Paddlecraft parade to be part of Bayou St. John urban marsh dedication 10/14/2014

Andy Baker and a volunteer plant marsh grass in the small marsh recently created at the mouth of Bayou St. John (New Orleans, LA).  The one-half acre wetland will be dedicated Tuesday, October 14, with a ceremony that includes a paddlecraft parade of canoes and kayaks in  the sheltered and calm mini-marsh. 

   
        The dedication ceremonies at a half-acre "urban"marsh recently created at the mouth of Bayou St. John in New Orleans will include a paddlecraft parade.  All paddlecraft-canoes, kayaks, paddleboats-are invited to the event, October 14, 2014.  Paddlers are encouraged to costume for the event.  Participants, with their boats, should arrive on site by 9 am.  The ceremony will begin at 10 am.  The weather is forecast to be sunny, cool and breezy.
      Parking is on the west side of the bayou along Beauregard Ave. just before the "Y" that leads under the Lakeshore Ave. bridge.  There is no parking lot.  Boats will have to be portaged up and over a steep levee.  At the bayou there is a little finger of firm sand extending into the water to launch from.
      Tiny, compared to what most people think of as a marsh, the little wetland between the Lakeshore Ave. bridge and the massive water control structure about 200 yards to the south is becoming an inviting habitat for visiting shore birds and a protected spawning ground for fish, said Andy Baker, a wetland biologist managing the project.  Baker said when he heard the Army Corps of Engineers was going to dredge the bayou's opening into Lake Pontchartrain he got the idea to use the dredged spoil to build the marsh.
       Baker, originally from Philadelphia, PA, is one of many millennials who came to New Orleans to help rebuild the city after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and decided to stay.  Saturday,  Baker, a coastal program scientist with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF), was sprucing up the mini-marsh, picking up litter and doing a little marsh grass planting with the aid of three volunteers.
        Standing bare-footed in about four inches of the bayou's surprisingly clear water, wielding a shovel, Baker punches a hole in the sand and shell marsh substrate for a volunteer to plant one of the last clumps of marsh grass he has brought to partially fill in a small bald with greenery. 
        "I think we are ready for the photo-op," he said, referring to the dedication ceremonies planned for Tuesday.
        To retain the dredged spoil, a three -foot wall using high-tech sandbags was built, almost all of it underwater.  Without the marsh that Baker and his volunteers created, the shores of the bayou would have remained just mud and sand; little benefit to creatures looking for a place to feed, nest and breed.
        Baker is seeking volunteers to join him the second Saturday of each month to pick up litter and maintain the urban marsh with additional plantings when necessary.  The work begins at 9 a.m. and goes until noon.  Work gloves, garbage bags and tools are provided but volunteers are expected to bring their own water and snacks.  After the work is done there may be an educational talk about local natural and cultural history.
         Contact Baker directly at (504) 836-2215 or email to wetland.biologist@gmail.com.