Wildlife Rehabilitators in Louisiana (2021)

There are many nature enthusiasts and volunteers who contribute in diverse ways to helping enrich our natural environment.  Some folks make larger contributions than others though.  I’ve expressed gratitude previously for the many amateur naturists and those who share their time and skills at our parks, refuges, and wilderness areas.  A particular category of volunteer service, wildlife rehabilitation, seems to deserve special recognition. 

 

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and its Wildlife Rehabilitation Permit program regulates wildlife rehabilitation.  The goal is to place injured or orphaned wildlife in experienced hands for temporary care until these animals can be successfully returned to the wild. The state does not authorize rehabilitation of certain species, though, such as deer, alligators, black bears or wild turkeys.   

 

Permitted wildlife rehabilitators are not employees of our state or the LDWF.  These rehabbers often have separate jobs or careers and are volunteers.  A listing of about 25 or so of our state wildlife rehabilitators can be found on a page of the LDWF website.  Each of these individuals has indicated the parishes that she or he serves and the wildlife species that are accepted.  Some rehabbers who are listed accept a variety of birds, reptiles and mammals, while others handle one or just a few species. 

 

One prominent state wildlife rehabber is Gia Morgan, DMV.  She started a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2013 that became Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation of Louisiana (WERLA) and serves northwest Louisiana.  WERLA receives many calls for help each year and rehabilitates various mammals, reptiles and indigenous and migratory birds.  Pamela Kay Connery, another committed rehabber, focuses on a single species statewide with the Louisiana Bobcat Refuge, another non-profit organization.  According to Melissa Collins, a wildlife biologist and the permits coordinator for LDWF, the typical profile for a state wildlife rehabber is a woman with many years of related experiences and the financial resources to provide for necessary facilities and care.  

 

There is a need for more rehabbers in this state, Melissa Collins told me.  Becoming a licensed or permitted state wildlife rehabber requires much more than training and testing.  Yes, rehabbers must have knowledge of wildlife behavior, habitat, diet, and species-specific needs, but a serious commitment of time and costs associated with the proper care of wildlife species is also necessary.  

 

Among specific requirements for the Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitation Permit are being at least 18 years or age, not being a convicted felon or having a Class 2 or greater wildlife violation, and completing the LDWF rehabilitation course and testing process.  Annual continuing education courses must also be completed.  Other requirements include a statement of veterinary support from a licensed veterinarian and a letter of recommendation from a permitted wildlife rehabber.  Such a recommendation is usually based on the applicant having served as an assistant or apprentice rehabber for at least six months.  Facilities inspection ensuring that the applicant’s wildlife enclosures meet or exceed minimum standards set by national and international wildlife rehabilitation authorities is part of the permitting process.  Those who might be interested in becoming a state wildlife rehabber must also provide release and financial responsibility statements.  Applications and more information about this permit program can be obtained by contacting Melissa Collins at mcollins@wlf.la.gov or (225) 763-8584.      

   

The emergence of national and international professional associations devoted to this cause occurred in the later decades of the twentieth century.  International, national and state requirements can vary and have changed somewhat over the years.  Books and online education courses are available to explain how program administrators and regulators, educators, veterinarians, biologists, nutritionists, scientists, rescuers, and rehabbers often work together toward preserving natural ecosystems.  Just two introductory books are The Road to Release: A Beginners Guide to Wildlife Rehabilitation (2013 by Annette King) and Wildlife Rehabilitation: Basic Life Support (2010 by Nancy A Schwartz).    

 

Wildlife rehabbers are frequently contacted by the public concerning injured or apparently abandoned wildlife.  The LDWF website provides basic information and flow charts that indicate when and how to respond in these situations.  One mistake commonly made involves people attempting to rescue small animals that seem to be abandoned.  Adult animals can leave their young in order to forage for food without abandoning them.  Handling or moving these young mammals might lead the parent to abandon or not be able to locate them.  Separate LDWF web pages detail step-by-step procedures for determining how to respond to apparently injured or abandoned baby mammals and baby birds.  Contacting a state wildlife rehabber can be an option suggested in certain situations. 

 

We often refer to those in government as dedicated public servants.  State wildlife rehabilitators are truly dedicated volunteers in service to our state wildlife and natural ecosystems.  For many or all of these volunteers, this service must be a labor of love.   

