By Gary Salathe
The
following is my introductory posting for this World
of Irises blog. My name is Gary Salathe
and I live just north of New Orleans on the outskirts of Madisonville, a small
town in Southeast Louisiana. I am a
member of AIS, the Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI) and the Greater New
Orleans Iris Society (GNOIS).
I’d
like to start off by thanking Bryce Williamson and Andi Rivarola for inviting
me to become a regular blogger, joining the illustrious list of other World
of Irises bloggers. I’ll try my best to
live up to their expectations.
I’ve
come to their attention because of the efforts I and others have been involved in to reintroduce native Louisiana iris species back into marshes and
swamps of Southeast Louisiana in areas where they once grew in abundance.
I made a decision earlier this
year to split off my iris restoration activities and form a new non-profit with
other like-minded individuals to concentrate on just this effort after
spending a number of years dividing my time between various duties as a board of
directors member and volunteer of the GNOIS.
This
first blog posting will be an attempt to explain the “why and how” of what we
hope to accomplish with our new non-profit by continuing and expanding our
efforts, which we started three years ago within the GNOIS. Future postings will be used to keep you updated
on these projects.
Photo: The two people in this photo are ignoring the
blooming irises nearby because the irises were so common as to be unremarkable
when the photo was taken.
Back
in the early 1900’s Louisiana irises were so common in southeast Louisiana they
were just thought of as weeds by the locals. It was just a plant that clogged up their ditches. Their abundance was
taken for granted. But warnings began to appear in the following
decades about how the draining and development of swamps threatened this native
plant’s long-term survival. Caroline Dormon, Percy Viosca and
Dr. John K. Small, each a botanist, naturalist and early environmentalist, gave
the first warnings starting in the 1920’s as they began to publicize this
native plant and its habitat. They saw
the destruction first hand as they collected iris specimens from the
swamp.
Photo: Estimated land lost (in blue)
from Louisiana coastal wetlands since the 1800's.
The plight of coastal areas of
Louisiana from natural subsidence and erosion which has been accelerated by
man-made activities has been well publicized. The irises have retreated
back into the deepest reaches of the freshwater swamps as salt water has
advanced inland. Combined with the increased use of herbicides by
governmental agencies for roadside maintenance, it has become increasingly
difficult for the people of Southeast Louisiana to experience first-hand wild
irises in bloom each spring.
The result is that a whole generation in Southeast Louisiana has never seen the springtime bloom of wild
irises. It's difficult to motivate people into helping do something about
this loss if they have never seen a wild iris blooming in its natural
habitat. As they say; "Out of sight, out of mind."
What has been less publicized is
that Louisiana with the federal government’s help is fighting back against
the land loss and salt water intrusion. A master plan has been created and is
being put into effect to do large scale marsh restoration projects using state and federal funds and
money from the B.P. oil spill penalties. The
Mississippi River, hemmed in by levees since the late 1800’s, is once again
being opened up into the marshes through new control structures that will allow much
needed fresh water and silt deposits to push back the salt water and rebuild
land. Although no one believes this will ever reclaim all of the land
that has been lost, early results show that land loss is slowing down and new
land is being created in isolated areas where the first of these Mississippi River diversions have
been built.
Photo: This is just some of
the marsh restoration projects and Mississippi River diversions that are in
various stages of being put into place or receiving approvals.
The marsh restoration projects are creating opportunities to reintroduce
native plants into marshes that previously held
brackish or salt water and now have returned to being fresh water.
Non-profit
organizations have sprung up to begin reforesting these areas with
cypress trees, so we asked a simple question,
“Why not include native Louisiana iris species in this effort?”
We
also discovered that all but two of the numerous swamp boardwalks found in the
area’s wildlife refuges, national and state parks and public nature preserves had no
Louisiana irises growing next to them.
We felt that a real opportunity existed to bring the native
Louisiana irises back into the public’s consciousness by
planting irises along these boardwalks where they will be permanently protected
and be in view to the public as they bloom each year. Once this is accomplished our thought is that demand will increase for irises to be used in commercial and governmental marsh restoration projects, furthering our long-term goals.
