A slice of nature

Living in a city (New Orleans), nature is not always apparent around us. One really has to go looking to find a spot that emanates "nature". Of course, there are some parks, like Audubon Park and City Park, that do a pretty good job of replicating nature, but none of these really capture the environment that New Orleans was before it became the city it is today.

Jean Lafitte is a national historic park and preserve that is located probably about 45 minutes away from campus. Although it is a little far away, it is well worth making the trip at least once to experience the swamps and marshes of Louisiana.

A couple weeks ago, my Environmental Studies class had a mandatory field trip to Jean Lafitte Barataria Preserve. I like nature and the environment, but mostly I was annoyed that I had to wake up at 5:30 am on a Sunday morning. However, when I got there, I changed my mind. I had gone on class field trips to Jean Lafitte when I was younger, but there's something different about being there with only a couple of people really early in the morning, and just observing all the things you can see.

There is a boardwalk that runs through the wetlands, and it's really cool to witness the change in vegetation and water level (swamps start to give way to marshes) as one goes closer towards the Gulf of Mexico. The thing that I loved the most though was simply staying silent and taking my time along the trail and really observing nature. It was a magical experience. My professor, Dr. Aimee Thomas, had such a depth of knowledge and a very keen eye for tiny things, and over time I started to develop this eye. For example, I started to become aware of all the bird calls around us, which normally we're immune to. We saw and were able to get close to so many things, such as spiders (including water spiders), squirrels, awesome looking caterpillars, many types of birds, grasshoppers, frogs, a garter snake we got to hold, a cottonmouth, and an 11 foot long American Alligator.

This trip really gave me a bigger appreciation for nature. I loved it a lot, and I think it's definitely worth the commute to experience this amazing slice of nature in such a big city.

Here are some pictures from the trip.