LICI Completes Iris Planting at Moncus Park

May 16, 2024 Lafayette, Louisiana

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) completed its first Louisiana iris planting at Lafayette's Moncus Park on May 15, 2024. Mark Hernandez, the park's Grounds Director, invited LICI to do the planting using irises from the group's iris rescue program. Over 400 irises of the I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris were planted by volunteers from the public and members of the park's staff.

Hernandez organized the iris planting event as part of the park's initiative to increase the number of native plants growing there.

LICI's president and founder, Gary Salathe, represented the non-profit by delivering the irises and overseeing the volunteers.

Photo: Some of the thousands of Louisiana iris cultivars blooming during April 2024 at Moncus Park are shown.

Hernandez also owns Louisiana Iris Farms, an online Louisiana iris nursery. He is responsible for the park having Louisiana's largest display of irises. Five years ago, he successfully solicited donations of Louisiana iris cultivars from the Greater New Orleans Iris Society, members of the Society for Louisiana Irises and the public. These irises have multiplied into over 10,000 irises growing along the banks of the park's large lagoon.

Photo: Moncus Park's large center lagoon is the park's focal point. A popular concrete walking path circles the lagoon.

LICI currently has multiple locations in public parks where they plant their rescued irises, allowing them to multiply with minimum maintenance needed. These are in addition to LICI's usual rescued iris plantings at area refuges and nature preserves. "The blooming irises will be in view to the public in the park, furthering our goal of raising awareness of this wonderful native Louisiana plant," Salathe said. He added that the plan for the Moncus Park irises is not only for them to grow and multiply for many years in this protected location but also to be available for LICI or other groups to thin out for future iris restoration projects.

Photo: LICI "rescues" wild native Louisiana irises after receiving permission from the owner from sites where they will be destroyed, usually from the property being developed. Some of the I. giganticaerulea Louisiana irises shown in this 2023 iris rescue were used in the

Moncus Park planting.

Salathe and Hernandez selected a site at the far end of the lagoon, away from the Louisiana iris cultivar plantings. The plan was to put some distance between the I. giganticaerulea irises and the iris cultivars to reduce their chances of cross-pollinating. However, Hernandez said the park will also be dead-heading the seed pods each year to ensure the planting stays pure I. giganticaerulea irises.

Photo: This site was selected for the iris planting at Moncus Park a couple of weeks before the planting event.

Photo: Some of the volunteers and staff are shown beginning work planting irises on May 15th at the same site after the staff had prepared it by removing some of the other water plants, cutting the grass, and lowering the water in the lagoon 9".

In its native habitat, the I. giganticaerulea iris is often found growing in standing water. Since iris rhizomes float, the only way to plant the irises in a location at the park where they would be growing in 1" to 6" of water was to lower the lagoon's water level for the planting event. The park's staff did just that by partially opening the lagoon's water control structure two days before. The only risk to this plan was that the park had no way to raise the water back up to its full level after the iris planting. They would be dependent on enough rain falling to get the water level back up.

Photo: One of the park's staff is shown planting irises during the May 15th iris planting event.

The conditions were very pleasant on the morning of the iris planting event because a late-season cool front had passed through the area the night before. After 2 1/2 hours of work over 400 irises were in the ground.

Photo: Everyone who helped with the iris planting at Moncus Park is shown in the photo. "We appreciate this new connection between LICI and the park and look forward to seeing the irises bloom next spring. 'Thanks!' goes out to everyone who made

this planting possible," Salathe said.

Photo: The water level after a rainstorm two days later.

Two days later, another cool front passed through the area and dropped enough rain to raise the lagoon's level back to its full height. "It is so nice when things work out perfectly on one of our iris plantings!" Salathe said.

Pelican Park/Recreation District #1 Gives LICI Recognition for Creating Their Iris Bog

May 13, 2024 Mandeville, LA

Pelican Park/Recreation District #1 recognized the Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) in their current Spring/Summer issue of the Pelican Watch newsletter. LICI has a large iris planting in the park that was started in 2022. The group has added irises to the planting each year since, which resulted in a spectacular bloom of thousands of irises last month.

The irises are shown as they are blooming on April 8, 2024, in LICI's Pelican Park iris restoration project.

LICI has a few iris restoration locations in public parks instead of their usual planting locations in area refuges and nature preserves where they are planted in their natural habitat. The I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris from LICI's rescued iris program were planted into these projects as a place for them to multiply on their own without any maintenance being needed. However, in each park location, the management has agreed to let LICI thin the irises out for use in new projects in the future. "The blooming irises will be visible to the public, furthering our goal of raising awareness of this wonderful native Louisiana plant, but it's really a way for us to have the irises propagate for use in future projects," says Gary Salathe, president of LICI.

LICI's iris restoration in Pelican Park's current Spring/Summer issue of the

Pelican Watch newsletter.

Like many parks nationwide, Pelican Park has a native plant and pollinator initiative. LICI's iris bog checks off two boxes for the park's program; the irises themselves are a threatened Louisiana native plant species, and they are a key source of nectar for bumblebees and hummingbirds.

