 "Photo: Mandy Derfler")
NEW ORLEANS - Byron Fortier, a supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, got his first taste of being a ranger in 1975. He took a summer job at Yellowstone National Park between semesters at Louisiana State University.
"I was enamored with that spectacular place," he remembers.
Now he manages education and outreach for Southeast Louisiana Refuges, a collection of seven federal wildlife sanctuaries near New Orleans.
Fortier used to live in a bungalow built in 1913 he bought six years ago. The oak staircase is what he misses most.
"It still had the original natural wood tones," he said behind a thin smile.
He was unable to save much, except for a few pictures. Now he lives in a small house on U.S. Fish and Wildlife grounds.
But Fortier has bigger things to worry about.
One concern is a 23,000-acre home known as Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, 15 minutes northeast of the French Quarter.
"The eye of the storm passed over this area," Fortier said, motioning to the horizon beyond New Orleans Swamp Tours, a concession that gives wildlife viewing tours of Bayou Sauvage.
Hurricane Katrina spared the Swamp Tours building. Tourists are the only thing missing from the scene.
"They'll reopen, but I'm not sure when tourist traffic will resume," Fortier said.
Bayou Sauvage is known as the wildest part of New Orleans. "It's the only part of the city that has not been developed," Fortier explained.
Plans to build a residential development peaked in the 1970s. Those plans were halted in 1986 after the Emergency Wetland Act authorized Bayou Sauvage as a refuge.
Ducks are the main bird attraction in Bayou Sauvage during the winter. Numbers are down sharply this year. Hurricane Katrina caused the loss of about a third of the marsh habitat.
"Vegetation was killed by the influx of saltwater pushed forward by the storm surge," Fortier said. "Some marsh was destroyed by wave action."
Normally, Bayou Sauvage supports up to 50,000 ducks. Recent aerial surveys counted about 8,000.
"They are probably dispersed more widely along the Gulf Coast, or further inland, along the Mississippi River and in northern Louisiana," Fortier said.
Ridge Trail, Bayou Sauvage's primary education site, is a wreck.
"Looks like we have an illegal camp here," Fortier said as he entered Ridge Trail.
Six stumps arranged in a semicircle near charred wood, beer cans and bullet casings suggest a wild party. Fortier suspects itinerant workers of setting up the camp. Housing is scarce, and the remote site seems a likely spot for rowdy behavior.
He walked past the camp to a boardwalk, largely covered by fallen limbs.
"Normally, you wouldn't be able to see the sky," Fortier said as he looked up. The canopy was destroyed, revealing a wide expanse of blue sky.
"Some trees stripped bare will leaf out, but what will be slower to recover are trees that were knocked down," Fortier said.
Those trees will take up to 20 years to recover.
Ridge Trail would have been a roosting area for neo-tropical migrants, birds following similar migratory patterns to and from Central and South America.
Birds such as painted bunting, vireo and scarlet tanager pass through Bayou Sauvage every spring on their way to northern U.S. states or Canada.
Fortier expects the migrant birds to follow the same kind of dispersal as the ducks. Unfortunately, the migrants will have a lower survival rate.
"Rather than coming across the Gulf and stopping here, they will have to go further inland to find suitable food and cover," Fortier said. "An extra 100 miles is not what they need after flying across the Gulf."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service usually lets nature takes its course, but Bayou Sauvage requires a hands-on approach.
That's because levees that protect New Orleans circle more than two-thirds of Bayou Sauvage, creating an impoundment, or closed-in, marsh.
A series of pumps and flap gates allows rangers to regulate water levels in the refuge. Water levels are raised and lowered to maintain the health of the habitat in Bayou Sauvage.
Bayou Sauvage used to stretch more than 30 miles from downtown New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain before levees were erected. Less than three miles remains.
"Now it's just a long, skinny pond," Fortier said. "Its geological function doesn't happen anymore."
A bayou is a slow-moving waterway. Bayou Sauvage once crisscrossed lowland marshes as it carried water away from the Mississippi River when it flooded. The shortened bayou has little environmental effect, except that it no longer deposits silt carried from the Mississippi River, Fortier said.
A marsh is an open wetland dominated by grasses, usually a transition between land and water.
"I'm hopeful that one result of this hurricane would be a greater consciousness about the true condition of wetlands, not only in Louisiana, but everywhere," Fortier said.
Restoring the coastal wetlands, a natural barrier to hurricanes, and creating flood protection are expensive. "It's time to make hard choices," he said.
Endangered pelicans
The most heavily damaged of the seven areas protected by Southeast Louisiana Refuges was Breton National Wildlife Refuge.
The chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico off the southeast coast of Louisiana is the second oldest wildlife refuge in the country.
Conditions no longer favor the colonies of seabirds that nest on the island chain. Rangers are most concerned about the endangered brown pelicans, the state bird.
According to www.enchantedlearning.com, pelicans are a symbol of protection. A pelican, representing the state, is featured on the Louisiana flag. Its wings are wrapped around three chicks, which represent the people and their land.
More than half the land mass of Breton National Wildlife Refuge was lost to erosion during Hurricane Katrina. Breton Island was about 80 percent destroyed.
Thousands of brown pelicans nest and raise their young at Breton between May and June.
Unlike many birds that nest in isolation, brown pelicans nest only in large colonies. That's what makes Breton so important. Without this habitat, brown pelicans will be more endangered. The people of Louisiana must become the protectors of their land to ensure brown pelican survival.
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