Louisiana Bayou Life
Recently, I was honoured to have one of my photographs licensed by Rouses Markets of Louisiana (one of the largest independent grocery chains in the US), for an article in their consumer magazine, “My Rouses Everyday” (Sept/Oct 2014 edition) about the Bayou Dularge area of Terrebonne Parish and Chef Bill Briand. It also happens to be one of my favourite places…
South Louisiana is one of Nature’s greatest treasures – and one of my favourite places to be. If you’ve never been, you should go and stay a few days. Visit Houma in Terrebonne Parish, take a Wetland Eco Tour or Bayou Woman Adventure™ with our good friend Capt. Wendy Wilson Billiot – The Bayou Woman (you may even stay at Camp Dularge – right on the Bayou), eat at Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse, and grab some Three Roll Rum when you’re “makin’ groceries” – at Rouses Markets, of course! Fishing, Hunting, Adventuring of all kinds…just visiting helps the local economy. You can even be a “Voluntourist” and help out during Bayou cleanups or rebuilding projects…or watch for NOLA Pyrate Week and join the crew for even more adventures!
Sadly, South Louisiana is also one of the world’s greatest tragedies…severe landloss due to mis-management of canal dredging in the name of “Oil & Gas Exploration”, which begat more intense storm surges, which begat saltwater intrusion and invasive plant species…a loss of more than 30 square miles per year! Louisiana accounts for approximately 40% of the US wetlands – and experiences 90% of the coastal wetland loss in the lower 48 states.
60% of Louisiana’s land loss occurs in the Barataria and Terrebonne basins, where this photo was taken.
The Bayou is a part of the Wetlands, the slow moving waterways that lie between the land and are usually connected to larger rivers (in this case the Atchafalaya a ‘distributary’ of the Mississippi). It is the lifeblood of the people who live their and thousands of years of culture from the First Peoples (Choctaw, Chitimacha, Houma) to the influx of French, Spanish, German, Acadian, Haitian, African, Scots, Irish and more that created the Jambalaya that is “Northern most Island of the Caribbean”.
A few references:
