Jourdan R. (MS) July 15,2015

WHO: From left to right-Mike Beck, Baton Rouge, LA; Terry Guilbau, Pass Christian, MS; Bob Helber, Slidell, LA; Hank Baltar, Gulfport, MS; Bonny L. Schumaker Ph.D., New Orleans, LA.
WHAT: Social paddle.  Any canoe, kayak or paddleboard.  Any skill level.  Trips start at 5:30 p.m. sharp and last about 1.5 hours or until deep twilight.  Trip could be anywhere along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and freshwater just inland and a few places in Louisiana.  This trip, attracting seven paddlers, was on the Jourdan River Blueway Trail, north of Bay St. Louis, near Kiln, MS. 
WHERE: Picture was taken about 1.5 river miles up river from the put-in at McLeod Waterpark, 8100 Texas Flat Road.
WHEN: Picture taken July 15, 2015 about 7 p.m.
WHY: Something to do on July 15, 2015, a warm dry, partly cloudy Wednesday about 7 p.m?  Ask the people in the picture why.
HOW: Be a member of the social media site, "Mississippi Kayak Meetup." to be notified of upcoming outings ($3 annual membership).  Provide a boat for yourself, (or in one instance here, a paddleboard) and all your gear: life vest, paddles and a waterproof flashlight or kayak


Vanessa Chatelain, Kiln, MS

light being mandatory.  Also bring dry clothing and shoes for the drive home.  Observe the outing rules; don't drink alcohol while on the water, wear your life vest and, if asked answer the question, "Can you swim?" answer truthfully.

       Wednesday's paddling outings are organized by Hank Baltar a veteran kayaker and retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander.  Hank, certified by the American Canoe Association (ACA) to teach beginning kayaking, has a side gig teaching kayaking.  He charges a fee for these ACA sanctioned lessons.  The Wednesday paddles are free--no lessons are given. The social paddles are held on an ad hoc basis when the weather and Hank's schedule permits.  Hank insists on safe fun at every outing with every paddler responsible for their behavior and their own safety both on and off the water.  When Hank sets a social paddle date he posts detailed descriptions in his Mississippi Kayak Meetup entry.  Hank likes to see people who like to kayak get together.  He tolerates canoeists.
       Those who show up at the Wednesday paddles have skill levels ranging between which-end-of-the-paddle-goes-into-the-water beginners to blue water kayaking experts rolling boats costing $$$. The trips are free, though there may be a launch fee or park entry fee.  Rarely are there kids on the trips.  Sometimes there are dogs.  Always ask beforehand to avoid disappointment.  Cell phone service is good for most destinations but not every single one. 

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Star Spangled Paddle III

Members of the Mississippi Kayak Meetup group take up prime seats on Deer Island awaiting the fireworks show over Biloxi Bay put on by the city of Biloxi.



