Save That Prairie

By Roy Dupuy,
Phone: 225.379.1969
Email: RoyDupuy@dotd.louisiana.gov

Saving a remnant of Louisiana's coastal prairie should be simple and obvious. You move the small, scarce resource before you build the road. What actually developed is a story that brought together consultants, state agencies and volunteers to relocate coastal prairie remnants that made it through one of the worst hurricane seasons this state has ever had. This collaborative effort to save the prairie eventually may revegetate our roadsides.

Southwest Louisiana once contained vast expanses of coastal prairie, similar to tallgrass prairies of the midwestern United States, were incredibly diverse with more than 500 plant species and serving as home to a multitude of grassland birds, waterfowl, insects and other wildlife. The estimated 2.5 million acres of original Louisiana coastal prairie have been reduced to less than 1,000 acres.

Botanists identifying rare prairie plants
and collecting seed

Much of the former prairie was converted to pasture for cattle grazing or altered for growing rice, sugarcane and forage crops. Many of the animals once common to that type of land are gone, such as Attwater's prairie chicken, bison, antelope, elk and red wolf. The majority of the remnant prairies now exist along railroad rights-of-way between railroad tracks and highways and are continually threatened by human activities. Most of what remains is scattered in relatively small areas on highway segments and is generally too small to be self-sustaining.

One of these highway segments that includes prairie grass is on U.S. 165, between Fenton and Interstate 10, in Allen and Jefferson Davis parishes. It is currently slated for a road-widening project under the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development's (DOTD) Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIMED) program. One of 16 TIMED projects, the 172-mile, $867 million U.S. 165 Project is divided into 30 segments, each of which involves widening the road to four lanes.

The majority of the prairie remnants along this stretch of U.S. 165 are located to the east of the roadway while the road expansion will occur to the west side. However, one small four-acre prairie remnant identified by the Louisiana National Heritage Program (LNHP) is in the path of the proposed roadway on what is now private land.

Here is the dilemma. The TIMED program had no funding dedicated to plant removal and transplanting after acquisition. Moreover, DOTD cannot operate on private land prior to acquisition. How does one save the prairie with no funding and no access to the land? Partnership!

Together, DOTD; the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF); Gulf South Pipeline Corp., the landowner of the prairie site; and other organizations rescued the prairie plants found on the area. Volunteers and technical assistance also came from the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)–National Wetlands Research Center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Allen Parish Correctional Facility inmates, AmeriCorps of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, The nature Conservancy and others.

Planning and coordinating for the two-day relocation event began about a year ago. The first dates chosen were in November 2005. This time of year was chosen specifically because the plants are dormant then and would have time to take root before the heat of summer. Then Hurricane Katrina hit Southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, and Hurricane Rita, on Sept. 24, attacked the southwest part of the state where the site is located. Then there were sunny skies and no rain for weeks. While Rita accounted for about 20 percent of the annual precipitation total in the Lake Charles area, records show the same area broke into the top 20 list for driest years–its 18th driest year on record. Moreover, the hurricane's destruction of prisons resulted in inmate evacuations to surviving institutions, and the prisoner-to-guard- ration at these institutions made the inmate labor to dig the plants questionable. A survey of the site also revealed it was too hard and dry to dig.

Would the planting dates be missed? Would the chance to save this prairie remnant be lost before acquisition? After all of the destruction and personal loss from the storms, would there be volunteers? After 50 days since Rita with no measurable precipitation, would it ever rain again? The event was rescheduled for January 2006. Fortunately, the rains came days prior to the digging and the weather was perfect: overcast skies, 58-65 degrees with a fresh breeze and soft ground where the root balls stayed together. Allen Parish Correctional Facility was able to send inmate labor, and state agency personnel and volunteers came out to help.

Louisiana's Eunice Prairie

On the first day, the volunteer groups dug the prairie sod by hand from the U.S. 165 project site. Two species dominated the site: slender bluestem (Schizachyrium tenerum) and Gulf Coast muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). Slender bluestem is pretty common on prairie remnants and is very "conservative," meaning it is a fairly undisturbed plant community. Gulf Coast muhly grass, however, is not common on Louisiana's prairie remnants, and it was exciting to find and be able to preserve it. It normally occurs in the coastal prairies of the upper Gulf Coast of Texas where prairie is adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico and has a salt influence. Chris Reid, a botanist from the Natural Heritage Program present at the planting, identified a third grass called pine barren fluffgrass (Tridens ambiguus). It's the first known record from a Louisiana prairie remnant. Finally, there was a low growing relative of morning glory that was located in several places called silky evolvulus (Evolvulus sericeus). It also occurs further south in Texas, but has not been found in any of Louisiana's prairie remnants.

The prairie remnants were translated to three locations. The bulk of them went to the Duralde unit of the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, a 330-acre prairie restoration site.

The second location is the McNeese University farm, where the plants will become part of the Louisiana Native Plant Initiative (LNPI). The LNPI is the result of a partnership between McNeese University, the Natural Resource Conservancy Service, the USGS National Wetlands Research Center and the Coastal Plains Conservancy. The goal is to preserve plants that have adapted to our unique growing conditions through thousands of years of evolution for use in ecosystem restoration, conservation, horticulture, carbon sequestration programs, bio-fuels, etc. Seeds collected from these plants will be released to Louisiana growers for production.

The third location is the Center for Ecological and Environmental Technology operated by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. A three-acre prairie restoration site there is part of the University's "Heritage Habitats." The "Heritage Habitats" program is an education and research project that eventually will be open to the public. Perhaps someday we can begin planting these rescued native prairie remnants along with the help of plant materials from the LNPI.

DOTD gives its deepest thanks to Patricia Faulkner of the Natural Heritage Program within the LDWF and Larry K. Allain of the USGS. Completion of this goal would not have been possible without their tireless effort, enthusiasm and dedication to recovering our state's resources.