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.
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