NOVEMBER 2018

Donor Appreciation Day & Live Falconry Presentation

A big thank you to all those that came out to our Donor Appreciation Day! We want to express our gratitude to everyone who has donated to Woodlands Conservancy this past year, as your support allows us to continue our conservation efforts! Shout out to Sally Farrell for her very informative falconry presentation, and for giving us the opportunity to see and learn about her amazing raptors!

Owl Prowls

Thank you to everyone who attended our Owl Prowls and a special shout out to Kat Godfrey for leading the expeditions! We had tons of fun hiking around after nightfall searching for owls, and Kat taught us so much about these magnificent birds of prey! Fun fact, did you know that not all owls hoot? Barn owls, which are prevalent in Louisiana, instead communicate by releasing drawn out screams and hissing noises! That’s pretty spooky…

SEPTEMBER 2018

Dale Lindsey Completes Eagle Scout Service Project

Although still having one more year before being required to complete an Eagle Scout Service Project, Dale Lindsey didn’t plan on procrastinating. He contacted Woodlands Conservancy in June 2018 to start discussing potential projects that could improve the public experience at Woodlands Trail. Woodlands Conservancy was excited to be chosen for the home of Dale’s Eagle Scout Service Project. After deciding on a covered picnic shelter to be placed so as to have a view of birds and other wildlife along the Planters Canal, Dale began planning and fund raising. Thanks to generous contributions from Dufrene Building Materials, Goldin Metals, Home Depot and other local companies, Dale was able to complete the project on August 14.

Thank you to Network Volunteers and Tourism Cares!

Thanks to the coordination of Network Volunteers, twenty one volunteers from Tourism Cares spent Friday, September 21 at Woodlands Trail.  The group of tourism professionals from across the United States cleared over 3 miles of trails and planted 900 native seedlings to grow out in Woodlands Conservancy’s newly constructed Nursery.

An extra special thank you to Severn Trent for helping us to get the water line to the plant nursery!

AUGUST 2018

Thank you to the Belle Chasse Cross-Country Team

Thank you to Belle Chasse High School Science teacher Casey McMann and the Belle Chasse Cross-Country Team for taking on projects at Woodlands Trail. The track club has already spent two weekend days clearing the overgrowing weeds that are crowding out planted native seedlings in restoration plots at Woodlands Trail.

JULY 2018

Woodlands Conservancy Meets Tricentennial Challenge

Woodlands Conservancy is proud to announce that it has met the Tricentennial Volunteer Challenge. At the beginning of 2018, United Way of Southeast Louisiana teamed up with title sponsor Entergy, NetWork Volunteers, and HandsOn New Orleans to present the Tricentennial Volunteer Challenge: 300,000 for The Next 300. As one of 100 participating organizations, Woodlands Conservancy was tasked with contributing at least 1,000 volunteer hours towards the campaign’s goal of 300,000 hours logged in 2018. United Way of Southeast Louisiana secured a $100,000 grant from Entergy, to be used for rewarding organizations that meet the challenge.

Woodlands Conservancy has  logged more 1665 volunteer hours since taking on the challenge in February. As a result, we will be recognized, alongside organizations from across the city, at Entergy’s Tricentennial Celebration on July 17 at VIET.

Please join us to celebrate volunteerism in our community!

Thank You to Lucid Volunteers!

Thank you to the four volunteers from Lucid who cleared weeds and overgrowth from around the Woodlands Trail entrance sign and Legacy fence area on Friday, June 29.  The volunteer interns from Lucid also cleared weeds and overgrowth from the Seeds to Saplings student planting plots to give the tree seedlings better access to sunlight and space to grow.

MAY 2018

Nola Navy Day

Butterfly Garden

Visit our newly renovated butterfly garden and see the results of last month’s Pollinator Garden Workshop. In addition to learning about native plants and pollinators, participants helped prepare the existing garden for spring-time. Extra thanks to Girl Scout Troop 1149 who did an amazing job making plant marker signs, weeding, and installing a new fence.  Thank you as well to Linda Auld for her generous donation of additional plants. The garden looks wonderful!

MARCH 2018

Backyard Wildlife Hike

The weather was wonderful for our backyard wildlife hike and we were able to see a variety of frogs, insects, snakes, birds and animal tracks as we learned all about the wildlife we have at the trail, the wildlife that lives among us in our neighborhoods, and the ways we can discourage or attract wildlife at home.

