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New Orleans & Louisiana Newsletter, Fall 2006

Volunteer helps clean up debris in City Park. Photo: New Orleans City Park Collection

TPL To Help Rebuild New Orleans' World-Renowned City Park

The Trust for Public Land (TPL), is helping rebuild one of the largest parks in the United States. Invited by the City Park Improvement Association and Friends of City Park, TPL has agreed to lead the restoration of the 50-acre Big Lake Trail and Meadow in New Orleans' historic City Park.

When restored, the Big Lake Trail and Meadow will provide a critically needed gathering spot that will accommodate reunions, celebrations, civic events, and recreation. Public venues like City Park, where families, friends, community groups, and the City can come together, are crucial to rebuilding not only the City of New Orleans, but the spirit of New Orleans as well.

One mile wide and three miles long, New Orleans' City Park is one of the oldest, largest, and most visited parks in America. Before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, more than 11 million people a year enjoyed City Park. It remains the biggest recreation space for the entire Metropolitan area.

"It's difficult to imagine, but everything in the park was damaged," says Larry Schmidt, TPL's New Orleans director. "Storm winds toppled more than 1,000 trees and damaged thousands more. The park's entire 1,300 acres were under water. No single agency or non-profit organization can rebuild the entire City Park on its own, but TPL is determined to do its part."

New soil being distributed around the Big Lake Trail. Photo: New Orleans City Park Collection.

Once the site of the historic Allard Plantation facing Bayou St. John, City Park represents the best of New Orleans' natural beauty, recreation, entertainment, arts, and culture. City Park also embodies some of the best of America's collective history. During the Great Depression, 20,000 Works Progress Administration workers tirelessly created some of the park's signature attractions. And, nestled in the middle of the park is the New Orleans Museum of Art, the city's oldest fine arts institution, considered by many to house the most important art collection in the South.

A renovated Big Lake Trail and Meadow will help revitalize City Park and provide residents and visitors with places to reconnect with the city's natural environment, engage in relaxing recreational activity, and enjoy a sense of peaceful renewal during the ongoing recovery process. Once restored, this portion of the park will become a primary regional gathering spot for the community and will replace the function of many of the other special gathering places lost to the storm.

TPL will lead the redevelopment within the context of City Park's current and approved Master Plan. Based on a 12-month community-wide, open planning process, the park's preliminary visioning work was finished in 2005, before the storm. The plan was developed with extensive input from the public through a process which included a regional telephone survey, an online survey, and two public meetings.

A view of City Park's Big Lake. Photo: New Orleans City Park Collection

Over the next few years, The Trust for Public Land's efforts in New Orleans will focus primarily on this area of the park. The work will encompass development of design and engineering plans, site preparation and eventually, development of trails, paths and walkways; landscaping; lighting, fountains, benches and other visitor amenities; and construction of a new lakeside pavilion. In addition, TPL will develop and launch plans for fund raising, marketing, and communications to support park programming and encourage additional community support.

The Trust for Public Land anticipates that the design process will be complete by May 2007. Construction will take six to seven months, and be completed by December 2007. Landscaping will be complete by March 2008 and the Big Lake Park and Meadow will open in the Spring of 2008.

Letter From the Director
by Larry Schmidt, New Orleans Office Director

During the next several months, neighborhoods across Louisiana will be developing their individual master plans which will be rolled into the Louisiana Recover Authority statewide master plan- www.lralouisiana.gov. The New Orleans office of The Trust for Public Land is committed to respond to neighborhood open space priorities identified through this process. The Unified New Orleans Plan process, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, is underway right now.

TPL continues to be engaged in the development of the Mississippi Riverfront Park and the plans to integrate a series of connecting "gateways" that will ultimately link adjacent neighborhoods to a revitalized riverfront. We are encouraged by the recent agreement between the Port and the City that places authority for riverfront development with the City of New Orleans. TPL joins the City in an effort to bring the power of world-class design to the riverfront through our participation as a member of the team that will guide the riverfront design process presently underway (see www.neworiverfront.com).