        Late in the afternoon of July 4, 2015, about a dozen kayakers gather at a Biloxi Bay boat launch near the high rise casinos lining the shore at Biloxi MS. Varying widely in experience and commitment to kayaking and summoned to the launch by an open invitation posted weeks ago on the social media site Mississippi Kayak Meetup, the boaters are planning to make the short paddle across the bay to Deer Island, an uninhabited and undeveloped sand spit to watch the city of Biloxi's Independence Day fireworks display.
       But the weather is not looking good for a launch.  All around them are dark skies filled with piles of gloomy grey clouds, their bottom edges a jagged blue/black.  Lightening flashed in the distance, for a split second brightening the moody mass followed by muted thunder.  As they take their kayaks from vehicle roof racks and pile brightly colored gear bags on the blacktop, it begins to rain.  Some duck back into their cars.
        At stake was the third year of the Star Spangled Paddle, a social paddle of only a third of a mile across the placid bay.  The trip was open to any paddle craft; kayak, canoe or paddleboard.  To make the trip required little skill and even less physical ability-- just imagination enough to see adventure in even a paddle of a few minutes.  And a life vest.
       The goal of the group was to get a patch of beach on the island as close to the fireworks barge as the harbor police would allow.  Standing on the western end of the skinny 4.3 mile long island, almost directly under the booming and colorful pyrotechnic display, offers an upfront and personal view that is an awesome experience, said the trip's organizer, Brent Futrell.  But the ominous weather all around them could force the trip to be cancelled.  Nobody would paddle a kayak in a thunderstorm just to get a good place to stand and watch fireworks.
       The group standing by their kayaks at the launch was lucky.  The shower was brief and while the gloomy and threatening skies persisted, the rain, lightening and thunder quit.  Safe enough to shove off, decided Futrell.  In the hot, humid and windless late afternoon the kayakers slid their boats from the sandy beach into the dark olive bay, their paddle blades and slender multicolored hulls barely breaking the water's smooth surface to create strings of tiny waves as they began the 15-minute paddle to the island.
       The crossing from the mainland to Deer Island is not an epic paddle.  Those born and raised in Biloxi remember hearing from their grandparents about when swimming from the mainland to the island was routine summer fun and not considered a special athletic accomplishment. 
       That was then.  These days the bay is busy with recreational motorboat traffic most every weekend.  It is especially crowded for the 4th of July holiday weekend as the fireworks display draws scores of pleasure boats to the bay, many anchoring hours before the nighttime fireworks show begins at 9 a.m.  The goal of the motor boaters is the same as the kayakers from the boat launch: get as close to the fireworks barge anchored at Deer Island as harbor police will allow.  Low in the water and hard to see, kayakers must be wary of the occasional motorboat where too much alcohol consumption by the captain, crew and passengers could be creating a hazard for everyone on the water.
      The flashing blue lights of the ample marine police presence on the water gave some comfort to vulnerable kayakers but you don't have to kayak long before realizing that, when on the water, it is best to quickly as possible put as much distance between a kayak and any boat with a motor. 
       Paddlers must cross the bay's busy navigational channel to get to the island, a serious consideration even for kayakers with long experience on the water. To reduce the chance of being run down sight unseen by a much larger, faster vessel,  paddlers, in their low profile hard to see kayaks often sprint across the busy boat channel, paddles flailing.  But some paddlers in the Meet-up group are novices.  Could the beginner paddlers keep up?   Yes.  A convoy of the small craft formed with fast and slow paddlers hanging tight together making a multicolored mass that was easier for motorized traffic to see in the fading light.  As it happened the little human powered flotilla made the opposite shore quickly without so much as a boat wake to disturb their progress.
       The beach on Deer Island is narrow.  A few yards back from the water a sea of slender thigh-high stalks of green beach grass nearly covers the western tip of the island.  There are no trees yet, (pine saplings have been planted but it will be years before they grow to any size) and only a smattering of shrubs.    Where the little fleet of kayaks landed, much of the beach was "claimed" hours earlier in the afternoon by family groups and friends with motor boats, each group with its own arsenal of fireworks and powerful boat-based sound systems.
        The kayakers were lucky a second time.   Earlier in the afternoon several kayakers from the Meetup group had paddled to the island to establish campsites as they intended to stay on the island after the fireworks.  It was their little bivouac that was the closest to the fireworks barge and it was there that the latest arriving paddlers were welcomed.
    (There is no development on the uninhabited Deer Island now but the state is in the process of building a dock near the center of the island's north shore.  A barge with restrooms and snack bars will also be brought to the dock site.  When the dock is finished and the barge is in place, passenger ferry service will begin to the island.)
         Food, snacks and adult beverages suddenly appeared as kayak hatches were popped open and boats were unloaded. A row of folding canvas chairs formed a viewing area.  Others sat on ponchos on the brown, damp sand or in their boats.  Culinary holiday traditions were observed:  There were brownies and hot dogs boiled in a pot over a camp stove and served on paper plates with all the fixings.  And pickles and cookies and chips and hummus.  Cold watermelon slices, pink and green and white were there too, though how someone got a watermelon into the tiny hatch of a kayak no one was telling. 
       There was loose talk too, a lot of it.  A diverse group, from young teenagers to retirees, an hour ago strangers now finding common ground to laugh, overcoming shyness to reach out sharing stories and proposing future adventures even before this one has even ended.  Lives were changed in very, very small ways there, standing on the brown sand sweating in the windless evening heat of a Mississippi Gulf Coast summer twilight. waiting for darkness and the Independence Day fireworks to begin overhead, holding dripping slices of watermelon.
       As the cloudy darkness deepened anticipation for the pyrotechnic display to come was building. Those who had made the trip with Futrell before whetted the imaginations of noobs with fantastical stories of what to expect.