   

Photos:  1) Otter rehabilitation (credit to Jordan Padlo) 

2) Yellow-crowned night heron rehabilitation (credit to Dr. Gia Morgan)

            Changing Responses to Climate and Environmental Threats (2021)

We live in an era of more public cynicism and distrust.  We are also a nation of citizens who occasionally have strong and differing value priorities and political stances.  It can be troubling when our country does not seem that united and does not respond effectively in times of major crisis, such as in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Partisan political interests can undermine reasoned moral discourse, negotiation, and problem solving.   We can question our nation’s capacity for making important decisions when disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories exist and influence public perceptions of basic facts.  These and other reasons for pessimism exist, particularly for our responding successfully to increasing climate and environmental threats.  Rather than being greatly discouraged by existing attitudes, at least some of us detect reasons to be fairly optimistic that we can rise to the huge challenge of global environmental threats.   

Climate scientists have long warned us that many human production and consumption practices are not environmentally sustainable.   A large majority of the American public seem to believe that climate threats are real, alarming, and need to be confronted, according to recent polls and surveys.  The critical question is if we are actually willing to support policies and actions to avoid the worse consequences of climate and environmental threats.   I believe that the American public is at that point in time now, or will be very soon.    

The concept of “tipping points” was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his best-selling book over twenty years ago.  A tipping point is the moment in time when a phenomena, social behavior, or idea reaches such a level that it suddenly gains momentum and then spreads extremely quickly.   This concept has often been used to describe the precise time when future human survival becomes impossible as a consequence of global climate changes.  Reputable scientists disagree concerning exactly when a tipping point occurs for the impossibility to reverse climate conditions to ensure human survival.  Some scientists and commentators even claim that we are beyond that point now.  Most of them, though, indicate that this tipping point is coming in the near future, if significant change and investments for our future do not occur soon.    

We are obviously far away still from any tipping point for actual responses that counter climate and environmental threats.  Yet we finally do seem to be nearing a tipping point for serious commitments from the private and public sectors to combat these threats.  Why is that the case?          

First of all, the evidence of approaching disasters is becoming much more apparent to key decision makers.  We can see that the private sector is more committed to real changes with each passing year.  Major industries and corporations have disproportionate lobbying power and other influences on governmental policies.  The relatively short-term economic interests of larger corporations dominate their particular strategies, policies and actions.  But what started shifting decades ago is now increasingly clear.  Key economic priorities for more companies in the private sector are being viewed by CEOs and boards of directors as actually threatened by climate and environmental consequences.  When these consequences are viewed as more immediate and directly threatening, corporate management strategies and actions must take these threats into account.  For example, top executives of 70 large corporations, including Nestlé and PepsiCo, recently called on all governments to set policies to reach more ambitious goals related to the Paris climate agreement.     

Even top management teams at major fossil fuel corporations are impacted by changing perspectives on climate and environmental threats.  Activists winning seats on corporate boards (Exxon Mobil) and shareholder resolutions passing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Chevron) are in the news.  Whether it’s accelerated emissions cuts due to legal court rulings (Royal Dutch Shell) or corporate termination of huge pipeline construction projects due to political and protest efforts (the Keystone XL project by TC Energy), the messages being delivered to managers at traditional energy companies in 2021 are more difficult to ignore or resist.   

Second, there have been recent shifts in state-level commitments and policies, beyond renewed federal-level initiatives.  Louisiana is one example.  As heavily invested in traditional energy and chemical industries as Louisiana is, we would hardly expect our state to respond as soon or as dramatically as many other states.  But our state can ill afford to be much of a laggard given our greater vulnerabilities of coastlines and delta country which are impacted by hurricanes, storms, and flooding.  Governor John Bel Edwards last year committed the state to a 25-28% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, a 40-50% cut by 2030, and getting to “net zero” by 2050.  He announced in May 2021 plans for Louisiana to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group of state governors committed to goals and actions to reduce emissions.  Louisiana became the first Gulf state to join this growing alliance. 

I’m probably more optimistic than most commentators concerning progress toward combating climate and environmental threats.  Yes, there are obviously those who still deny the need soon for serious environmental investments.  Even commitments and actions taken do not guarantee positive results in countering threats.  I do believe though that we can and will muster the critical mass to respond accordingly to more troubling global climate and environmental threats.  Technologies that already have developed will help tremendously.  Many of these methods have been described in publications and sources such as Project Drawdown, a nonprofit, global organization of scholars, scientists, and entrepreneurs founded in 2014.  These technologies and others being applied now will be developed further, and new ones will be discovered.  Climate and environmental threats are global, as are the talented scientists and technologists worldwide who are motivated and working together.  

Developing existing and new technologies and speeding up their actual application will demand large resource investments.  Actual commitment in the USA and in Louisiana to begin making many of these investments is a critical step that was delayed too long, but it is becoming more of a certainty.  

                                               D’Arbonne Adventures (2021) 

Bayou D’Arbonne forks off from the Ouachita River just north of West Monroe.  The bayou derives its name from one or several early French pioneers and traders with the surname "Derbanne."  This Derbanne family was closely associated with Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis.  St. Denis (1676 – 1744) was a military leader and explorer of east Texas, north Louisiana and the Ouachita Valley.   

