Our Vision For Louisiana

For more than 35 years, TNC has managed and improved almost 45,000 acres of critical habitat across the state for rare and endangered species. Today, that work is more important than ever. TNC is actively building additional partnerships to restore wetlands, prairies and forests while retaining these lands’ economic and recreational value. 

For example, this work includes:

• Establish a tri-state prescribed fire program.  Fire plays a crucial role in the health of ecosystems, reducing fuel for extreme wildfires and improving the biodiversity of forests. Without it, many plant and animal species would disappear. To maximize these benefits, TNC is building partnerships in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to support a collective prescribed fire program that will restore thousands of acres here in Louisiana.
  
  
• Reintroduce endangered species into restored habitat. On TNC’s Talisheek Pine Wetlands Preserve in St. Tammany Parish, we are restoring the habitat needed to reintroduce the endangered dusky gopher frog. The frog is native to this region, but now only survives in a few locations in Mississippi. In other areas of Louisiana, TNC is working to restore habitat that would support other rare and endangered species, such as swallow-tailed kites, whooping cranes, Louisiana pine snakes and the eastern spotted skunk.

Louisiana’s publicly owned lands mitigate floods and storm surge, provide vital habitat to rare species of plants and animals and store carbon. They also improve our lives by connecting us to nature. Of the 3.4 million acres of protected land in Louisiana, nearly 90 percent is publicly owned. Through a diverse network of partnerships, TNC will expand the restoration and preservation of public lands.

For example, this work includes:

• Secure permanent funding for conservation. Louisiana is the only southern state without a dedicated fund for conservation projects. TNC is actively advocating to change that. In 2022, the Louisiana Legislature created the Louisiana Outdoors Forever Program with $10 million in one-time conservation funding. Since then, the program has leveraged that funding with an additional $28 million to support 13 restoration projects that protect drinking water, conserve wildlife habitat and improve recreational opportunities. TNC is working to ensure that work continues by advocating to make state appropriated conservation funding permanent.
  
  
• Use nature to build resilient communities. TNC's Louisiana Treesilience program is building more storm ready communities by planting large native trees in a 22-parish region that was hit hard by hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. Now, the goal is to expand the program statewide. Treesilience’s projects are designed to mitigate the effects of severe weather by removing hazardous trees and strategically planting native species to reduce urban temperatures, buffer storms, improve air quality, manage storm water and increase quality of life in urban areas.

TNC uses cutting edge science to restore floodplain hydrology and improve water quality, protect communities, minimize flooding, and provide habitat for fish and wildlife.

For example, this work includes:

• Floodplain Reforestation Program An innovative solution to the crisis of repetitive flooding in the Lower Mississippi River Basin, TNC’s Floodplain Restoration Program pays farmers to plant native hardwood trees on lands that are no longer sustainable for agriculture and were historically floodplain forests. The farmers receive payment for the use of their land for 30 years while the restored floodplain creates carbon-credit opportunities, provides flood protection, improves water quality and restores habitat for wildlife. The pilot program will restore 3,600 floodplain acres in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, with the hopes of expanding throughout the Mississippi River Basin.
  
  
• Sustainable Rivers The Sustainable Rivers Program, a one-of-a-kind partnership between TNC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, finds sustainable ways to manage river infrastructure — dams, water control structures, etc. — to optimize benefits for people and nature. This collaboration has grown nationally from eight rivers in 2002 to 46 rivers in 2024. TNC is modeling flow regimes in the Atchafalaya River Basin to determine how shifts in water management can sustain critical ecological functions and habitats while maintaining floodplain protection for communities. These science-backed flow regimes will be utilized by the Army Corps to improve river management to the benefit of more than 60,000 acres in Louisiana. 

Renewable energy projects are essential to meeting our energy demands, but the  location of wind and solar farms must account for habitat alteration and impediment for migratory species. TNC will work with renewable energy developers to limit the infrastructure impacts on migratory species in the air, land and water. TNC is developing a site-renewables mapping platform to maximize benefits from solar and wind energy while reducing environmental stress.