Save your land and keep the bayou clean!

PHOTO: Bayou Operations director Dane Thibodeaux of The TECHE Project exults over a load of trash picked up by volunteers in one morning on Bayou Teche in New Iberia. (The TECHE Project)

The “E-C-H-E” in TECHE Project stands for “Ecology, Culture and History Education,” which means that this grassroots organization – with its strong links to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and various local civic groups, as well as the Tour du Teche canoe and kayak races – is about way more than just picking up trash.
Case in point is an upcoming ecological workshop for people who live on the bayou.
The TECHE Project and the Bayou Vermilion District will present “Bankline Management” at the new Breaux Bridge public library branch, corner of N. Main and Courthouse, Saturday, June 6, 9 a.m. to noon. The workshop will show you how to combat shoreline erosion and improve water quality with vegetation, and how to discourage nuisance animals and attract desirable ones.
Presenters include TECHE Project Council Member and wetland ecologist Patti Holland, Bayou Vermilion District ecological educator Greg Guidroz, and well-known local naturalist Bill Fontenot.
Some plants will be available courtesy of the Bayou Vermilion District and Trees Acadiana.
While Bayou Teche and Vermilion River property owners are the target audience, anyone with waterfront property will benefit from the workshop. It’s free, but donations and memberships to the nonprofit TECHE Project are always welcome.
The TECHE Project is perhaps best known for its organized cleanups, the Trash Bash and Boogie model of work and play, and its annual Shake Your Trail Feather concert and cookout at Parc des Ponts de Pont Breaux. Because of these high-profile efforts on the part of its volunteers, the organization and its civic and educational partners have succeeded in attracting national acclaim to Bayou Teche, now both a National Paddle Trail, a designation by the National Park Service, and a U.S. Department of the interior National Water Trail, with only 18 in the nation – one in Louisiana – a rare distinction indeed.
In conjunction with TRAIL (Transportation Recreational Alternatives In Louisiana) a nonprofit dedicated to building and maintaining parks, paths and trails for hiking, walking, running, kayaking, biking and canoeing, TECHE Project has fostered the construction of a first-class kayak port at Breaux Bridge, with a floating wharf, restrooms and an information kiosk. Other facilities for paddlers will be forthcoming up and down the bayou.
Both Bayou Teche and the Vermilion River remain on the federal list of impaired waterways because of pollution from sewage and run-off. The TECHE Project is working to make the Teche “whole again through action and education about the ecology, culture and history.”
Go to www.techeproject.com for more information.