What a year! Let’s take a look back at 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 2️⃣ 4️⃣ :
Water Quality
– 176 Home Sewage Systems repaired or replaced in Bayou Folse watershed
– 74 Home Sewage Systems repaired or replaced in Bayou Lafourche watershed
White Boot Gala
– Sold out all tickets and sponsorships over one month ahead of the event
– Record-breaking attendance of 112 guests
Bayou Lafourche Cleanup
– Over 300 participants
– Volunteers removed 9.22 tons of trash from Bayou Lafourche and its surrounding area
Paddle Bayou Lafourche
– Over 75 participants throughout the day
– Paddlers tackled a 15 or 9.5-mile paddle
– The paddle was followed with live Cajun music and food
Biological Resources & Wildlife Conservation
– Monitored Purple Martin sites in four parishes, which resulted in 221 Purple Martin fledglings documented
– Ongoing work with Orleans Audubon Society tracking Swallow-tailed Kites
– 1,560 free plants distributed to estuary residents
– 896 free seed packets packaged for local seed libraries
Invasive Species
– Completed projects including Fish Tissue Sample Collection Efforts and Apple Snail Biomechanics
– Ongoing invasive species projects: Tilapia, Giant Salvinia, and Purple Loosestrife
Volunteer & Marine Debris
– Completed 23 beach cleanups at Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge with BTNEP’s Green Team
– 86 volunteers joined the International Coastal Cleanup at Elmer’s Island and removed 682 pounds of litter
Native Plant Nursery & Restoration
– Produced over 100,000 native plants for coastal restoration sites
– Provided 62,980 plants to the Spanish Ridge Project
– Provided and installed 18,606 plants at Port Fourchon
Communications & Outreach
– Over 1,000 new followers across social platforms
– Distributed 18,000 Tidal Graph Calendars
– Introduced a monthly “Estuary Updates” eNewsletter distributed to over 2,000 contacts
We can’t wait to see what 2025 holds for #OurEstuary. Happy New Year, everyone!