Photo: The display sign is shown that was installed at the Pelican Park iris bog just before

the iris bloom in April 2024.

LICI assisted the park's staff by supplying the information and photos they needed to create an informational display this spring at the iris bog about the I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris. Louisette L. Scott, Park Planner with Pelican Park, is responsible for having the iris bog installed and the new iris informational display created and installed. "We appreciate all she has done to make this project available to us and for it to become a success for both of our organizations. We also appreciate this recognition they have given us, but this has been a team effort from the very beginning. It would not have been possible without all of the volunteers from variuos St. Tammany Parish groups that have done the work during our iris planting events. " Salathe says.

LICI Adds a New Iris Restoration Site and Completes its First Planting There

May 7, 2024 Madisonville, LA

The Louisiana Iris Conservation Initiative (LICI) was contacted by Renee Davis, a Madisonville Junior High School teacher, in December of 2023 to inquire about the students in her science class doing an iris planting in nearby Fairview-Riverside State Park. She had been following the LICI's Facebook page and saw they planned to plant Louisiana irises from their iris rescue program in the park. She thought planting irises would fit within the guidelines of a grant she had applied for and had received. The grant was for projects to engage students in some type of habitat restoration activity in the park.

Photo: Fairview-Riverside State Park is located in St. Tammany Parish, which is north of

New Orleans, between the towns of Mandeville and Madisonville, LA.

When LICI agreed to the idea, Davis offered to pay them for the irises from the grant proceeds. Gary Salathe, the president of LICI, declined the offer after explaining to her that the irises would be coming from iris rescues the group does on private properties. He told her that the property owners had given them permission to remove them, so, in effect, they were donating the irises to LICI. Salathe said that they never sell irises because of this. Salathe says that 100% of the irises in the group's iris rescue program get replanted into the swamps and marshes of south Louisiana within state parks, wildlife refuges, parks, and public nature preserves.

LICI had a few hundred I. giganticaerulea species of the Louisiana iris left over from the winter iris planting season that they would make available for the planting event.

Davis then devised a plan to spend the money from the grant on potted hardwood trees the park manager said they desperately needed within the park's campground. She felt that with twenty-five student volunteers, plus help from some parents, park volunteers, and employees, they would have enough time to plant the irises and the trees. Salathe and the park manager, Marvin Steinback, said they would work together to ensure the plantings were well organized so no time would be wasted.

Photo: Park manager Marvin Steinback is shown during a 2023 meeting with LICI about creating an iris restoration project in the swamp along the park's boardwalk.

LICI met with Steinback in 2023 about starting an iris restoration project in the park's boardwalk swamp. Due to scheduling conflicts with high tides in the river, the group finished their usual planting season for the winter of 2023-2024 with two failed attempts to plant irises along the boardwalk. Salathe did not want to use a group of junior high school-aged volunteers planting irises in the boardwalk swamp "because there is a healthy population of snakes that live there," he said. He met with Steinback soon after Davis contacted him about the proposed school iris planting event to try and find a safer location within the park.

Photo: The iris planting location that was chosen is along the edge of the

cypress tree swamp shown in the distance.

Salathe and Steinback quickly selected a site next to the park's historic Ottis house and near an outdoor classroom on the edge of a beautiful moss-covered cypress tree swamp. The site would require some preparation, including cutting grass and moving a small tree that had blown over, which Steinback said they would do before the planting event.

Photo: The iris planting site is behind and next to the historic Otis House, originally built in the 1880s as the family home for sawmill owner William Theodore Jay. It was later purchased and renovated in the 1930s by Frank Otis, serving as his summer home until he died in 1962. Mr. Otis left the property to the State of Louisiana to be developed into a recreational

site for visitors. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic

Places in 1999. It is used as a museum that is open for groups to tour by appointment.

The twenty-five Madisonville Junior High School student volunteers, some of their parents, Davis, and an assistant arrived on a school bus on the morning of May 7th as the last-minute final touch-ups preparing the iris planting site were being completed. The weather was beautiful. After Steinback's opening remarks, thanking the group for the work they were about to do, Salathe gave a presentation on the Louisiana iris and why they were planting them.

Photo: The Madisonville Junior High School student volunteers get to work planting irises with the help of some adult supervisors after Salathe gave them a demonstration on

how to plant them.

Photo: The volunteers are shown hard at work. They divided into pairs, one digging a hole while the other putting the iris in it.

Photo: Over 400 irises were planted by the volunteers within the time allotted.

Photo: The hard-working volunteers had enough time to plant over 30 potted hardwood trees in the park's camping area.

Photo: The final group shot.

Salathe said LICI appreciated the team effort of the park manager and his staff organizing and prepping for the event and everyone who came from Madisonville Junior High to do the work. "It was a great morning for a great project!" he summed up.

Teacher Renee Davis contacted Salathe a few days after the event to thank LICI, and she said they are looking forward to planting more irises next year.