Tree planting volunteer opportunity on the Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge

February 9, 2024

A partnership of two non-profits comprised of Common Ground Relief and the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative has scheduled their third annual tree seedling planting at the Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East. Volunteers are being invited from the public to participate. They will also hold volunteer work mornings at the refuge on some Mondays over the next month.

Some of the areas where they will be planting tree seedlings are old canal spoil banks that have become a Chinese tallow tree forest after Hurricane Katrina ravished the refuge. The plan is to plant the seedlings while it is winter and then come back in the spring and work on killing the tallow trees.

Please help them with this important work if you can. Here are the dates and the descriptions of where they will be working:

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Plant bare-root tree seedlings with Common Ground in Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge using volunteers who will go out in boats to the center of the refuge.  9 AM until 2 PM.  Volunteers will meet at the Hwy 11 boat launch.

Friday, February 16, 2024  

Plant bare-root tree seedlings in Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East with Limitless Vistas.   9 AM, work as long as you can.  They will stop at 2 PM.  Volunteers will be working on land in the ridge forest near the boardwalk.

Monday, February 19,  2024 

Regular Monday work morning from 8:30 AM until 11:30 AM.  The volunteers will be cutting brush away from young trees that have been planted using loppers. Some of them will also be planting tree seedlings. Volunteers will be working in the ridge forest near the boardwalk.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Plant bare-root tree seedlings in Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East using a boat to access the site.  Volunteers will meet at the Hwy 11 boat launch.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Plant bare-root tree seedlings in Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East using a boat to access the site.  Volunteers will meet at the Hwy 11 boat launch.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Plant bare-root tree seedlings in Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East using a boat to access the site. Volunteers will meet at the Hwy 11 boat launch.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Regular Monday work morning from 8:30 AM until 11:30 AM.  Volunteers will be working in the ridge forest near the boardwalk planting tree seedlings. A group from Limitless Vistas will be planting trees until 1 PM, so anyone can work past 11:30 AM if they would like to.

Tools, equipment, and bottled water will be supplied. We will create a privacy barrier for onsite potty use during the four volunteer events that are only accessible by boat.

Please bring your own lunch for the tree planting days.

A long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and rubber rain boots are recommended.

You must register for any of the events because space is limited. They also need to know how to contact you if the weather causes the event to be canceled at the last minute. You can register here on Common Ground Relief's website: https://www.commongroundrelief.org/.../volunteer.../  Please specify which event(s) you are registering for.

All help will be appreciated. The only way that the native tree forest will return to these areas of the spoil bank is for tree seedlings to be planted. Please help us help the forest return and the refuge heal from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina almost twenty years ago.