Brent Futrell

        At a little after 9 a.m., when full darkness had enveloped the beach, the fireworks show began with a whoosh and boom as the first incendiary payload flashed bright above the island.
        Every year his trips have their glitches, Futrell admitted, but none so serious as to prevent planning for another year.  Heavy rains one year and another year where tents were singed by glowing fireworks debris, only adds to the adventure, Futrell boasts.
        Futrell said this year was the best year of the three.  Despite the rain threat, there was no rain during the bay crossings or while on the island for the event.  The overcast day kept the temperatures pleasant, for summer in Mississippi at least, and while flying, biting insects, shared the island with the paddlers, gnats and mosquitoes were not abundant.
       And then, of course, there were the fireworks themselves.  They were spectacular.  Firework mortars heaved their exploding payloads of Roman candles and bursting stars almost straight up from a fireworks barge anchored only a few hundred yards from the group. Those watching could feel the shock waves from the loudest explosions in the popping and rumbling display high above. There was "oohing and awing" and spontaneous applause from viewers looking straight up as domes of bright sparkling glitter lit up the sky.  (No, there was no flaming debris this time, at least none that reached the ground that we could tell.)  A faint smell of gunpowder hung in the still night air over the group.
       After the show was over the kayakers made ready to paddle back to the launch.  But they don't push off right away.  Futrell said being on the water at night in a kayak, lighted with only flashlights or headlamps, if even that, is dangerous enough not even considering sharing the inky darkness with impatient and maybe inebriated power boaters in a hurry to get back to the dock.  Futrell advised the group to wait until much of the motor boat traffic had cleared from the bay.
       This year, because there does not seem to be as much motor boat traffic in the bay as in previous years, Futrell says, boat traffic clears quickly.  But congestion still presents a problem:  this time on the mainland.  From the island the kayakers can see the line of headlights on US 90 near the boat launch.  It is not moving.
       "Even if we rushed over to the boat launch, we would have to wait for the car traffic to clear before we could cross the highway, get our cars and cross back to get our boats," said Barry Mends, a veteran kayaker and Star Spangled Paddle participant.  " So we just stay here a while." 
       But it is past 10 pm now and some start paddling back across the pitch black bay, tired of waiting, deciding to take their chances the car traffic will be gone by the time they get back to the launch. They leave Deer Island a boat or two at a time.  The kayakers, now spread out on the water, are hard to see, even those with lights.  But there were only a few motor boats left in the bay anyway and these were anchored or going very slow.  The gamble works out and all the kayakers make it back to the launch safely.  Sure enough they find, the traffic has cleared.

Beth Frost and her son Brendan Frost, age 13, at the Star Spangled Paddle III, Biloxi to Deer Island, July 4, 2015
 

      The Biloxi Police did a wonderful job of policing the Kuhn St. boat launch.  They enforced existing parking rules at the small launch parking area limiting parking to those with boats, chasing away those who only wanted to park in the lot to watch the fireworks.  They allowed kayakers to use a no parking zone near the water to off load their boats and gear then directed drivers to a parking lot a short walk away where they could park while on the island.  The police were still on duty after the fireworks display keeping the no parking areas of the launch parking area empty of cars so kayakers could quickly retrieve their kayaks and gear.  These efforts by the police made a huge difference in the ease kayakers could access the bay and Deer Island and made their trip much easier to execute.
       Once off the water, paddlers quickly loaded up, said goodbye to new friends and old  and headed to their homes in New Orleans, Covington and elsewhere satisfied with another Fourth of July holiday adventure under their belts.

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Bicyclist on St. Claude Avenue bridge busted for obstructing traffic

 

St. Claude Avenue Bridge, 9th Ward New Orleans, LA

by Jack Curry Jr. 

   
       Each school day, twice a day, Laurence Kopelovitch, a 40-something school librarian crosses the narrow and heavily trafficked St. Claude Ave. bridge over the Industrial Canal in New Orleans as part of her bicycle commute and ferry ride to her job in Algiers, across the Mississippi River.
       The French-born cyclist has lots of company.  The area Kopelovitch lives, the Lower 9th Ward, has been slow to recover from the devastating flooding unleashed when the levees along the canal were breached during Hurricane Katrina. That was ten years ago, yet even now many residents there are forced to rely on walking or cycling for transportation as only half of those living within a five-mile radius of of the bridge have cars.  A survey of bicycle/pedestrian traffic on the bridge  by the University of New Orleans in 2012 found about 500 pedestrians and cyclists crossed the bridge the two days of the survey.
       Riding a bicycle across the bridge is considered to be the most dangerous legal half-mile bike ride in the city, cyclists who ride it say.