Bayou D’Arbonne was important for the early settlement and commerce of Ouachita and Union Parishes.  Steamboats operated on Bayou D’Arbonne in the 1800s transporting cotton and other products.  

My family lived for many decades in a home on a five-mile stretch of White’s Ferry Road (LA 143) that is south of Bayou D’Arbonne and north of Tupawek Bayou.  When I was a child and a teenager in the 50s and 60s, there was little residential development between White’s Ferry Road and Bayou D’Arbonne to the north, the Ouachita River to the east, and Tupawek Bayou to the south.  Occasional river flooding created ponds where cane pole fishing was excellent frequently in the springs and early summers.   

A boy could roam there for many hours and encounter absolutely no one.  My dog and I would hike that countryside taking different routes to the river and to Bayou D’Arbonne.  I drew rough maps of this terrain and created names for routes and points along the way.  There was Big Canyon Crossing, then Dead Hog Trail, and other such self-proclaimed landmarks on my map.  Walking those trails from about 4pm to sunset was a good way to clear my head from the occasional confusion of family and school life in my early teens.      

A few years later I’d use my father’s car and run crawfish traps along the banks of Bayou D’Arbonne.  Chicken wire that I used in making these traps lasted longer than the string traps commonly available then. These sturdier traps produced a good yield with less time and trouble involved.  I'd lay out the traps and come back in a day or two to harvest enough for a family feast of boiled crawfish or etouffee.    

The damming of Bayou D’Arbonne created Lake D’Arbonne near Farmerville in the 60s. By the early 70s, two college buddies and I were spending weekends on the lake learning better how to navigate a small sailboat.  We had purchased a slightly damaged sailboat from a Monroe MD for $300 and had repaired and painted it maroon and gold over one summer.  Pure terror resulted two or three times when sudden thunderstorms and large, white-capped waves pushed a couple of us manning the sailboat way too close to the Lake D’Arbonne spillway.  Having a wooden mast ripped from the sailboat by strong winds created a white-out sensation of fallen sails covering our vision and added to the chaos and panic on one occasion.   

By 1975, the Bayou D’Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge was established to the east of LA 143 where the bayou seems to get very confused about which direction that it wants to take.  This refuge and the Lake D’Arbonne State Park offer exciting alternatives for visitors to build their own special D’Arbonne adventures and memories.          

Lake D’Arbonne State Park provides more varied attractions than typical state parks.  Beyond outstanding fishing and boating potentials, a swimming pool and beaches, a tennis complex, an 18-hole disc golf course, and many deluxe lodges and cabins are available.  Hiking trails there include shorter ones, as well as the four-mile long White or Cypress Bend Trail that I like.   

On a trip to Lake D’Arbonne State Park in late April I observed how much work was still needed to clear trees, limbs and debris from storms during the last hurricane season and the unusually icy conditions earlier this year.  I’m sure that other state parks and refuges have been coping with similar work demands.  Restricted access to certain park and refuge features that are under repair can be a disappointment, so telephoning the headquarters office at our state parks and refuges in advance of a long drive is recommended. 

 

Bayou D’Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge surrounds about 13 miles of the bayou well to the east of the spillway and lake. Spring rains often cause the vast majority of the refuge to flood.  Cypress swamps, as well as bottomland hardwood and upland pine forests, are found within the refuge.  The diversity of terrain attracts different wildlife and bird species, from the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker to the Rafinesque's big-eared bat.  Bayou D'Arbonne NWR is managed as part of the North Louisiana Refuges Complex, which includes Black Bayou Lake NWR, Handy Brake NWR, Red River NWR, and Upper Ouachita NWR. 

For kayakers and canoers who want to observe or photograph wildlife and scenery in this general area, there are many options.  Two well-mapped and detailed paddling routes are described on the Louisiana Delta Adventures website,  http://www.louisianadeltaadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/15-DArbonne-Country.pdf

The four-mile Corney Creek Trail starts at the boat ramp on LA 550 and proceeds to the north before turning back south to the boat ramp. A three-mile out-and-back paddling trail can be explored within Bayou D’Arbonne NWR starting from the boat ramp at Holland’s Bluff.  Checking in advance concerning entrance to this particular refuge is advised, since it has been temporally closed at times recently for maintenance and repairs. 

If Louisiana is a sportpersons’ paradise, Twin City residents are especially blessed by having many beautiful parks and refuges within a very short drive.

