Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater New Orleans

EDITED FROM GARY SALATHE. PLEASE CONTACT THEM ASAP IF YOU CAN ATTEND! gsalathe@bellsouth.net

I wanted to let the Master Naturalist know that your members are invited to participate in a volunteer event I am organizing for the Greater New Orleans Iris Society Wednesday, October 16th at a property in Laplace, LA to dig up I. giganticaerulea species irises. We'll start work 8:30 AM and will finish up at 1 PM. Please feel free to send out word to your members. We had a good turn out of Master Naturalist last year for an approved volunteer event we did in the spillway planting irises, so we are hoping we can do it again.

The property was bush-hogged last week, so the irises are easy to get to and dig up. (A little additional rain may help make the soil even easier to dig in.) Although we will be on dry ground there is one area we will need to walk through to get to the irises that may be wet if it rains between now and Wednesday, so wearing rubber boots is likely a good idea.

The game-plan is for us to dig as many irises as we can and at 1 PM I will be delivering a portion of them to White Oak Plantation where they will be propagating the irises for future marsh restoration projects. Another volunteer, Mark Schexnayder, will be taking a portion of the irises we dig up to Nicholls State University in Thibodaux where there will be student volunteers waiting to plant them. They will also be propagating the irises for future marsh restoration projects. We hope that so many irises are dug up that there will be plenty left to bring to our City Park iris nursery the following day to store for other up-coming iris marsh restoration projects.

We can use some help with digging the irises. The property is for sale and is permitted for commercial development, so our goal is to get the irises out while we still can and relocate them either into marshes or swamps or to places where they can safely grow and multiple that we will still have access to them in the future to thin out for projects. The owner of the property is totally supportive of our efforts and is kept informed on where his irises end up.

I hope members of your group are able to join us. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

If any of your members are interested in participating I can send them detailed directions and a couple of maps to the property.

Thanks,

Gary

Gary Salathe
volunteer and board of directors member
Greater New Orleans Iris Society
985-892-4848 (Work)
gsalathe@bellsouth.net