Bridge is a white-knuckle experience for bicyclists

      Thundering fleets of tanker trucks and other big rigs servicing chemical plants and other heavy industries lining the Mississippi River in St. Bernard Parish barrel across the bridge's narrow lanes.  There is plenty of four-four-wheel traffic too. The bridge is part of LA 46, ( most commonly known at St. Claude Ave.), a major arterial highway connecting workers in the high rise office towers and hotels of downtown New Orleans with their homes in the historic working class neighborhoods downriver.
       In an attempt to make life a little safer for two-wheelers using St. Claude Ave, the first designated bike lane in New Orleans was striped there in 2008.  Three miles long and five feet wide the bicycle lane was striped in between the right traffic lane and the parallel car parking along the curb.
       However at the narrow bridge approaches there is no room for it.  The bike lane stops leaving cyclists to fend for themselves on a bridge just wide enough for car and truck traffic alone.
       Bicycling the bridge's slender lanes with the noisy, rumbling stream of heavy traffic is a white-knuckle experience, cyclists say.   Often trucks, buses and cars pass within just inches of bicyclists riding the bridge despite state law requiring drivers pass a cyclist no closer than three feet.
       Cyclists face other hazards when crossing the 96-year-old-bridge.  Traffic lights at the beginning of each bridge approach send traffic up the approaches and across the bridge in waves: fast and bumper to bumper one minute, empty roadway the next.  At the bridge proper the roadway is a slick, steel grate patched with steel plate, a challenge wet or dry.
         (Pedestrians use a three-foot wide walkway flanking the bridge but not the approaches.  The elevated approaches to the bridge have no walkway.  Pedestrians approach the bridge ground level accessing bridge traffic lanes by climbing several flights of narrow stairs at the levee.  At the steel grating at the center of the bridge is a RTA bus stop and room for a bus to get out of the traffic lanes on the bridge.)

        Kopelovitch accepts the risk and rides her bike near the middle of the right lane, a defensive position veteran cyclists call, "taking the lane.  It forces traffic following the cyclist to move to the left lane to pass. This greatly lessens the chance a cyclist hugging the right side of the road of being hit by a driver trying to squeeze by in the right lane at high speed.  Usually a few irate motorists honking their horns are the only problem.  But one day in August of 2014,  Kopelovitch's  maneuver caught the attention of New Orleans police in a following squad car.

Bicyclist is pulled over by NOPD squad car

      She was pulled over.  Her ride resulted in a citation for impeding the flow of traffic on the bridge and additional charges for not wearing a helmet and not having a registration decal on her bicycle.  If found guilty to all three she faced over $450 in fines. As if bicycling a half mile across the busy bridge with speeding trucks and buses passing within inches were not worrying enough she is now being told it is illegal and could be expensive.   
       She wanted to fight the three charges, to be contested in New Orleans Traffic Court, but felt she needed help.  Her appeal to BikeEasy, a local bicycle advocacy group, was referred to Charlie Thomas, a New Orleans attorney and Louisiana's member of BikeLaw.com, a nationwide network of attorneys representing bicyclists in court. I interviewed Thomas, April 21, 2015 about their day in court.

Going to traffic court

          Kopelovitch's hearing was the afternoon of October 18, 2014 in Division C of New Orleans Traffic Court, Judge Mark Shea presiding.   Before appearing before the judge  Kopelovitch met with the city at attorney to determine how she would plead to the three charges.  She was one of the few traffic court defendants to have an attorney.
       From the beginning Kopelovitch's session with the city attorney was tense, Thomas said.  An adult bicycling without a helmet is not breaking the law in Louisiana but it took a computer search of Louisiana law to convince the city attorney to remove the charge, Thomas said.  (Children aged 14 and younger, on the other hand, must wear a helmet according to state law.)
        City attorneys meet with traffic court defendants prior to pleading before the judge to streamline the day's court proceedings and, from the city's point of view, to determine the strength of each case.  At these brief sessions the city attorney may offer a defendant a chance to "plea down" violations to lesser charges with smaller fines. Or, in some cases, the city attorney can drop charges altogether.
        Dropping the no helmet charge still left Kopelovitch on the hook for the two remaining violations and total fines of over $300. There are no lesser charges for impeding traffic or not having a bicycle registered with the NOPD.  So the city attorney offered her a deal: plead guilty to not wearing a seat belt--only a $50 fine--and the impeding traffic and no bicycle registration violations would be dropped.  Thomas said she looked at the city attorney incredulously and said her bicycle did not have a seat belt, how could she be guilty of not wearing one?
         Thomas said the plucky Kopelovitch dug in her heels, refusing the offer.  Bicycling on the bridge is how she goes to work every day.  He said she worried that if she let the impeding traffic violation stand she, or any other cyclist, could be ticketed any time the police saw someone bicycling across the bridge.