                                    Invasive and Nuisance Flora (2021)

Our natural environment provides essential benefits for human survival.  Yet we can take these continuing blessings for granted.  Rare events such as famines, floods, plagues, and other tragedies can remind us of how fortunate that we are most of the time.   

It’s only human nature to complain, though, when Mother Nature presents us with even small inconveniences.  So, I’ll register a personal complaint concerning one particular nuisance plant.            

The Wikipedia definition for a weed begins with a statement that a weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation or place.  Of course, what one person considers a weed can be another person’s cherished blossom.  Strong disagreements can arise concerning the benefits of particular plants.   

One example that I’ve described before is the Chinese tallow tree.  State beekeepers view it as a key forage source for their hives, while forestry and timber interests have long sought ways to reduce the abundance and spread of this species.  Disputes continue as the USDA tries to decide whether to approve introduction of a couple of non-native insects as potential biological controls for these non-native tallow trees. 

What we view as a weed or nuisance plant can spark intense personal reactions.  One key reason for this intensity is simple.  We can be forced to spend a large amount of personal time, effort, or expense to combat negative impacts of these undesired plants.   

I first noticed this consequence as a boy.  Our next door neighbors then were a family with five young brothers spaced a year or two apart in age.  These boys seemed, to my younger brother and me, to be mean-spirited, rambunctious, and rowdy.  The two of us had a number of fights and rock-throwing skirmishes with these neighbor kids.  The wire fence separating their backyard from ours was trampled and rendered useless from their many incursions and often forced retreats.    

Our father desired simple peace and quiet through a means of physical separation of the conflicted parties. Typical fences would not staunch the ambitions of these pint-sized, next-door marauders.  So my father decided to plant a fast-growing, local bamboo species along about 100 feet on our immediate side of the property boundary.  The bamboo did a wonderful job of giving us about a five-foot wide insulation zone from the sights, sounds, and general chaos associated with our youthful neighbors.  The need for this bamboo barrier decreased over the years, but the bamboo continued to spread out of our easy control.   

Anyone who has been given the task of stopping very invasive bamboo, like we were expected to do, can appreciate the struggles involved.  We got to a point where the continuing physical effort led to a decision to remove that bamboo completely.  Its removal was much easier decided than accomplished.  

Many decades later, I’m facing similar frustrations with a different nuisance plant.  Unlike the bamboo that my father deliberately planted, this nuisance species grows wild in the woods surrounding our rural Winn Parish yard and the small orchard nearby.  Unlike the long-ago bamboo that presented only a single line of attack, my nemesis now strikes from all sides.      

A recent landowner trend has been creating more natural landscapes that offer restorative and contemplative opportunities.  This ideal becomes problematic when large investments of time are spent in physical combat against plant invaders. 

What makes my struggles more personal is the lack of much apparent publicity about this particular foe.  I’ve seen lists of more common invasive or nuisance flora.  Among those making the top five or ten lists in Louisiana can be giant and common salvinia, water hyacinth, kudzu, alligatorweed, hydrilla, torpedograss, and water lettuce.  Some of these are nuisance aquatic species, while others are terrestrial annoyances. 

The Bible and basic American history describe plagues of locusts.  The term locust is commonly used for a few botanical species, as well as for types of grasshoppers.  My negative experiences involve both black locust and honey locust.   

For those hiking or wandering hardwood forests in Louisiana, black locust can provide a pointed lesson.  The thorns of young black locust trees can inflict at least minor damage to those careless or distracted.  Some varieties of honey locust also have thorns or spines that can be painful for unwise human contact.  I should be grateful that the overabundant honey locust bushes that I have to combat are a thorn less variety.  Still I take only small comfort in this fact, as I try to avoid many scrapes and cuts in my battles with honey locust.  

  

I initially wondered what soil and conditions on our property caused the honey locust there to display exceptional vitality and spread.  Internet sources informed me that thorn less honey locust can thrive in a wide range of soils including acidic, alkaline, moist, dry, and salty soils.  The suckers or shoots from the underground roots of existing honey locust can produce rapidly spreading plant growth.      

I’ve also been advised that I should inspect honey locust for sucker emergence weekly.  The price for a lack of such vigilance is that in a few short weeks removing the suckers and new growth by hand becomes impossible.  The suckers become too large and well-seated to handle without relying on a pruner, machete, or shovel to cut the suckers as low as possible. Good luck this effort, because many of the honey locust roots will likely survive to produce more suckers.   

You probably have more serious botanical targets for your own complaints or foul language, and honey locust might seem a minor irritant in comparison.  I raise this complaint, partially because honey locust hasn’t seemed to generate widely the very low regard that I have for it.  If misery loves company, I might be relatively alone and unsupported with this complaint about honey locust.  Regardless, I appreciate the chance to vent.