The Boy Scout Road Trail boardwalk in the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Big Branch National
Wildlife Refuge is located in a marsh that decades ago changed from being a fresh water
marsh into a brackish marsh and has now changed back into being a
fresh water marsh. Although there are thousands of irises growing on a trail less than 1/4 mile away, there were no irises growing along the boardwalk where a majority of the refuge visitors go to instead.
We
then discovered that still to this day there were irises being destroyed because
of properties being developed.
Photo: A parking lot expansion underway that
threatens to bury the 2,000 Louisiana irises shown in the background.
We
also found that there were many homeowners who had dug up wild irises years ago
from nearby swamps and planted them in their ponds or around their homes and
are happy to donate them now.
Photo: Iris giganticaerulea species Louisiana irises
growing in the front yard of an individual that lives near a swamp. He dug up some wild irises a few years ago and planted
them around his house.
We
concluded that “rescuing” irises from being destroyed because of development and thinning
out irises on homeowners’ properties offered us the possibility of a ready
supply of plants to use in marsh restoration projects.
Our
first step would be to plant these irises next to boardwalks that were being
used by people to experience and learn about the swamp and marsh habitats. It
would allow them to see this unique native plant growing and blooming in its
natural habitat, the first time for most of them.
Since
all that I am describing involves hard sweaty labor we set out to find
younger volunteers that would help get the job done. We discovered that many young people want to
help out in saving the environment and they felt that reintroducing irises back into the swamp as accomplishing this. We
connected with local organizations that bring in college students from around
the country to volunteer on marsh restoration projects and they included our
iris restoration projects for their groups to work on.
Photo: Out-of-state
college students working planting irises along a refuge boardwalk this past
January as part of their five days of volunteerism trip to New Orleans.
With
all of the pieces in place we spent the last two years developing the program. In late 2018 to early 2019 we rescued and
replanted 8,000 I. giganticaerulea
irises. From October 2019 to January
2020 we rescued and replanted almost 13,000 more.
At many of the places where we planted the irises the managers and their staffs were being
introduced to the Louisiana iris for the first time. Although irises may have been found somewhere
on their properties, saving or managing the lowly iris was not on their
priority list. However, they are now
fully on board after two seasons of seeing
the excitement the blooming irises created among visitors to their boardwalks. The Louisiana iris has now moved up in importance.
In
late April we launched the new non-profit to continue the program on a much larger
scale. It is named the Louisiana Iris
Conservation Initiative (LICI).
Photo: LICI volunteers in masks rescuing I.
giganticaerulea species Louisiana irises recently from a site that is to be
developed.
Then
COVID 19 hit. But we discovered two
things: There were enough people in our area that had time on their hands and were itching
to get out of the house and accomplish something because of the lock-downs that we could still get
volunteers and they were also willing to do more events than what we would typically expect. Even though we were
working in smaller groups because of the social distancing requirements we were able to do more events because the
volunteers had the time to give. At one
point about six weeks ago we actually did two volunteer events on two different
days in one week for two weeks back-to-back. (Whew!)
Photo: LICI volunteers are shown setting up the iris
holding area in July. We kept the number
of volunteers for each event to ten people or less in keeping with social
distancing protocols for fighting the COVID 19 virus.
We
solicited and received donations from various organizations to set up an iris
holding area to plant the irises we rescued into containers for them to strengthen and
grow to get them ready for planting in the marsh this fall and winter.
And
that’s where we stand, as of today.
We are hopeful that the college student volunteers from around the country will begin to return next spring.
We
believe we have close to 6,000 I.
giganticaerulea species Louisiana irises growing in containers at our iris
holding area. We’re taking a little
break and then will start up later this month visiting sites and getting the
needed permits to prepare for planting them.
The demand for these irises is so great that we believe we can get all of
these irises planted by the end of November and dig up a whole second batch for
planting in January if the irises and local volunteers are available.
Our volunteer events will need to be spaced out
and likely done on weekends now
that things are loosening up on the COVID 19 lock-downs and many people in our
area are going back to work. We had
hopes of rescuing and replanting 20,000 irises this season, but it will all
depend on whether or not the volunteers are available. No matter, our plan is to give it our best
shot.
Stay
tuned for future postings as things develop!!
The
Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative website can be found here: https://www.licisaveirises.com/
Our
Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/Louisiana-Iris-Conservation-Initiative-104321594594214/?modal=admin_todo_tour
