LSU AgCenter youth development employee Jessica Ledet helps students search in mud for bugs that might give clues to the amount of pollution in pond water at Hilltop Arboretum during Louisiana Wetlands Exploration Day on Oct. 20. (Photo by Johnny Morgan. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

News Release Distributed 10/27/11

Baton Rouge area students learned about the importance of wetlands as part of Louisiana Wetlands Exploration Day on Oct. 20 at the Hilltop Arboretum.

This was the first of several fall sessions over the next two months to be held in Robert, Madisonville, Slidell and Franklinton, according to LSU AgCenter extension associate Mindy Brooks, who coordinates the program.

“One of the main focuses of this particular wetlands day is the planting,” Brooks said.

The Hilltop Arboretum was chosen for the event because it needed plants to beautify the pond and reduce erosion, Brooks said.

“The plant collection will be a signature feature of the arboretum. It will be used as an outdoor laboratory for university students and the greater Baton Rouge community to learn about growing and designing with native wetland plants for home, school and community gardens,” said arboretum director Peggy Coates.

Brittany Bibb, an eighth-grade home-schooled student from Pride, found a new urgency to do her part to protect the environment.

“Today I’ve learned a lot about the wetlands and how if we don’t protect them how it’s going to affect us later,” she said. “The wetlands will eventually flood in south Louisiana, and we won’t have any place to live. That’s why we need to start planting now to preserve the wetlands.”

Brooks and her colleagues provided seven stops for the students to gain an understanding of how wetlands contribute to the environment.

“At the stops, the students learned about recycling and composting, the different mammals that live in the wetlands, fish identification, problems from pollution and planted a cypress tree to bring home,” Brooks said.

Sarah Smail brought her fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade 4-H Club members from Redemptorist Elementary School to help them gain an appreciation of where they live.

“Many of the students haven’t traveled outside of Baton Rouge much, so they don’t know much about the wetlands or the swamp,” she said.

“We have six different agencies out here today,” Brooks said. The 4-H wetlands program along with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Coastal Conservation Association, Entergy, the Student Wetland Society and coast and environment graduate student organizations at LSU.

They educated students about compost, about wetland animals, wetland plants, fish and the bugs that are in the water that tell us about pollution, Brooks said.

This project ties in with Entergy’s initiative to reduce the carbon footprint and supports its “green” initiative, said Dana McKearn, customer service manager for Entergy in Baton Rouge.

“We are helping with grants that encourage replanting, and we provided volunteers to help man the stations,” McKearn said.

The LSU AgCenter Youth Wetlands Program provides curriculum materials to encourage teachers to take their students outside and go on field trips, Brooks said.

The participating teachers at the Louisiana Wetlands Exploration Day were recruited from a database of teachers who have signed up for the program.