Bicycling in traffic: It's complicated.

        Cyclists in Louisiana are permitted to ride most all public roadways in the state--the Interstate Highway system is an obvious exception--but the law does not precisely define where on the roadway they must ride.  "As far to the right as practicable," is how the law is written, but Thomas admits that where that is depends on where a judge decides it is.
         Thomas said Kopelovitch explained that she was riding as far to the right as she felt comfortable and that she knows what the laws are.
       "If I was all the way to the right and two trucks were to pass me, there is probably a good chance I would be killed.  The safest thing I could do was take the lane, which I have a right to do," Thomas said Kopelovitch told the city attorney.
        At that point, Thomas said it was clear that Kopelovitch and the city attorney were at an impasse.  The only option was to go before the judge and plead not guilty to the remaining two violations on the ticket and let the judge settle it.
       "The city attorney was was not going to let her walk away and she was not going to plead to anything," Thomas said.
       The two opposing attorneys chatted on their way to the courtroom.  The city attorney admitted that he did not know how all the vehicle laws applied to bicyclists, Thomas said, but would press for a guilty verdict on the no bicycle registration charge--a fine of $154.  The impeding traffic charge was still in play too.

Rescued by the US Constitution

        As court was about to convene and everyone took their places, Thomas suddenly had a thought that might lead the city attorney to drop the no bicycle registration violation.  His argument would hinge on a defense based on the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the so-called "illegal search and seizure" amendment in the Bill of Rights, a defense he learned in law school.
         In the few minutes before court was called into session Thomas continued to discuss the remaining two charges with the city attorney.
        "Let's say you lose on pulling her over for impeding the flow of traffic.  The police should not have stopped her to start with.  She was riding on the bridge legally." Thomas argued. "It was only after the officer pulled her over to charge her with impeding traffic that he saw she had no bicycle registration sticker.  He didn't pull her over because he saw her bicycle wasn't registered, she was pulled over because the cops thought she was impeding traffic, a charge we will prove she was not guilty of.  So, the charge for not registering the bicycle is a violation Fourth Amendment guarantees against illegal searches, " Thomas said.
       Thomas argued the evidence that Kopelovitch's  bicycle was not registered--the cops seeing no registration sticker on the bicycle after the stop--was inadmissible in court because the officer's discovery was made after she was pulled over for what the police thought was a violation; impeding traffic.  In this case the evidence collected after she was stopped (the cop saw no sticker on the bicycle) would not be admissible evidence in court because she was not legally impeding traffic in the first place, Thomas hoped to prove.
       Thomas referred to a legal doctrine known in the U.S. by the metaphor, "poisoned fruit from a poisoned tree." It is described in a Wikipedia entry as "evidence obtained illegally." An illegal stop is considered in the metaphor a "poisoned tree."  Evidence from that illegal stop would also be illegal (generally inadmissible as evidence) just as a poison tree would bear only poison fruit.
       "After I spoke with the city attorney, he discussed it with the cop.  They came back and said they were going to drop all the charges," Thomas said.
       Minutes latter Thomas snapped a picture of a beaming Kopelovitch outside on the Municipal- Traffic Court steps flashing a peace sign.
       Unfortunately not all bicyclists caught in the legal system escape with such a happy ending.  The main issue is money, said Thomas, a native of New Orleans and a bicyclist since his teen years.
       "If she had to pay an attorney by the hour to help her with that, the costs would have been ridiculous," said Thomas, who represented Kopelovitch pro bono largely out of sympathy for her plight. 
         "There is a definite need for legal services at the pro bono level helping bicyclists with issues that they encounter like those Laurence recently faced,"  Thomas said.

