Founded in 2000, CRCL’s Native Plants Program (NPP) leads our efforts to restore Louisiana’s coastal habitats by engaging volunteers and stakeholders in planting trees and grasses.
Our volunteers plant trees in coastal forests in the late fall and winter to help reduce the effects of storm surge and flooding, as well as improve water quality and create habitat for fish and wildlife. Forests across Louisiana’s coast offer protection from hurricanes and safeguard our communities.
The native trees that our volunteers plant will grow dense root systems that help hold sediment in place, encourage land growth and reduce subsidence. Restoring these swamp habitats helps to ease the burden on our levees from storm surge and protects the surrounding communities. The return of the area’s natural hydrology through larger restoration efforts is improving the reproduction and recruitment of the native trees we plant.
PLANTING SITES ACROSS COASTAL LOUISIANA
3,900 TREES
(BALD CYPRESS & WATER TUPELO) PLANTED ACROSS 3 SITES IN VIOLET
3,000 TREES (BLACK MANGROVES) PLANTED NEAR BURAS
1,300 TREES
(BALD CYPRESS, SWAMP CHESTNUT & OVERCUP OAK) PLANTED IN GRAY
This year, we planted trees at five sites across three different parishes.
We plant trees in areas that were historically wetland forests or that are suitable for reforestation.
Large areas of these beautiful wetland forests in Louisiana have been lost due to both natural and anthropogenic forces, and many more areas are highly degraded and in danger of disappearing.
We partner with local land owners, state departments, NGOs and coastal stewards to select sites that will benefit from tree plantings, provide safe and comfortable environments for volunteer events and maximize land-building potential.
LEMON TREE MOUND MANGROVE PLANTING
With the help of 50 volunteers, CRCL planted 3,000 black mangroves in Adams Bay!
OCTOBER - DECEMEBER 2023
In summer 2021, CRCL partnered with Atakapa/Ishak-Chawasha Tribe of Grand Bayou Indian Village to construct 400 feet of living shoreline comprised of recycled oyster shell to protect a tribal mound from wave erosion. The mound in Plaquemines Parish was historically the site of a lemon tree - hence its name, “the Lemon Tree Mound.”
In fall 2023, with the help of volunteers, CRCL returned to the mound site and implemented a restoration project to restore 5.5 acres of wetland habitat in Adams Bay by planting 3000 black mangroves.
This site is culturally sensitive, and the existing shrub wetland habitat is vital to the wildlife species that live in the area, including shore birds, mammals and fish that rely on healthy wetland habitats. Mangroves provide natural infrastructure to protect both wildlife and people from storm surge. The plants’ roots will capture sediment in place, building soil for the marsh. In time, the presence of mangroves will help reduce storm surge risk for inland communities and marshes and help create vital marsh habitat for nesting and migratory birds and other wildlife.
CENTRAL WETLANDS REFORESTATION COLLECTIVE
With the help of 463 volunteers, CRCL planted 3,900 trees in the Central Wetlands Unit!
NOVEMBER 2023 - MARCH 2024
This planting season, CRCL started a four-year project called the Central Wetlands Reforestation Collective (CWRC). This project is in partnership with the Arlene & Joseph Meraux Foundation, the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, Common Ground Relief and Pontchartrain Conservancy Through 2026, these five organizations will work together to plant 30,000 trees, 33,000 plugs of marsh grass and 500 plots of subaquatic vegetation. Get involved at centralwetlands.org!
The Central Wetlands Unit (CWU) is a large wetland unit that spans Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes. Historically, the CWU was a hardbottom swamp that provided natural storm protection and flood mitigation to New Orleans Heavy logging and the creation of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) were detrimental to the health of these wetlands and transformed swaths of land into open water.
The MR-GO was responsible for helping funnel storm surge into the Lower 9th Ward during Hurricane Katrina and was subsequently closed in 2009 Now, more than 10 years later, the area is no longer as salty and is suitable for reforestation!
