James Shiffer of the Minnesota Star Tribune (left) embarks on a boat tour of Bayou Bienvenue with Arlo Townsley of the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, as Desk reporters Madeline Heim of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Illan Ireland of the Mississippi Free Press wave to shore. Credit: Tegan Wendland

I am excited to share this travelogue as reporters from Desk newsrooms gather in Louisiana for an immersive field reporting experience on our upcoming wetlands project. Discover the beauty and importance of these vital ecosystems. Here is the story that was sent to us…

Dear The Narrative Matters,

This week we’ve got a bit of a travelogue. Earlier this month, reporters from Desk newsrooms in the far-flung reaches of the river basin gathered in Louisiana for some field reporting on our big upcoming wetlands project. 

Minnesota Star Tribune environmental editor James Shiffer joined the team and shared his experience trading the chilly north for southern swamps, at least for a few days. Here’s James.

Stretches of the upper Mississippi River were frozen solid when journalists from Minnesota and Wisconsin traveled to Louisiana for five days earlier this month. Though it was not a hard decision to trade subzero wind chills and ice-crusted eyebrows for palm trees and beignets, this trip had a serious purpose: the Desk has been working on a big series about wetlands in the Mississippi River basin, one of its signature landscapes from headwaters to delta. Our reporters are digging into the current legal and development threats to these valuable ecosystems, which not only provide crucial habitats but also flood protection. The eight-part series will bring readers to prairie potholes in the Midwest, threatened swamps in Mississippi, and Louisiana’s most fabled and threatened bayous, swamps and marshes. Look for these stories in April! 

James Shiffer

MInnesota Star Tribune

James ShifferMInnesota Star TribuneI am co-leading the project with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Madeline Heim and Desk editor Tegan Wendland, who is based in New Orleans and brought us down to conduct interviews and get out in the field with the Desk’s southern team.Gleeful Eagles fans were still staggering around the French Quarter when we arrived the day after the Super Bowl.

Tegan had arranged a busy schedule, presumably to keep the visitors away from the oyster houses and Sazerac bars.We left the mittens behind and picked up our notebooks for interviews with water policy experts at Tulane University and The Water Institute. We were joined by Mississippi Free Press reporter Illan Ireland for a boat tour of Bayou Bienvenue, the site of a “ghost forest” wetland that once protected New Orleans from hurricanes. With the city skyline in the near distance, some early season alligators patrolled the bayou. Tempting though it was, we decided against a refreshing dip. 

The next day took us farther afield, to the globally significant Atchafalaya Basin. We were joined by Louisiana desk reporters Delaney Dryfoos (The Lens) and Elise Plunk (Louisiana Illuminator), contributor Eva Tesfaye (WWNO) and photographer La’Shance Perry (The Lens). Even Bobby, the official Desk dog, came along, though no one wanted to sit next to him in the boat because he had rolled in something rotten near a dumpster.
Bobby, the official Desk dog, enjoys a tour of Atchafalaya Basin. Credit: Tegan Wendland

Dean Wilson, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, shows the team Spanish moss hanging from a cypress tree, as he explains the history of logging in the basin. Credit: Elise Plunk

The Atchafalaya is the largest swamp in the United States, bigger than the Everglades and even more productive. Ecotour operator and fiery river advocate Dean Wilson guided us on his motorboat through the twisting channels and cypress forests that serve as a crucial habitat for migratory birds, a floodway for the Mississippi River and the heart of Louisiana’s crawfish fishery. He held forth on the river’s wonders and its threats, under an austere landscape of Spanish moss and cypress knees poking out of water green with sediment. Since a front had blown through the night before, the alligators were hiding from the cold. The only ones we saw were a couple unfortunate specimens floating belly up, their days of noshing on turtles and tourists over for good. Egrets, anhingas, herons and wood ducks expressed their annoyance by squawking and noisily flying away when we approached. Not many go to this place, and that’s one of the things that makes it magical.An alligator carefully supervises the team of Desk reporters. Credit: James ShifferNext stop was Baton Rouge, home of Louisiana State University’s Center for River Studies and its giant Lower Mississippi River Physical Model.
It’s a high-tech scale model of the lower river housed in what looks like a cross between a swimming pool, gymnasium and IMAX theater (if the movie was projected on the floor). The river model uses real water and simulated sediment to study and predict its movements from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to the Gulf. Whether it can save Louisiana from washing into the sea remains to be seen, but it certainly was cool. 
Since I started working with the Ag & Water Desk three years ago, I’ve learned so much about how what happens in the headwaters affects everything downstream. This excursion helped me see what makes the river so different in its lower reaches – the vast areas of wetlands, the ever-present levees, the constant river traffic. I look forward to bringing our readers along on what’s perhaps the first ever Mississippi-wide swamp tour.  
-James Shiffer, Star Tribune environmental editor

Reposted with permission Ag & Water Desk

Louisiana wetlands, field reporting, travelogue, environmental journalism, river basin exploration, Desk newsrooms, wetlands project

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Senior Editor, Digital Manager, Blogger, has been nominated for awards several times as Publisher and Author over the years. Has been with company for almost three years and is a current native St. Louisan.

Ag & Water Desk
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