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Note:  Since this post first appeared May 11, 2015, it has been edited numerous times for clarity.  The facts were not changed.
        
       
       
      

Pristine Mississippi island to get pier and barge with restrooms and snack bar

       A 170-foot public access pier and floating barge with restrooms and snack bars will soon be installed on the north shore of Deer Island, the office of the Mississippi Secretary of State (MSOS) announced in a press release today.
        A commercial charter boat service will make round trips to the island from the mainland once the construction--set to begin this summer--is complete.
       Deer Island is a slender, sandy four-mile long uninhabited island in Mississippi Sound about a mile south of Casino Row and U.S. 90 in Biloxi, MS.  The island is a great blue heron rookery and is used by brown pelicans and cormorants as a wintering habitat. It is home to osprey, loggerhead turtles and in the marsh flanking a tidal creek at the island's eastern end American alligators lurk.
        The MSOS administers and supervises the state's Public Trust Tidelands which include Deer Island.  The island was purchased over a decade ago when there were concerns it might be developed into a casino resort.  There has been no development on the island, discovered in 1699, in more than 70 years.
         The island is popular with small boaters seeking solitude, many making the short crossing to the deserted island's sandy beaches from Biloxi or Ocean Springs in canoes and kayaks.   Some come to the island to view the island's rich bird life, others to primitive camp.  At one point the island is just a third of a mile from busy mainland Biloxi.
         Public officials tout the pier, restrooms, snack bar and shuttles as a way of providing access to the island for those who do not have boats.
       "All Mississippians should have access to our public lands, regardless if they have a boat," said Mississippi Secretary of State, Delbert Hoseman said in the press release announcing the project.
       The $360,000 project was recently approved by the US Corp of Engineers.  Funding will come from state Tideland Funds, allocated by the Coast delegation of the Mississippi Legislature.
       A shuttle to the island could boost the Boloxi area as an eco-tourism destination, encouraging visitors to the Gulf Coast to stay another day, said Jamie Miller, executive director for the state's Department of Marine Resources.
       Natural barriers will limit visitors without boats of their own to the broad sand beaches that line the western and southern parts of the island.  Along much of the island's northshore erosion at the water's edge has exposed extensive mangrove-like root systems, making walking there difficult.  To the east is a broad salt water marsh.  A 30-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, inundated the island with saltwater killing what was already a thin stand of pine trees.  Between the salt marsh to the southeast and the broad beach wrapping around the island's western tip, much of the island's interior is covered with prickly saw palmetto and sticker bushes preventing crossing the island on foot.  There are no developed trails on the island.
       (A comment (see below) said students from Mississippi State recently established trails on the island and that a sign about the trails is on the island's north shore across from Harrah's Casino on the mainland.)
        Since Hurricana Katrina the Department of Marine Resources has completed several projects to slow or stop erosion of the island.   

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Ideas sought at New Orleans bicycle advocacy forum

  

WELL I'LL BE DAN!  Dan Jatres (l) Program Manager, Greater New Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Program,  Regional Planning Commission (RPC) and Dan Favre, Executive Director for BikeEasy, a bicycle advocacy group in New Orleans, relax at the NOLA Bike to Work Week Community Forum April 21, 2015



