ST. MARY PARISH — According to non-profit Friends of Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge President Dean Ashley, the 12,000-acre refuge once served a different purpose.
“This land here was originally cane field, Ashley said. “
And about five years ago the federal government bought it, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife bought it, for the bear habitat for refuge.”
Ashely said the property houses 14 natural gas and oil pipelines. These pipelines absorb carbon from the atmosphere, which plants store in their roots.
But these pipelines come with wildlife regulations.
“We are not allowed to plant trees or anything that would hinder the pipelines,” Ashley said.
“That’s what we have here a good area and it’s good for wildflower, good for birds, good for bees, which is good for the environment.”
Friends of Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge Secretary-Treasurer Donavan Garcia said the Wildflower Energy Project was started three years ago by the non-profit organization.
“We’re planting wildflowers and native grasses on the pipelines in St. Mary Parish to help theses pollinators out, and by improving the wildlife and the nature of of this area,” Garcia said.
Last week Garcia said about 20 volunteers from all over the country came to help assemble bird houses.
“We had people from Washington, D.C., Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas,” Garcia said. "Shell brought people from all over here.”
He said the birdhouses, which are funded by Shell, were a solution for trees no longer being here.
“These birdhouses were put here because there are no trees here and there’s only about four birds in our area that use cavity boxes and nest here,” Garcia said.
Although native birds will fly above the refuge, there’s one species the organization is looking to attract.
“All the holes are cut for the eastern Bluebird and facing east cause that’s their direction that they like,” Garcia said.
“t’s one of the only birds that uses a wide open space to nest in. It likes open spaces and it can hunt and feed its young in a prairie area.”
Garcia said the concept of a “Cajun Prairie” was developed for this project, planting seeds from only between the Sabine River and the Pearl River.
Through $20,000 in funds from Shell and TC Energy, they were able to begin planting seeds on 20 acres.
But there’s one problem.
“When it came down to finding seeds it became a problem and I could find seeds, but not native to our area,” Garcia said.
Garcia said it could take some time to purchase seeds of native plants to populate the area.
As for what he hopes 20 years from now…
“I hope to take my grandkids here, if I’m still alive, and I hope to walk this prairie with them,” Garcia said. “I hope they can say Paw Paw did a good thing and you know all of the people who helped us.”