Chevron Volunteer Day

Volunteers from Chevron completed their annual spring volunteer day on March 2nd by helping us clear weeds from student planting plots and adding supplemental trees.  We really appreciate their hard work and Chevron’s commitment to helping with funding and maintenance for the Seeds to Saplings project!

FEBRUARY 2018

Tree Planting Season:

Huge thanks to all the groups who came out during Jan and Feb to help us plant native trees at Delacroix Preserve and Woodlands trail!  We had people of all ages from all over New Orleans and everyone worked incredibly hard to plant nearly 100 new trees this season.  Thank you as well to the Apache Corporation for generously sponsoring this year’s tree purchases!

Save our Sponge Concert

JANUARY 2018

Hike for your Health

Despite unusually cold temperatures a small but motivated group of hikers hit the trail for our new years hike for your health walk.  Special thanks to Jeramiah Rees from Cross Fit Algiers for leading the group in some warm up stretching and welcome to our newest Woodlands Conservancy member …a Canadian transplant unphased by the Louisiana “winter”!

DECEMBER 2017

Survival Skills – Backcountry Basics

We had a blast learning survival skills during December’s Backcountry Basics workshop taught by our Tulane intern Eli Weitzman.  Participants learned the 7 principals of leave no trace camping, how to pack for a backpacking trip, how to build an emergency shelter, and how to start a fire for heat (or s’mores cooking!).  We hope to host an intermediate level workshop some time next year!

NOVEMBER 2017

FOREST FEST

Huge thanks to everyone who came to Forest Fest as well as to all our amazing volunteers! We had great weather for fall hiking, crafts and music.  The kids enjoyed making cardboard binoculars and jumping in the bounce house and the adults enjoyed some awesome seasonal beer from Urban South and music by John Rankin, Spider Murphy and Rockamo.  Food from Frencheez was delicious and tables from Aveda, Louisiana Master Naturalists, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and New Harmony Highschool brought plenty to look at. We saw an assortment of plants, insects and wildlife on our guided hikes and enjoyed being out in the forest.  Thanks again to all our sponsors!

Katie & Carl Rosenblum

OCTOBER 2017

OWL PROWLS

We had a great turn-out for all 3 of our Owl Prowl hikes this month.  Several girl scout troops attended and were able to dissect owl pellets and learn about nocturnal animals. Everyone saw lots of armadillos, rabbits, and spiders and we were able to see bats on one hike and hear screech owls on two others.  Thanks to everyone who braved the super scary mosquitoes on this month’s Halloween themed hikes!

BUTTERFLY FIELD DAY

Big thanks to Linda Auld and a great group of volunteers for helping to improve the butterfly garden and complete a survey of butterflies along the trail.  Linda’s trip description and a list of the 11 species we saw can be viewed here. butterfly list Oct142017

SEPTEMBER 2017

CHEVRON HUMANKIND DAY

Big thanks to volunteers from Chevron who spent the morning on Sept 29th helping out with trail maintenance!

NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY HIKE

We had great weather and a nice walk for our National Public Lands Day hike on Sept 30th.  We were able to hike a little over 2 miles and saw some cool wildlife including swarms of Gulf Frittilary Butterflies, Armadillos, and 3 types of spider.

August 2017

MOTHS AND NOCTURNAL INSECTS

Big Thanks to James Beck for leading this month’s nocturnal insect event and to everyone who participated.  We were able to attract some interesting moths, spiders and insects to a special light set-up.

JULY 2017

KIDS CRAFT DAY

We had a very creative group of kids for our Kids Craft Day on July 30th.  Participants used natural materials to create original art from leaves, flowers. sticks and cereal.

NETWORK VOLUNTEERS

Huge thanks to the two groups from Network Volunteers who came out this month to help remove invasive Chinese Tallow from our Seeds to Saplings restoration plots!

JUNE 2017

NOCTURNAL HIKE

We were thrilled to have a great turn out for our nocturnal hike on June 16th!  It was a beautiful night and we were able to see and hear a lot of cool wildlife including some Nine-banded Armadillos, a Gar fish sp., an Eastern Screech Owl, a water snake sp. (non-venomous!) and lots of frogs, insects, and fireflies.

