Lafitte Woods Preserve at Grand Isle

The Nature Conservancy’s Lafitte Woods Preserve in Grand Isle boasts some of the largest remaining stands of live oak-hackberry forest on any barrier island in the Gulf. That forest recently gained 40 new native trees, which were grown from seeds collected on the island.

The Louisiana Conservation Corps (LaCC) planted the new trees and performed stewardship work on the preserve despite extreme heat and rain storms that turned the area into steam baths. LaCC, which is part of TNC’s GulfCorps program, cleared tall brush to give the native trees more sunlight and less competition for nutrients. 

The new trees were grown over the past three years at the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary nursery at Nicholls State University farm in Thibodaux. The new trees included live oaks, hackberry, yaupon, wax myrtle, Louisiana persimmon, red mulberry and some understory plants, including American Beauty Berry. The trees have an average height of four feet, giving them a good growth advantage.

The LaCC members also cleared overgrowth around the preserve's boardwalk and removed invasive tallow trees. The Lafitte Woods Preserve is home to a rare Chenier forest, a sandy beach ridge covered with oaks. This magnificent oak forest once cloaked the island. While diminished, with only 10 percent of the island’s original forested remaining, it still provides life-sustaining food and cover for an amazing group of small land birds that undertake a migration across the Gulf twice a year.

The number of birds that are saved by the forest when adverse weather conditions coincide with migration is phenomenal. During groundings or “fall outs,” hundreds, sometimes thousands, of birds seem to fall out of the sky and seek refuge in these Lafitte Woods.  

The Nature Conservancy is grateful to have a long standing partnership with the Grand Isle School. Most recently, TNC collaborated with the school on rebuilding its native plant and tree nursery thanks to a grant from the Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP). In 2021, Hurricane Ida destroyed the previous nursery. Rebounding after Ida has been slow going throughout Grand Isle, where the population of full-time residents and much of the workforce remains down by one-third after many lost their homes or access to affordable housing. Grants from organizations like BTNEP are helping the community rebuild. 

For this project, volunteers assisted with preparing grounds and building structures — such as a shade house and greenhouse — required for growing native pollinators and trees that TNC and partners will use at conservation projects around the island, including at TNC’s Lafitte Woods Preserve.

TNC also works with the school’s Garden Club, comprised of students from several grade levels, to collect, propagate and nurture seeds from native Grand Isle trees and shrubs that make up the upper and understory of the maritime forest. The students then plant the seedlings they have grown on private and public lands.