FRI-FS-07: Community-Led Climate Action: Experimental Planting Projects in New Orleans’ Central Wetlands

Field Session Leader(s)

• 

  Bonnie-Kate Walker, ASLA, PLA (she/her/hers)

  Landscape Architect and Associate Researcher
  Office of Living Things and ETH Zurich
  New Orleans, Louisiana
• RB

  Rollin Black

  L9 Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development

Field Session Presenter(s)

• 

  Natalie Manning (she/her/hers)

  Director of Program Development
  L9 Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development
  New Orleans, Louisiana
• 

  Joshua Lewis

  Schwartz Professor of River & Coastal studies
  Tulane University
• 

  Blaise Pezold

  Coastal and Environmental Program Director
  The Meraux Foundation

Miyawaki Microforest, New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, Center for Sustainable Engagement Development, Stephanie Tarrant Photo

Participants will learn about the socio-ecological past, present, and future of New Orleans through an exploration of community-led ecosystem restoration efforts in the neighborhoods and wetlands along the city’s eastern fringe. Conclude with a trip by boat through Bayou Bienvenue to the massive storm surge barrier constructed after Hurricane Katrina.

Experience an exclusive, hands-on field session—limited to just 20 participants. Includes transportation, boat tour, and catered lunch.

Accessibility: A portion of this session takes place on a boat and is not wheelchair accessible, which may present challenges for attendees with mobility limitations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn strategies for community-led environmental restoration and climate action, including organizational structures for planting and maintenance, funding sources, and research methods.
• Learn the potentials and challenges of experimental planting in urban coastal environments, including brackish ecosystems with high storm vulnerability and a dynamic and complex salinity gradient.
• Learn about the Miyawaki forest method as a method for high-disturbance ecosystems and see the results of an experimental Miyawaki microforest one year after planting.
• Gain familiarity with the socio-ecological context of the city of New Orleans, particularly at its margins, where the legacy of industrial environmental racism is most present.