      Bicycling advocates, both professional and just interested folks, recently held a forum to discuss and plan what they would like the future of bicycling in New Orleans to be like.    Of the four dozen or so advocates attending the meeting--one event in "NOLA Bike to Work Week" presented by Entergy,  some were urban planners who contribute to the design and implementation of bicycling facilities, others were paid heads of cycling advocacy groups and some were volunteeers in those groups.  There were a sprinkling of  city government representatives.  But many sitting on the hard plastic chairs behind folding tables topped with maps, pens and colored markers, in the Sojourner Truth Neighborhood Center near Treme, had no skin in the urban planning game other than just wanting to contribute their say about the cycling life in the Crescent City now. 
       Like Dean Gray.  Speaking for stolenbikesnola, a Facebook site dedicated to combating the recent rash of bicycle thefts in the French Quarter, Gray rose to speak late in the meeting to encourage those who have had their bikes stolen to file a report with the police.
        "The police will not press charges if there is no police report, even if the bicycle is recovered," Gray said.
      Pictures of stolen bikes posted on Facebook, a social media site, has led to the recovery of some of them.  But if there is no police report with a bicycle serial number there is very little the owner of the stolen bike can do to prove the bicycle is his.
        Filling out a report requires a visit to the district police station in the district the bike is stolen but the report is easy to fill out and the officers in the Eight District, where most of the thefts are now occurring, are very helpful, Gray said.
       Grey, who said he became interested in the issue when thieves stole a bike he gave to his girlfriend, strongly advised riders not to rely on cable locks, which can easily be cut with bolt cutters, to prevent bicycle theft.  Instead use stronger, more resistant to cutting and more expensive, "U" locks. Also when locking a bicycle, carefully inspect what you are locking it to.  To steal bikes in New Orleans, thieves have cut metal sign posts, like the metal posts with parking regulation signs, from their concrete bases then reinserted the posts into the ground using easy to remove PVC pipe sleeves. Gray said he found six posts in the French Quarter that have been altered in this way.
      The meeting opened with a brief but wide-ranging panel discussion of where bicycling is now in New Orleans and where it should go.  The group then broke up into smaller discussion groups which presented the fruits of their discussions at the end of the evening on big sheets if butcher paper taped to the wall.
        The panelists were Eric Griggs, M.D., Rachel Heiligman of Ride New Orleans, Jennifer Ruley, with the Louisiana Public Health Institute and Charlie Thomas, from Bike Law Louisiana.  The panel moderator was Sophie Harris of the Friends of Lafitte Corridor.
         The welcome was given by Dan Favre and Jamie Wine.  Favre, on the job as BikeEasy's new executive director for a whole seven days, told the group that while much had been done, there "is a long way to go."
         Speakers touted the nearly 100 miles of bicycle routes now in New Orleans.  Charlie Thomas, a lawyer who defends cyclists in court told the group two cautionary tales of what cyclists might expect when seeking a court remedy.  (What Thomas said will be the subject of a future post.)

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Joyce WMA Swamp Walk south of Pontchoula is 25.

Swamp Walk in Joyce WMA near Ponchatoula, LA.
 

          The marshes and swamps of  27,487 acre Joyce Wildlife Management Area, south of Ponchatoula, LA are accessible only boat.  A beautiful exception is the scenic boardwalk at the northwestern corner of the preserve off I-55.
       First installed 25 years ago, the boardwalk was recently refurbished with new planking and reopened.  It had been closed for two years due to damage from Hurricane Isaac.
       The boardwalk is a convenient haven for bird watching, nature photography and general nature study.  The boardwalk extends 1000 feet through a dense cypress/tupelo canopy and ends overlooking a mix of shrub marsh and wetland "prairie."
        Joyce WMA is home to a variety of birdlife (some duck species live there year around) and is popular with neotropical migrants plying the Mississippi flyway each spring and fall.  Joyce WMA is listed as an American Wetland Birding Trial.
       Eagles have been known to nest nearby, osprey too.
       A brochure produced when the boardwalk was first opened in June of 1990 claims some common animals likely to be found include nutria, grey squirrels, raccoon, muskrat, mink, otter and white-tailed deer.
      Turtles, skinks and lots of frog species make the swamp home and might be visible to the quiet and patient visitor.
       Near the boardwalk are animals to be wary of.  Wildlife officers say alligators may be seen from the deck at the end of the boardwalk hiding in the dense floating green vegetation.  Many snakes, some poisonous such as the western cottonmouth, may be seen slithering through the slime.
         It being a swamp expect stinging insects almost year around.  (Mosquitoes can be active any time of the year when temperatures are above 56 degrees.)  Biting deer flies are out in force in the late spring.  Wear long sleeves and long pants and use insect repellent to protect from these flying pests.  Poison ivy is abundant; some of it is within easy reach of the boardwalk.
       The trip to the boardwalk from the hard-packed dirt parking lot off US 51 is over an active railroad track.  WATCH FOR TRAINS!  THIS IS A BUSY RAILROAD!  SEE HOW SHINY THE TRACK SURFACE IS?  The walk also requires traversing about 15 feet of loose gravel ballast then stepping up about a foot onto a railroad tie, crossing the single track then stepping back down onto the ballast on the other side.
       The rules for dogs in WMAs are complicated but if you are not actively hunting something that is normally hunted with dogs you cannot bring a dog into a WMA.
        If the water in the swamp is up is may be explored by canoe or kayak but the trip may not be an easy float.  Two ditches extend in a straight line east from US 51 (look for some hard packed parking lots and gates).  The ditches may be blocked with branches and deadfalls.
        Paddlers could launch at the big boat launch at North Pass and head east.  The low railroad bridge prevents most motorboats from entering but you may see some motorboats entering from the Lake Pontchartrain end.  Enter Middle Bayou for a trip through a scrub marsh.  Do not do this trip without a map, a compass and maybe a GPS.  There is nowhere to get out of the boat.