Recently TPL announced a $2,000,000 campaign to restore a 50-acre section of City Park adjacent to the Museum. I am extremely gratified that as a national organization, TPL is of a singular mind in its commitment to help restore a part of New Orleans' most valuable open space asset. (See article on page 1.)

Some of our most rewarding work this past year has been assisting St. Tammany Parish utilize land conservation as a smart growth tool. Parish President Kevin Davis has been a leader in Louisiana as it relates to open space conservation. By the end of 2007, TPL will have purchased over 500 acres of open land in St. Tammany for watershed protection and public enjoyment. Additionally, TPL is developing a "Greenprint" for St. Tammany that will become their master open space plan. Elsewhere in St.Tammany, Mayor Eddie Price's wetland assimilation project in Mandeville is a creative approach to cleaning wastewater, and TPL is proud to play a part in this unique environmentally sensitive program.

In Mississippi TPL's "partnership" with the Wolf River Conservation Society will place an additional 75 acres on the scenic river under the stewardship of the society.

It has been a busy year and its going to get busier as TPL continues to provide land conservation services to support the rebuilding of communities across Louisiana.

Thank you for helping The Trust for Public Land conserve land for people to enjoy as parks and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come.

TPL Adds Land to Tensas National Wildlife Reserve

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) recently conveyed 2,300 acres of land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand its Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge in Madison Parish, Northeastern Louisiana. The bottomland hardwood-laden tract was acquired by TPL last year from the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company.

This is the third conveyance in the 11,000-acre Chicago Mill project. With the completion of this transaction, TPL has conveyed more than 4,798 acres to the Tensas River NWR- a network of refuges devoted to preserving and restoring increasingly scarce habitat for native wildlife and migratory birds. TPL has brought in approximately $2.5 million in carbon sequestration funding that has paid for planting, subsidized our acquisition cost and provided an endowment of $170,000 to the USFWS.

Elmer's Island, Jeffrson Parish, Louisiana

TPL Signs Option To Purchase Elmer's Island

Louisiana's abundant coastal resources have attracted an increasing amount of tourists in recent years; how-ever, most of the state's coastal region is comprised of isolated marsh, and very few areas are accessible by road. Elmer's Island, located approximately 50 miles due south of the City of New Orleans, is an exception.

Although commonly referred to as an "island," Elmer's Island is actually a large tract of coastal land comprised of interior wetlands and adjoining seashore. It is a continuation of one of only three land-accessible beaches on the Louisiana coast.

Elmer's Island is several hundred acres of barrier beachfront and wetland area on the west side of Caminada Pass, across from Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish. The peninsula's low dunes, mud and sand flats, marsh, lagoon, and tidal channel provide more than 1,700 acres of prime habitat for many species of fish and birds and one of New Orleans' most popular beach areas.

"Honest daddy, he was this big!" Girl with red fish on Elmer's Island. Photo: c. 2006 Louisian Wildlife Foundation.

Historically the Elmer family had made Elmer's Island available for public camping, bird watching, beach-combing, and fishing- but the island was closed to the general public in 2002.

The privately-owned land has since been for sale, and the threat of private development on the island imminent until The Trust for Public Land stepped in and negotiated an option for its purchase. Thus began the most recent effort to save Elmer's Island.

Congress has already shown its support for this conservation effort in FY06, by providing an initial $250,000 for its acquisition and is currently considering a pending bill to give Louisiana an additional $1.75 million. These additional federal monies, if appropriated, will be matched by state funds. (See www.lawildlifefed.org for more details.)

"Were it not for TPL's ability to respond quickly and a landowner who wanted to see the island conserved" says TPL project manager Chris Deming, "important beach access, recreational opportunities and significant wetland habitat would have been lost forever."

Johnson & Johnson Funds Greenprint

The Trust for Public Land received a generous grant from Johnson & Johnson to do a greenprint or open space plan for St. Tammany Parish. The greenprint, TPL's land prioritization process, is based on an interactive Geo-graphic Information System (GIS) model coupled with extensive conservation finance research. The result is a comprehensive open space master plan and detailed set of next steps for the parish's efforts to conserve key resource lands.

