John Clark of Iberville Parish reports that the turnout was outstanding at South Farm a few weeks ago, by both the observers and the birds.

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The Atchafalaya Basin Program Research and Promotion Board held a meeting on July 15, 2009, and discussed details of the process for developing the 2011 Annual Plan for the Program. They talked about the tight timeline necessary to get projects into the system in time to create the plan and get it approved by all the groups involved before the Legislative session next spring.

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This must have been our weekend for Atchafalaya Basin articles. The Lafayette Sunday Advertiser started an “ocassional series” on the Basin with a story about the Old River Control Structure and its relationship to the Basin.

You can see that article here, as long as it stays up.

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The Advocate has a pretty good introductory article on the Corps activity to re-evaluate the management of water through the Old River Control structure. There is a lot of interest in moving more sediment through the Basin for coastal restoration projects. But, as Paul Kemp of Audubon’s Gulf Coast Initiative puts it in the article, “There is a lot of sense that [the water flow regimen] could be managed better. There is not a lot of agreement on how that should be done.”

The Advocate article is here, for now, until it goes into the archives.

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The Atchafalaya Basin Program (ABP) started the State fiscal year off with a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG). The ink is barely dry on the 2010 budget and the implementation of the annual plan projects won’t actually begin until the State Bond Commission transfers the funds to the Department, hopefully starting around the end of July.

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This story from the Teche News illustrates the importance of taking relatively small environmental problems seriously and going the extra mile to improve our quality of life. The Breaux Bridge Public Works Department could have legally dumped sewage into Bayou Teche, while they waited for a new motor for the pump station, but they put extra effort into the problem and prevented a significant sewage spill, unnecessary chlorine treatment and the resulting damage to the Bayou by working a little harder.

Improving our quality of life will only happen when each of us takes little environmental problems seriously and takes responsibility for making things better.

Thank you to Breaux Bridge.

The Saturday Advocate had a story with picture of Asst. DNR Secretary Buatt and LA TNC Executive Director Ouchley signing the agreement to share resources while working on restoration efforts in the Basin.

Click HERE for the link.

It was a fitting end to the Tourism Week activities at the Butte La Rose Welcome Center. Quite a few visitors traveling through and stopping for a rest at the Center were suprised with a welcoming committee of local vendors and tourism volunteers all week long. Maybe next year, we can publicize it a bit more and get more local folk out to participate.

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Here’s a report on the latest Bayou Teche cleanup in Arnaudville. It seems like the fever is contagious. Check out the pictures from the Teche News.

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The Friends of the Atchafalaya held its annual membership meeting and monthly Board of Directors’ meeting at the Kean Miller offices in Downtown Baton Rouge on April 28, 2009. Thanks to our Board Treasurer Alice Miller and the Kean Miller firm for hosting us again this year.

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[From an article in http://www.dailyworld.com by William Johnson • March 31, 2009]

The Friends are apparently not the only group trying to clean up our waterways and landings and this week, we salute volunteers on the west side of the historic Atchafalaya Basin. Bayou Teche is one of the old meanderings of the Mississippi River and is considered the western border of the geologic “Atchafalaya Basin”. One of the interesting aspects of the Atchafalaya Basin is the range of definitions that you will find given by groups with different interests in the Basin. The geologic description is one of the broadest. (more…)