Common Ground Relief bare root tree planting volunteer event held at the Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans on Friday, January 12 & 13, 2023.