Marsh Maneuvers students haul clumps of smooth cordgrass for planting along the banks of Bayou Petit Anse near Avery Island for erosion control. (Photo by Bruce Schultz)

Mark Shirley, wearing the baseball cap, working with Marsh Maneuvers students. (Photo by Bruce Schultz)

Clint Hebert of DeRidder plants marsh grass in the mud while holding an armload of the marsh grass to be planted. (Photo by Bruce Schultz)

Hali Jeans of DeRidder with an armload of smooth cordgrass. (Photo by Bruce Schultz)

Mark Shirley

Since 1989, more than 600 high school 4-H students from across Louisiana have had the unforgettable experience of a week of walking in marsh mud, swatting mosquitoes and watching the sun rise over the wetlands. This sometimes grueling but rewarding experience also etched in their minds the wonder, complexity, value and productivity of Louisiana’s coastal environment.

Marsh Maneuvers is an educational program aimed at youth sponsored by the LSU AgCenter in cooperation with the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. From 1993-2003, the program was held in the Barataria watershed, and the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program was a major contributor. Beginning in 2004, Marsh Maneuvers moved to Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Grand Chenier and in 2006, America’s Wetland Campaign became a sponsor for the camps.

With the move to Rockefeller Refuge came a new curriculum that focuses on the marshes of the Chenier Plain ecosystem. Students learn about the biological diversity and complexity of this environment by examining the life cycles and habitat requirements of wetland flora and fauna. They participate in evaluating environmental quality through water testing and examining the hydrology of the watershed basins and the coast. Exercises in natural resource management help the students appreciate the difficulty in balancing social needs and environmental consequences. Some of the activities used to illustrate these concepts include fishing, crabbing, cast netting, water chemistry testing, wildlife observation, seafood processing, boating and policy debates.

In 2006, four weeklong camps were held in July and included students from 16 parishes. Parish participation is rotated annually so students from all 64 Louisiana parishes have an opportunity to attend every three or four years.

The LSU AgCenter and Sea Grant provides two fisheries agents as instructors and two 4-H agents as chaperones for each camp session. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries provides an aquatic education specialist at each camp as well as dormitory facilities and boat transportation. A grant from America’s Wetland and the cooperation of the participating agencies allows the camp to be offered without charge.

Kids and Learning
Marsh Maneuvers involves experiential learning that is fun, different, provides new opportunities, piques curiosity and pushes the young people to try things they would not normally try. If given a choice, not many teenagers would rise before dawn to observe the twilight activities of marsh animals. Not many would choose to crawl through the mud to plant marsh grass for erosion control. But with a little coaxing, they did that and much more.

Enthusiasm is another essential element to learning at Marsh Maneuvers. The instructors at camp try to get the students excited about whatever they are doing at the time. Sometimes that takes corny jokes during a lecture. Sometimes it takes a model of the Mississippi River made with M&M’s. And sometimes it is a physical challenge like an early morning 5K run.

The objective of Marsh Maneuvers is not to make biologists of the students. Some students do express interest in pursuing careers in related fields such as marine biology, wildlife management or some aspect of environmental science. Most have other interests, but the camp demonstrates how coastal resources affect the whole state and nation. The participants see first-hand how and why the functions and values of the coast affect Louisiana’s economy and where they live.

Over the years, students have been challenged to address coastal issues during an activity on the last night of camp. Some years they divided into “stakeholder” groups to debate coastal development issues, much as parish governments constantly struggle with. This past summer, the students tackled the challenge of storm protection and coastal restoration. Armed with information they gleaned during the week, they formulated plans for the Calcasieu, Mermentau and Tech-Vermilion watersheds of southwest Louisiana. To their credit, their recommendations closely parallel the plans being formulated by the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The students were able to reason through the effects of levees for flood protection and the impact on fisheries and wildlife habitats. They also understood how subsidence and sea level rise will increase the risk for some communities in the future.

Marsh Maneuvers Impact  
Each camp session starts with the students taking a knowledge assessment test. The test is intentionally hard but serves several purposes. It sets the tone that Marsh Maneuvers is an educational program that covers a wide range of topics. It gets their attention about subjects and recalls concepts they have learned already in school. During activities and lectures, they remember certain questions as those topics are discussed. That helps to record those things in their memory. The last activity of the week is to take the same test again to measure what they learned. Overall, test scores increase about 25 percent compared to the pre-test.

The extended effects of the program are more difficult to enumerate. While only 64 students have the opportunity to attend each summer, their enthusiasm for what they do and learn is contagious. Cell phones are buzzing during break time with calls to friends: “guess what I’m doing now…” or “I held an alligator…” or “we planted marsh grass and I had to crawl thru the mud…yeah, it was gross…” Their families get an earful, too, when the students get back home and continue to tell bits and pieces for weeks thereafter.

When school starts again in the fall, students are encouraged to put their knowledge to work by making presentations to their 4-H Club or other groups and writing essays or term papers on coastal topics for class assignments. Many of them do use their Marsh Maneuvers knowledge at school because they let us know or we hear from their 4-H agents or teachers. Students have called or emailed several years later requesting help for college assignments on topics they learned about at camp.

During one of the camps in 2005, a group of science teachers from North Louisiana visited Rockefeller Refuge and heard about the Marsh Maneuvers 4-H program. One of the teachers raised her hand and said she attended Marsh Maneuvers some 10 years previously. She attributed her camp experience with influencing her decision to become a science teacher. Whether or not they are in a related science field, other alumni from the early years still recall fond memories of their coastal visits.

Student Comments from Marsh Maneuvers 2006
While at Marsh Maneuvers we learned a lot about the coast, marshes and wetlands, but while learning we also got to interact and help to protect and save our wetlands. – Red River Parish

Learning about all of this stuff will help me understand things going on in Louisiana, and it provides me with the knowledge to inform other people about all that is happening on the Louisiana coast. – Red River Parish

It helped me learn more about coastal Louisiana and how erosion and the hurricanes affect not only the people from this area, but people from all over the world. – Bienville Parish

This Marsh Maneuvers Camp experience really showed me the importance of the state’s coastal marsh ecosystem. – Allen Parish

This camp was really informative about coastal erosion and what we can do to prevent it. – Pointe Coupee Parish

Seeing the destruction from Rita up close made it all that more real and it put into perspective just how important the marshlands are for hurricane protection. – West Baton Rouge Parish

It was the opportunity of a lifetime to come down and learn about the ecology of our state. – Richland Parish

I feel like I better understand the marsh now than I did before, and helping plant things to protect it gives me a connection to the marsh that I will never lose. – Richland Parish

Although it was hard to create a plan without a computer or much time, the planning gave us a look into the challenges people who want to fix the coast are facing. – Vermilion Parish

Mark Shirley, Southwest Region Coastal Resources Specialist, Abbeville, La.

(This article was published in the spring 2007 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.)