CROSS FIT ALGIERS WORK DAY

Big thanks to volunteers from Crossfit Algiers who spent a morning working to clear debris and pick up litter at Woodlands Trail!

MAY 2017

BUTTERFLY WALK AND GARDEN

Big Thanks to Linda Auld for leading a lovely butterfly and insect walk on May 27th.  Everyone had a good time seeing a variety of insects, a few butterflies, and even the egg of a viceroy butterfly. We learned a lot about how to create habitat for Monarchs and other butterflies and were inspired to start our own native plant garden to attract butterflies, birds and other native pollinators!

Thanks also to all the volunteers who came out to start us off by clearing space and planting aquatic milkweed!

GIVE NOLA DAY

Thank you to the following Give NOLA Day donors.  Your contributions help us preserve our forested wetlands for the benefit of current and future generations.

APRIL 2017

5th Annual Louisiana Amphibian and Reptile Enthusiasts Field Trip:

LARE Field Trip Report

EARTH DAY NATURE HIKES

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate Earth Day on the trails.  The morning bird walk and the afternoon family nature hike were both a success.  Everyone had a chance to sample some wild mulberries, and we saw and heard a variety of interesting wildlife including a Blue Grosbeak, lots of Cedar Waxwings,  a variety of fish, frogs and insects, and even an Alligator.

NORDC TEENS VOLUNTEER OUTING

Thanks to NORDC Teens for braving the hot weather to help us remove invasive Chinese Tallow trees from our Seeds to Saplings restoration plots!

PLANT WORKSHOP WITH DR. CHARLES ALLEN

This month Dr. Charles Allen lead 3 days of amazing plant identification workshops including courses in identification of local and edible plants.  In addition to the other participants, visiting researchers  and Woodlands staff learned a lot new things about the flora of the trail!

BREAKFAST WITH THE BIRDS

On April 15th a wonderful group of birders and nature enthusiasts enjoyed refreshments at the pavilion and a morning stroll through the forest.  Highlights of the walk included seeing Cedar Waxwings, Indigo Buntings, Eastern Kingbirds, and visiting the 1812 cypress tree.

MARCH 2017

TREE PLANTING

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped with our spring tree plantings…we couldn’t have done it without you!

NATIVE PLANT DAY/GARDENING WORKSHOP

On March 26th, participants in our native plant gardening workshop discussed the benefits of using native plants in their home gardens and learned to identify some of the native wildflowers at Woodlands Trail. Other visitors enjoyed the trails and picked up their free native trees.  We a have a few left so let us know if you would like a tree to take home!

FEBRUARY 2017

HISTORY TOUR

On Feb 12th Woodlands Conservancy Director Katie Brasted lead a guided tour to learn about the history of Woodlands Trail and Lower Coast Algiers.  It was a beautiful spring-like morning for the 7 mile hike to visit to the World War II ammunition magazines at the back of the property.

JANUARY 2017

NOCTURNAL FROG HIKE

On Jan 28th James Beck lead the Nocturnal Frog Walk.  While the frogs where somewhat uncooperative due to weather, we did have a good turn out of participants and were able to observe a variety of nocturnal wildlife.  The following are James’ notes from the evening.

After the weeks of warm weather we’ve had coupled with relatively little rain, we weren’t all that surprised that we had next to no frog activity. The frogs we recorded for the evening were:

*Lithobates sphenocephalus (Southern Leopard Frog) 1 – heard only (JWB only)
*Lithobates catesbeiana (American Bullfrog) 1 – seen only by two participants, JWB and EED
*Pseudacris crucifer (Spring Peeper) 1 – heard only by a few participants and JWB

Spiders were the biggest hit of the night, with the following highlights: two species of fishing spiders (Dolomedes triton and Dolomedes tenebrosus), three wolf spider species (Rabidosa rabida, Tigrosa georgicola & Hogna carolinensis), Pisaurina mira (Nursery Web Spider), Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orbweaver) & Gasteracantha cancriformis (Spinyback Orbweaver).

Mammals included: Coyote (Canis latrans) – heard only, Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) 2 [probably heard more] & heard what was most likely Feral Hogs (Sus scrofa).

Perhaps the coolest encounter of the night were three Eastern Screech-Owls (Megascops asio), with one individual putting QUITE a show; landing at or just below eye-level on both sides of the trail, allowing ALL of the group to get great looks!