Present:
Gay Lynn Young, the tour guide at Tezcuco Plantation (1855), smoothed down her crinoline enhanced antebellum costume and thanked us for coming. She invited us to come back in the cool evening when there would be dancing on the lawn. From the veranda we could see the magnolias were beginning to bloom, a sure sign of summer.
I took a deep breath to savor the honeysuckle and jasmine and got---phew! The smell from petrochemical plants along the river was coming on like the exhaust of an old bus.
At least no one can accuse the state government of hiding the bad stuff or foisting the stench and danger on the poor and defenseless. Exxon's noxious plants are just north of Louisiana's capitol city, Baton Rouge, in plain view and smell of the State Legislature as well as romantic River Road, the great tourist attraction of the Mississippi shore.
Obviously they not only have become used to it but consider it proof positive of economic development. The occasional belch of polluted air is dismissed with a shrug, and the deadly explosion of Christmas Eve, 1989, like those of 1993 and 1996 have set off no protests. In 1998, when Exxon was caught discharging chemicals above underground drinking water sources, it paid the fine and moved on (tip to visitors: drink bottled water). The refinery donates to eco-sensitive causes and, after 10 years of Industrial Tax Exemption, now pays school taxes.
Elsewhere in the parishes east of the Mississippi, north and west of New Orleans, breathing the air is not likely to be a shock to your environmental sensibilities. In Tammany Parish on the north shore of newly revitalized Lake Ponchartrain the affluent residents of New Orleans came first to escape the yellow fever epidemics and then just to breathe air naturally filtered by the pine forests. Covington--founded 1813 and an art colony today--was known as "the healthiest town in the United States" in the early 1900s.
At Abida Springs you can rent a bike or just start walking on the Tammany Trace, a 31-mile hiking, biking, and horseback riding path utilizing the flatbed of a defunct railway. It's beautiful year round and, with the possible exception of alligator mating season, peaceful as well (1-800-43-TRACE).
Global Wildlife Refuge & Park in Folsom is dedicated to saving threatened and endangered wildlife while at the same time educating humans. Here visitors riding in tractor pulled covered wagons are encouraged to feed free roaming animals (healthy food pellets provided) across the park's 900 acres. From giraffes and wildebeests to rare Chinese Father David's Deer and Sicilian donkeys, 40 species live here, not counting the flocks of drop-by birds. When new animals are born, "adopters" (often elementary school classes) get to name them.
Responsible tourism is especially well served on the bayous and swamps where boats navigate carefully through protected waters, and tour narrators blend folk tales with natural history and wildlife observation.
Not far from Slidell, Dr. Wagner's Honey Island Swamp Tour run by Paul Wagner (PhD in water ecology) and his wife Sue, has more to it than watching for a 14-foot alligator named "Guapo" or a 7-foot spook named "Wookie." Wagner talks swamp ecology as he alerts passengers to the little blue heron, swallowtail kite and white egret resting in the gum and cypress trees. The water moves slowly, if at all, under a sheet of green duckweed.
Nearly half of the 400 square mile swamp is a permanently protected wildlife management area and includes the Nature Conservancy¹s White Kitchen Natural Area, the premier cypress-tupelo gum swamp in Louisiana. Wagner says the swamp on the Pearl River (a natural boundary between Louisiana and Mississippi) is "one of the least altered river swamps in the countryŠalmost a pristine wilderness."
One of the greatest success stories of individuals making a difference in sustaining the natural environment occurred in swamp country just a few miles below those Baton Rouge area petrochemical plants.
In 1993, 901 acres of bottomland hardwoods in the Spanish Lake Basin were saved from being clear-cut by environmentalists Frank Bonifay and Jim Ragland. They raised money, enlisted local, state and federal officials in their cause and the result is Bluff Swamp Wildlife Refuge and Botanical Gardens. The national nonprofit protects the trees, wildlife and 250 species of birds of Alligator Bayou. It¹s also a prime attraction for families from New Orleans and Baton Rouge and for college students who come Saturday nights to hear live music and dance in the bayou-side pavilion.
Bonifay and Ragland invested their own money too and in 1997 started their daily Alligator Bayou Tours using large covered boats. When not directing passenger attention to the abundant animal and birdlife of the bayou, they explain the habitat and history of the region‹Alligator Bayou dates back 100,000 years according to U.S. Geological Survey.
In addition to a shore stop to see swamp flora close up, the boatride itself is a delight. Along with a steady patter of jokes, Ragland introduces a baby alligator and possum, explains zydeco and swamp pop music and teaches a Cajun 2-step dance. Near the landing, a restored and furnished Louisiana Swamp Cabin is a house museum far removed in time and style from the plantations upriver.
There's a lot of chemistry in Louisiana; most of it you won't want to miss.
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Louisiana Office of Tourism
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