Urban growth in the Parish over the last two decades resulted in the loss of thousands of acres of marsh, forest and open lands. Katrina put thousands of more acres of floodplains and riparian areas at risk.

TPL will assist a team of community leaders in devising a set of land protection priorities and an action plan for implementing them. TPL will also help identify appropriate funding sources. A final report is expected to be presented in December.

TPL Conveys Important Wetlands To City of Mandeville's Program

The City of Mandeville is located on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, across the lake from New Orleans. Formed 5,000 years ago, the 630-square-mile lake, the second-largest saltwater lake in the United States, is part of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin- home to almost two million Louisiana residents and the watershed to 16 Louisiana parishes and 4 Mississippi counties.

The basin's marshes and wetlands are the heart of the region's commercial and recreational fisheries that contribute over $35 million to the local economy each year. The quality of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin is directly related to the quality of the rivers and bayous flowing into it. They act as a polishing mechanism to naturally filter pollutants from nonpoint source pollution. As the health of these wetlands decline, saltwater intrusion worsens.

A solution to the saltwater intrusion problem is "wetlands assimilation," a unique "natural" water treatment process in which treated effluents are distributed into a wetlands ecosystem. The plants in the area absorb the nutrients from this discharge, the freshwater curtails the intrusion of brackish water from the Lake, and the wildlife in the area benefits from a rejuvenated environment.

TPL recently acquired 400 acres of the Tchefuncte Marsh wetland system from the Poitevent family and transferred the tract to the City of Mandeville. Adding this property to the city's growing inventory of wetlands effectively means more efficient wetlands restoration, greater economic savings, improved water quality, and enhanced habitats for a variety of otherwise at-risk species. The protected land will not only provide the residents of St. Tammany Parish with a healthier, more picturesque natural ecosystem, but the additional marshland will also act as a storm buffer and will help protect the parish and its cities from future flooding.

"The City of Mandeville received a $200,000 federal appropriation from the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP)," says Mandeville's Mayor Eddie Price. "Those monies were matched by another $200,000 in local funds.

NOAC Crafts Long Range Strategic Plan

Members of the New Orleans Advisory Council (NOAC) met recently to begin the process of creating a long-range strategic plan for TPL's conservation efforts in Louisiana. Although a great deal of attention is being directed to TPL's work in post-Katrina New Orleans (City Park, Mississippi Riverfront Park, and TPL's role in the City's Unified Planning Process), the strategic plan also takes into account TPL's commitment to outlaying communities, especially St. Tammany, Tangi-pahoa and Jefferson Parish and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Watershed. NOAC will release its plan in conjunction with TPL's national strategic plan in April.

New Orleans Advisory Council Member Ed Marshall and Chair Susan Hess with New Orleans Director Larry Schmidt at TPL's National Leadership Conference. Photo: Matt O'Brien

Mississippi Riverfront Park: An Update

The importance of the Mississippi Riverfront Park as a catalyst for reinvestment in the CBD and as an enhancement to the quality of life in our riverfront neighborhoods is greater than ever before. The riverfront offers New Orleans a rare opportunity to realize a new 21st century landscape that will reunite this beautiful linear green space with our community.

Recently, the Port and the City signed an agreement placing the responsibility for future riverfront development with the City and the New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC). NOBC has since issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for design and development planning services for the riverfront between Jackson and Poland Avenues.

"This is no small task," says Sean Cummings, Director of the NOBC. "We are asking the consultant to prepare a bold and specific development plan capable of redefining the riverfront and transforming the city's edge into an internationally prominent waterfront. We are looking for a contemporary symbol of a reinvigorated city. We are looking for individual elements animated by voice, light, view and human footsteps. We are looking for an ensemble, a consonant whole that redefines this waterfront. We want the greatest riverfront in North America. We want to reinvent the Crescent."

NOBC advises that public participation will be an essential part of riverfront design process (www.neworiverfront.com).

"We are especially pleased to be a member of the City's team guiding the riverfront design process," says Larry Schmidt. "TPL will help the City provide the parks and open space component of the selected development plan."

Posted 11/2006