NEW ISLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
With the help of 86 volunteers over 3 days, CRCL planted 1,300 trees in Gray!
APRIL 2024
This project was for the benefit of the Isle de Jean Charles BiloxiChitimacha-Choctaw Tribe. The tribe’s ancestral land, Isle de Jean Charles, has vanished by 98% due to relative sea level rise, oil and gas infrastructure, levee development and erosion Decades of displacement have occurred as residents were forced to leave the Island due to extreme risk from hurricanes exacerbated by land loss. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $48 million to resettle the community further inland. The 515-acre resettlement site is called the New Isle and is located in Gray, in Terrebonne Parish
While the New Isle is much further inland and significantly less vulnerable to storms, the landscape is degraded and does not support the ecological richness or diversity of Isle de Jean Charles The New Isle was predominantly fallow sugar cane fields and wetland scrub. This project aimed to re-establish a bottomland hardwood forest in the lowlying wetland scrub section of the New Isle. Because of the nature of this site, we planted a mix of bald cypress, swamp chestnut and overcup oak.
PLANTING MONITORING RECAP
We revisit our tree planting sites one and two planting to take measurements on growth an Keeping track of how well our trees grow in d conditions is valuable because it helps inform about where and how to reforest coastal Lou
This year, we monitored trees at seven differe six coastal parishes. CRCL monitors 10% to 15 planted in a given location to capture genera trees are doing without monitoring each tree
Much of south Louisiana experienced extrem during the summer of 2023, which put stress the trees we planted the previous winter. Thi especially at sites along the Violet Canal and Philip. As the coast continues to experience w climate anomalies more frequently, this mon can help us select sites less susceptible to ha
2023-2024 Tree Monitoring Data
* Growth rate is averaged from trees that experienced positive growth
Maurepas Violet Canal Fort St. Philip Nep Pa
NATIVE SEED DRIVE 2023-24
This year, the Native Plants Program continued our native seed drive, which sources tree seeds from around coastal Louisiana to be planted and grown at our Restoration Headquarters in Violet.
Seeds were collected by CRCL staff and community volunteers from various locations, stretching from southwest Louisiana to Plaquemines Parish.
We also hosted two seed drives in partnerships with local colleges: Xavier University and the University of New Orleans.
We began experiments this year with cold storage as a form of stratification, to help increase germination rates. Plants grow to adjust and adapt to their specific conditions, so planting trees grown from seed in the same region where the seeds originally fell will maximize their potential for healthy growth and survivability.
Stay tuned for future opportunities to collect seeds and add to our native plants nursery!
Want to volunteer? Check out opportunities at crcl.org
CYPRESS SEED MIND MELD
This year, we began coordinating regular meetings between local educators, farmers, growers, environmental workers and cypress enthusiasts on best practices for growing cypress trees from seed.
We’ve shared knowledge and resources on seed collection, stratification, planting methods and nursery techniques about our various cypress tree growing operations.
CRCL’s mission involves pairing the best available science with historic coastal stewardship practices. By bringing together cypress tree growers with different experiences and backgrounds, we can exchange ideas and maximize success.
Want to get involved?
Email CRCL’s Native Plants Program Manager at gardner.goodall@crcl.org
BALD CYPRESS TREES GROWING IN ELEVATED “PONDS” WE BUILD WITH HELP FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS THESE SHALLOW PONDS HAVE A FEW INCHES OF WATER IN THEM, KEEPING OUR TREES CONSTANTLY HYDRATED AND HEALTHY
ALL-TIME PROGRAM SUMMARY
PLANTING SITES
2 0 1 0 - 2 0 2 4
Since its inception, the Native Plants Program has engaged 16,900 volunteers and directly restored or enhanced more than 4,500 acres of coastal wetlands in Louisiana.
From restoring beaches in Cameron Parish to planting marsh grass in Venice, our volunteers have traveled the state to help restore Louisiana’s coast.
