Reflection
New Orleans will always have a place in my heart after this trip. This city is alive with music, culture and cuisine. But this trip showed me there was more to NOLA than Bourbon Street. Places like the lower 9th ward are still broken from hurricane Katrina. The levee tour displayed failures in the system that destroyed areas like the lower 9th. We toured the French Quarter and enjoyed the cuisine and music.
The woodland band transects were one of my favorite parts of this trip. Going through the elderberry and rad maple in search of invasive species was the primary goal of the transects. We did this to compare transects from previous years. We saw various flora and fauna between the woodland park and Jean Lafitte National Park from armadillos, snakes and alligators to willow oak and blackberry. The wildlife was impressive and intriguing to see, it is very different from Southern California’s ecosystems.
We got a chance to help the food desert situation in the more remote and underprivileged parts of Louisiana. Through out the trip we had three days to help do gardening for local gardens. We went to Capstone gardens and set up aquaponic systems. The next location we went to was Carols house set up a seasonal garden for the local community. After that we did gardening at Grow Dat a youth group farm to teach skills and leadership to its participants.