LICI Adds More Irises at Louisiana Children's Museum

January 17, 2023 New Orleans, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) planted more Louisiana irises in their multiyear project along the shoreline of a lagoon at the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans' City Park on January 15, 2023. Two volunteers from LICI planted 150 I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris that came from our iris rescue program.

Julia Bland, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Children's Museum in City Park when this photo was taken, was instrumental in having the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative begin its iris restoration project in 2021 along the shoreline of a lagoon that is part of the museum property. The photo is of Julia standing next to the first iris that bloomed in April of 2022.

LICI's iris restoration project at the museum's lagoon is one of six where the group is planting rescued irises in public parks. The plantings in these locations allow the irises to be in locations where they can be seen by the public as they are blooming to help to achieve their goal of raising awareness of the Louisiana iris. The irises will also be accessible to LICI in future years to be thinned out so they can be used in their other projects. The irises plantings at these parks are typically done along the edges of ponds or lagoons, so they will not require any maintenance since they will be growing in a natural setting.

Photo: The irises from LICI's 2022 planting are doing well and are multiplying.

LICI's plan is to eventually have the entire lagoon shoreline covered with the I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris. It is located directly across the lagoon from the main entrance into the museum, which is located under a huge covered area that also has seating for the museum's cafe. The irises are also adjacent to a bridge that allows access to the museum from Roosevelt Mall Blvd. "It is a great site. The irises will be growing in a high-profile location where hundreds of people will be able to see them when they bloom, which will achieve the museum's and our goal for the project," says LICI's Gary Salathe.

Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative's volunteer, Kristy Wallisch, is seen with the newly planted irises she helped plant in LICI's iris restoration project at the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans' City Park on January 15, 2023.

LICI Holds Last Winter 2022-2023 Iris Rescue Event

January 6, 2023 Laplace, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) held its last iris rescue of the 2022-2023 rescue and planting season on Thursday, January 5, 2023. The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL), organized a visit of forty 8th-grade and high school students from Houston for a tour of Jewish life and history in New Orleans, which also included two half-days of service work with Common Ground Relief, a local non-profit that specializes in marsh restoration work. Common Ground Relief included LICI's iris rescue event in the planned activities Thursday morning for the group. In addition, a Boy Scout troop from Hammond, La came out to help as LICI volunteers.

The volunteers are shown getting ready to start work.

The site where the iris rescue was held is located in a rural area west of New Orleans an Interstate interchange. Its zoned for commercial development, is permitted, and is for sale. The owner has encouraged us to get the irises out to use in our iris restoration projects.

The volunteers are seen working hard digging irises.

Typically LICI plants irises from their summer and fall rescue events into containers at the group's iris-holding area in New Orleans, where they grow and strengthened up in containers for two or three months before being planted out into the swamps and marshes. However, since it is late in the season and the irises are in full winter growth mode, these irises can be planted directly into the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative's iris restoration projects, according to LICI's Gary Salathe. "We have plans to have all of the irises we have rescued at this event planted within two weeks," he said.

The group was able to collect 2,500 I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris. The irises were put into temporary storage at LICI's New Orleans iris holding area on Friday. They will be used in their iris restoration projects over the next few weeks.

LICI Begins Winter 2022-2023 Louisiana Iris Planting at Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge

December 19, 2022 New Orleans, La.

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative began its winter Louisiana iris plantings at the Bayou Sauvage National Urban Wildlife Refuge in eastern New Orleans on December 19, 2022. A group of volunteers from the University of South Dakota planted over 400 Louisiana irises and 33 bald cypress trees along the refuge boardwalk near the display platform. Common Ground Relief hosted the student-volunteers during the week as they did service activities in the New Orleans area.

The volunteers are seen unloading the irises at the Bayou Sauvage refuge on the morning of Monday December 19, 2022.

The Bayou Sauvage refuge is home to one of LICI's most important multi-year iris restoration projects. They also have a significant tree-planting project there in partnership with Common Ground Relief. Monday's iris planting was the first of LICI's 2022 winter planting season at the refuge. It will be followed with multiple smaller plantings over the next few weeks. The non-profit's goal is to get about 1,500 irises in the ground at the refuge before the end of January. Monday's planting helped get that effort kicked off.

In addition to the Louisiana irises, the group planted 33 one-gallon potted bald cypress trees and installed nutria guards on 50 previously planted cypress trees.

Gary Salathe, with LICI, explained, "Our iris restoration project at the refuge had a setback in 2021 when extreme rains in late spring raised the water level at the irises too high. We lost quite a few irises in part because just as the water level was dropping, Hurricane Ida hit the area, flooding the iris area all over again. We started replanting areas last winter where some of the irises were killed off, and this planting is a continuation of that effort."

The Louisiana irises shown as they are blooming in April of 2021 at the Bayou Sauvage refuge boardwalk display platform.

The I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris from LICI's iris rescue program was used for the planting. Salathe said that they hope the iris plantings they did last winter and the plantings they will be doing this winter will get the number of irises back to where they were during the spring of 2021.

The volunteers are shown planting irises at the Bayou Sauvage refuge on

December 19, 2022.

Part of the work that LICI did during the fall of 2021 at the refuge was planting 6,000 Louisiana iris seeds in areas along the length of the old Bayou Sauvage, which is where their project is located. "We weren't sure if those seeds had germinated because the area went into an extended dry period that lasted into the spring of 2022. However, we were very excited to see for the first time many of the seeds coming up as new irises in the few areas we worked in on Monday. This could be a game-changer for the project's success if many of the seeds survived and have now started growing", Salathe said.

Some of the irises sprouting from seeds can be seen in the foreground of the photo.

LICI ranked the Bayou Sauvage refuge boardwalk as the second best location to see wild Louisiana irises blooming in their native habitat on their 2022 Iris Viewing Locations Interactive Map that was released last spring. Salathe says it is very likely that it will either hold that position for 2023 or it may move up to the number-one spot for the first time. "If many of the 6,000 seeds we planted in 2021 have germinated, the boardwalk will most certainly take the number one spot for 2024 because that will be the first year that these irises will bloom", Salathe added.