Driving Directions

       Driving south on I-55 take Exit 23 (Frontage Rd.).  Frontage Rd. ends at a "T" intersection with US 51. Entrance to the parking lot is immediately to the east across US 51.  Driving north on I-55 take Exit 15 (Manchac), turn left on US 51 and drive north.  The parking lot is on the right just before US 51 becomes one-way north to merge with I-55.

Access to the boardwalk

       This is a good time to talk about access to the state wildlife management areas in Louisiana.  You must have a LWF license to step on to a Louisiana Wildlife Management Area.  Kids younger than 16 years old and seniors 60 years of age and older are exempted.  Most people call all WMA licenses "hunting licenses."  True enough, most of the dozen or more LWF licenses permit some short of consumptive behavior, i.e. hunting, fishing, trapping and the like.  And there are commercial licenses to regulate the harvesting of seafood.
        But there is also a LWF license for those who want to visit these scenic preserves to watch birds, photograph wildlife or just enjoy some hiking.  The Wild Louisiana Stamp gives these "non-consumptive" users access to WMAs across the state.  Called the "birdwatcher stamp" by some, Wild Louisiana Stamps valid for one day are $2.00.  An annual license is $9.50 and and expires June 30.  A Wild Louisiana Stamp is valid for everyone, Louisiana residents or not, and the fee is the same for everyone.  (Non-Louisiana residents pay much higher fees for other WLF licenses.)
        Revenues from the sale of Wild Louisiana Stamps, introduced in 1993, generate revenues to support the functions of the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program.  The "stamp" is no longer a stamp. It is now a slip of paper that looks like a cash register receipt.
        So if you are at the boardwalk entrance at Joyce WMA reading the rules and wondering how you can meet the license requirement easily, just whip out your smartphone and credit card.  Call 1-888-765-2602.  After you pay the license fee and the added service charge you will get a license number you can use immediately.  Or if you plan ahead you can get licenses at the sporting goods department of any big box merchant.
        You need one other thing, in most cases, to be legal: A self-clearing permit.  They can be found at kiosks at the parking areas of most WMAs.  They are free.  They can also be downloaded and printed from www.wlf.louisiana.gov, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website.  Print a few self-clearing permits in advance to keep in your glove compartment or tackle box so you will always have one if you park where there is no kiosk.  One part of the form is filled out with name and contact info and slipped into the box on the kiosk before you enter the WMA to alert the WMA staff that you are in the WMA.  The other part you keep on your person while in the WMA.  As you leave, fill it out and put it in the box at the kiosk.  It is basically a survey of how people spend their time while in a WMA.  If you engaged in an activity that is not listed, kayaking, canoeing or something else--WRITE IT IN!  This is a way of letting WLF officials know that WMAs are visited for reasons other than hunting and fishing.
     Most all of the above information is contained in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' website, www.wlf.louisiana.gov.  It is a very big site, most of it dealing with hunting and fishing issues.  Find Wild Louisiana Stamp information by clicking Licenses then Hunting.  General WMA rules are found under Hunting Regulations.  Self-clearing permits info is on page 55, dogs in WMAs on page 66.

NOTE:  If you do not hunt or fish, scanning the regulations governing these activities can be a window into a fascinating world.  Sportsmen and sportswomen spend plenty of time preparing for each hunting and fishing season, and learning the rules must be a large part of it.  Non-consumptive visitors to Louisiana WMAs owe a debt to hunters and fishers who, through fees and taxes on their gear, have contributed mightily to the acquisition and management of state lands we all enjoy.  The Swamp Walk, described above, was primarily funded by the Pittman-Robertson Fund established by Congress in 1937.  This federal revenue is generated by a tax paid by sportsmen purchasing rifles, shotguns ammunition and archery equipment. and is matched with state money, one dollar state money to three dollars of federal money.   Labor and lumber for the project was also donated by the Triangle T Sportsman's League.

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